Statement to Faculty, Staff and Students from CU-Boulder Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson
July 24, 2007

A message to the faculty, staff and students of the University of Colorado at Boulder:

Earlier today, the University of Colorado Board of Regents, acting on the recommendation of University of Colorado President Hank Brown, voted to dismiss Professor Ward Churchill from the faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I want each of you to know that I have carefully reviewed the documentation and reports prepared by the various committees and by Professor Churchill, and I fully endorse this decision.  It is my hope and expectation that this action will bring to close an unpleasant chapter in our history, and allow us to move forward to a future that more appropriately befits the many outstanding contributions the faculty, staff and students of the University of Colorado at Boulder makes to the state, the nation, and the world.

The University followed due process in the dismissal proceedings against Professor Churchill, according him all the rights and privileges due a full professor in such a case. I further believe the institution upheld the long tradition of academic freedom by standing firm on the issue of academic integrity.  Finally, I want to reaffirm that the University’s decision was not based on Professor Churchill’s writings, politics or expressed personal views, but rather upon his scholarship and its quality.  That scholarship was examined by three separate panels and more than 20 tenured faculty members who conducted a thorough review, and who found that it fell beneath the acceptable standards of our profession and the expectations of faculty here at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Academic freedom carries with it a high level of responsibility that we as an academic community cannot allow to be compromised.  When these issues are raised, we have a responsibility – in fact, the obligation – to act accordingly. 

Perhaps the most important lesson for our community in the painful ordeal surrounding Professor Churchill’s case is rooted in the values we must uphold and convey to our students. The young people who come to us are transformed by this institution, and they in turn, transform it with their energy, idealism and hard work.  They deserve to be taught by faculty who embody high academic and personal standards.  In a time such as ours, in which the very concept of “truth” is often bracketed by relativism, battered with cynicism and reduced by manipulation and “spin,” our students must know that when they enter our classrooms, they occupy sacred territory where truth is always pursued on a foundation of ethics, honor, and integrity.

We must now reaffirm our core values and not be deterred in our quest to provide the very best environment for our faculty, staff and students and to promote high ideals.  Far from those who have said this case represents a “chilling” of academic freedom, I believe it forms an important annunciation of academic freedom, which time and practice have shown must be rooted in academic integrity to prevail.

So, as we continue our pursuit of excellence in research, scholarship and education, I believe we now do so with a stronger academic community, one ready to face a new and challenging time in American higher education.  Our students are facing the challenges of a new century, a new global economy and a new era of global conflict and uncertainty. We have an important role to play in preparing them to enter that world, and in preparing that world to receive them. We must now return our full, undivided attention to that urgent cause, and I know we will.

Sincerely,

G.P “Bud” Peterson
Chancellor
University of Colorado at Boulder