"Unfire" Ward Churchill?

Pirate Ballerina is keeping on top of what he's calling the "Unfire Ward Churchill" petition.

I support Ward Churchill's upcoming dismissal from the University of Colorado. Not because of his repulsive comments about the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks, but because of his long history of academic misconduct.

In the post below, there's a petition in support of the reinstatement of fired DePaul Professor Thomas Klocek. In my opinion, Klocek was fired for what he said during a discussion inside a DePaul University cafeteria on September 15, 2004.

Some group called Teachers for a Democratic Society, not to be confused with the radical Students for a Democratic Society, has posted online the signers of a petition in support of keeping Ward Churchill employed as a professor at CU.

Oh, Students for a Democratic Society will be in town next week for their annual convention. The University of Illinois at Chicago is hosting them.

Some of the names I've noticed that I've blogged about:

Bill Ayers is a former Students for a Democratic Society member, who left the group in the late 1960s to form the domestic terrorist group, the Weather Underground. He's a tenured education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Didn't I just mention that school?

His wife, Bernardine Dohrn signed it too. She's a tenured law professor at Northwestern University. Her membership in the Weather Underground caused the New York Bar Association to deny her a license to practice law in that state. She never did get a law license, but that didn't prevent her from becoming a tenured law professor at Northwestern.

According to Indian Country, Ward Churchill claimed in 1987 to have been a bomb-making instructor for the Weather Underground.

Three people from DePaul University signed the petition.

Ann Russo a professor with the school's Women's and Gender Studies Department, Nicole Perez, a DePaul graduate assistant who is a staffer with the DePaul Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning, and Allies office...

... And Dr. Harvette Grey, the woman who invited Ward Churchill to DePaul for that disastrous paid speaking appearance at the school's Lincoln Park campus last fall.

DePaul's mistreatment of members of the DePaul Conservative Alliance, who tried to protest Churchill's appearance there, came to the attention of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights for Education.

I've reviewed the Reinstate Klocek petition several times, and I've not noticed the signatures of Russo, Perez, or Grey. Other DePaul professors have signed it.

Yet I'm sure Russo, Perez, and Grey wholeheartedly support free speech. As do Ayers and Dohrn.

Technorati tags: Northwestern UIC Colorado Terrorism SDS Bill Ayers Bernardine Dohrn Ward Churchill Illinois Chicago DePaul Academic freedom Free Speech Thomas Klocek