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Ward Churchill ruins more lives

The events here have been going on for some time, but not covered much:

William Bradford, one of the few American Indian law professors in the country (he is a Chiricahua Apache), is an untenured associate professor of law at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Law School. This spring his formal application for tenure was denied by the IUPUI central administration, and when a "straw poll" vote on the probability of his future tenure was taken within the Law Faculty itself, it came out only 10-5 for Bradford.

Sounds like a win, but in reality, that much opposition spells doom for getting tenure. By all accounts and by all objective measurements taken (sureys of his students, scholarly papers published, etc), he is an outstanding professor, a credit to his school, to his family, and to his tribe:

Bradford himself believes that his problems began in good part when, this spring, he refused to sign a petition supporting Ward Churchill, the anti-American professor of Ethnic Studies who compared the office-workers in the Trade Towers on 9/11 to little Nazis, "little Eichmanns", and declared that they deserved what they got. This letter was circulated by one of the most senior scholars at IUPUI Law, Professor Florence Roisman, who holds an endowed Chair. Bradford, who served in the U.S. Army for ten years, refused to sign this petition. He is certainly entitled to his political opinion but he believes he was punished for it, and especially because Professor Roisman expected him and indeed explicitly said to him that as an Indian he should support another Indian, Ward Churchill (actually, it is highly doubtful that Ward Churchill is an Indian, but leave that aside). In other words, politics--and even racism--was inappropriately involved in the bad votes for Bradford at IUPUI.

By comparison, another professor, a woman, Robin Kundis Craig, who joined the faculty at the same time as Bradford, and who on paper is virtually identical to Bradford, was granted tenure.

Meanwhile, Bradford is on his way out of a job. What's the story with this Roisman woman?

But he's under fire, he said, because his ideas about the war on terror do not conform to views held by Professors Mary Harter Mitchell, 52, and Florence Wagman Roisman, 66.

They are tenured, a status Bradford is seeking. Bradford said the two women have voted consistently to deny him tenure, despite good academic ratings.

Mitchell long has been an anti-war activist. She did not return three calls on Friday.

Roisman said she is a proud member of the left. "I am a person of very progressive politics," she said. "Everybody there would tell you I am the most to-the-left person (on the faculty.)"

In winter 2003, Roisman made news for objecting to a tree with ornaments in the school lobby. After it was removed, she successfully lobbied against a new display -- an Indiana winter scene.

Then-Dean Tony Tarr weathered that storm, then resigned in 2004.

The new, interim dean is Susanah Mead, a longtime faculty member.

On Friday, Mitchell and Roisman threw a party for Mead. Only women faculty and staff were invited. Mead acknowledged she heard some rumblings about sexism.

So a pair of America-hating man-hating Christian-hating gyno-American professors have it in their power to wreck the life of a full-blooded Indian and decorated soldier (he received the Silver Star for his service in the US Special Forces in Desert Storm and Bosnia-Herzegovina), simply because he would not add his name to a piece of paper in support of a man, Ward Churchill, who insults Bradford on two levels: with his virulent anti-Americanism, and with his false claims to Indian blood and heritage.

In my opinion, Bradford should not even be seeking tenure from IUPUI. That faculty is not worthy of him. Hopefully another school will make an offer of employment. A school where he would be appreciated, and where personal opinions are respected.

Perhaps Harvard. Why Harvard? Well, he did earn his second advanced law degree from that fine school. But apparently Harvard grads with multiple law-degrees aren't good enough for IUPUI and for the "most-to-the-left" Florence Roisman.

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Angry in the Great White North by Steve Janke is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. Based on a work at stevejanke.com.
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