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Tuesday, February 08 2005 @ 05:58 PM PST
University of Colorado cancels Churchill speech
Tuesday, February 08 2005 @ 02:26 PM PST
Contributed by: Morpheus
Views: 6
Citing threats of violence, University of Colorado officials canceled a speech scheduled for today by controversial professor Ward Churchill.
Note: The article below comes from corporate media and thus distorts Churchill's position. See
http://www.counterpunch.org/churchill02032005.html
CU cancels Churchill speech
By Arthur Kane and George Merritt
Denver Post Staff Writers
Citing threats of violence, University of Colorado officials canceled a speech scheduled for today by controversial professor Ward Churchill.
"We had heard from professor Churchill as well as from others that there were threats to his safety as well as to students, and our concern is that there had not been sufficient planning for the event itself," said Ron Stump, vice chancellor for student affairs, in a written statement.
Students supporting Churchill criticized the university's decision, saying it was an attempt to stifle Churchill's freedom of speech.
"We believe this is another example of not allowing his voice to be heard on this campus," said Dustin Craun, an ethnic studies student.
Monday night, some students reportedly were considering legal action to try to force the school to let the speech go on as planned.
Churchill has been at the center of a controversy for the past two weeks around statements he made about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In one essay, he compared the victims of the World Trade Center towers to Adolf Eichmann, a top Nazi official.
In other statements, Churchill has called for more 9/11-type attacks and said that the United States should be pushed out of existence.
Churchill resigned as chairman of the university's ethnic studies department but remains a professor.
Gov. Bill Owens has called for Churchill to be fired, and CU officials are spending 30 days reviewing his writings and statements to determine if he should be disciplined.
Craun, who was arrested for disorderly conduct after he refused to stop disrupting a regents' meeting about Churchill last week, pointed out that speakers who were even greater security threats, such as author Salman Rushdie, spoke on campus without incident.
He also pointed out that there is violence at CU football games but those games are not canceled.
"We ask if this is a university of sports ... or is it an institution where academic freedoms are allowed," he said.
Stump said university officials had heard from Churchill and from students about threats. Police are investigating to see if the threats are credible, he added.
He also said that the university had a lot more time to plan security for other controversial events, and that officials had expected as many as 1,000 people to show up tonight to hear Churchill.
"We just got done talking to the students and agreed with them to meet tomorrow to talk about another date and talk about the plans that need to be in place at another time," he added.
The students also read a statement Monday, saying they do not support the 9/11 terrorist attacks nor do they want to see other acts of violence against the United States.
"First, we do not celebrate the 9/11 attack and we, like all Americans, mourn the victims," said Mo Wells, one of Churchill's students. "Second, we do not encourage further attacks on this nation."
Craun vowed that Churchill would speak on campus in the next two weeks despite the university's security concerns.
Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-820-1626 or
[email protected].
Source:
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2698562,00.html