Ward Churchill and Bill Ayers Speak at Univ. of Colorado

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 07:23:00 AM EST
Tags: Ward Churchill, William Ayers (all tags)

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Former C.U. Professor Ward Churchill and current University of Illinois (Chicago) Professor William Ayers teamed up Thursday night in Boulder to speak to students at the University of Colorado. The topic: Academic Freedom. The title of their presentation: "Forbidden Education and the Rise of NeoMcCarthyism."

Ayers talked about Obama's presidency (nothing unusual from what the article reports) and the danger if teachers are not allowed to challenge their students due to fear about raising certain topics or asking certain questions.

"We should always be developing a curriculum of questioning," Ayers told the students. "As a teacher, your responsibility is to challenge dogma and orthodoxy, not to just accept it."

[More...]

"I don't worry about Ward Churchill as much as I worry about the teacher in Denver who teaches social studies and can't bring herself to raise questions because of what she saw happen to Ward Churchill," Ayers said. "The real victims are across the country and across the world and the people we don't know. That is the chilling effect that we should all worry about, those of us who care about democracy."

Churchill's lawsuit against C.U. over his firing goes to trial Monday in Denver District Court. He invited the audience to attend.

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Ward Churchill and Bill Ayers Speak at Univ. of Colorado | 6 comments (6 topical)

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It seems to me (5.00 / 3) (#1)
by Steve M on Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 12:55:09 AM EST

that the evidence of Churchill's plagiarism and scholarly misconduct was pretty darn compelling. He may have attracted scrutiny because of his political views, but the scrutiny turned up something real.

I don't appreciate when people like that try to play the martyr card. You did wrong, now own up to it.

: Ditto re Ayers. (5.00 / 1) (#6)
by oculus on Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 10:26:31 AM EST

Ayers ought to change his name. . . (5.00 / 2) (#4)
by LarryInNYC on Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 06:54:34 AM EST

to William Irony:

As a teacher, your responsibility is to challenge dogma and orthodoxy,

He seems almost incapable of understanding the effect on certain ideas when they come from him.

: I just think of him (5.00 / 2) (#5)
by Cream City on Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 08:30:08 AM EST

as Bill Him For My City's Devastated Schools, thanks to the voucher program that he -- and Obama, chairing the board at the time -- pushed and funded upon us. Not their city, but mine. And despite solid and long-term evidence to the contrary that we now have from many studies, Ayers continues to push vouchers. So he won't question his own dogma. Pffft; he continues to be a fool.

Security fee constitutional? (none / 0) (#2)
by Ben Masel on Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 01:05:12 AM EST

"He took a jab at CU for charging the students who organized the lecture $3,000 for security."

FORSYTH COUNTY v. NATIONALIST MOVEMENT 505 U.S. 123 (1992)

(c) The ordinance is unconstitutionally content based, because it requires that the administrator, in order to assess accurately the cost of security for parade participants, must examine the content of the message conveyed, estimate the public response to that content, and judge the number of police necessary to meet that response.

I'm sorry, but (none / 0) (#3)
by Spamlet on Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 01:16:56 AM EST

I regard Churchill as a major tool.