General

Ward Churchill wins, sort of

Ward Churchill won his case, sort of. The jury decided that he had been indeed fired for his political views, not for academic misconduct. But they awarded him a dollar, and it isn’t clear if he’s going to even get his job back. The crux, for the jury, seems to have been that the school did not convince them that he would have been fired even if he hadn’t written the “little Eichmanns” essay.

That seems right to me. The problems with Churchill’s scholarship and academic integrity were longstanding and well-known, but it wasn’t until there was an outcry over the essay — four years after he wrote it — that the school decided to finally do something about. In many ways, if they have to take him back it will serve the university right.

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