Academically Churchillian

“Teachers for a Democratic Society,” as they call themselves, are professors from across the country trying to defend Ward Churchill, now that the University of Colorado has fired him.

The group’s website has a letter on its home page explaining their purpose, which is to complain about how Churchill being fired “constitute[s] a serious threat to academic freedom.”

The site then has a petition of over three hundred names of professors who have signed on as members.

The site seems to serve more as a blog for Dr. Timothy Shortell, a professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College, CUNY.

“It is always a bit disappointing to see how many Americans express weak or no support for freedom of expression. As the report makes clear, majority opionion respects professors and higher education. Weakest support comes from the elderly, conservatives, Republicans, and those who have not attended college,” Dr. Shortell says on the site about a recent AAUP survey.

On a historical note, the “weakest support” in this survey are the exact same people who would have had the “weakest support” for the “Students for a Democratic Society” rebels. The elderly who fought for this country, the conservatives and Republicans who believe that America is the best country to live in, and those who don’t attend college because of the radicalism of professors.

Dr. Shortell is not the only voice on the website. Harry Targ, a professor of Political Science at Purdue University, said in a recent post on the site about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, “Israeli society seems to be driven by perpetual opposition to Arab states and the Palestinian people. However, there have been significant political moments when large sectors of the Israeli people have risen up against its government’s regional militarism. The current government of Israel may have seen the necessity of escalating war in part to challenge any ‘dangerous drift toward peace.’ As Chomsky argued a long time ago Israeli governments (and the United States) have always envisioned a region based on a ‘Greater Israel,’ that is Israeli control of the politics and economics of Southern Lebanon, Western Syria, and Palestine. Crushing the growing popularity of Hamas and Hizbollah would be a necessity from the vantage point of this vision.”

According to Purdue’s website, there is no class that has the words “conspiracy” or “Chomsky” being offered this fall in the Politics department.

Matthew Murphy is an intern with Accuracy in Academia.