(Colorado) - What has happened between Ward Churchill and the Board of Colorado U. is about as important as a Head-On commercial - other than the mispronunciation of the word, "forehead" - it's not FORE-HED, it's FAR-ruhd. Yet, the IDEA that Churchill (not even his real name) is comfortable suing the University over the matter is instructive. To help you with the facts, read Carol McKinley's excellent article on the events.

College professorial tenure is a funny thing. Funny peculiar, not funny ha-ha. Tenure is a jealously guarded privilege granted by colleges. It stems from the Old German school system which rewarded an instructor's good service over time with a sort of job security. In the middle ages, tenure would only be granted to those who had learned most of what was known in the world. It was accompanied by the title of "Doctor." Colleges would recognize each other's "grant of tenure" which made the title worth a lot. Tenure continues to be a kind of job security, but the idea of tenure has changed from a granted privilege to an earned "right." Nobody passed a law saying this was so, and even in ancient times, tenure was more of a popularity contest - an instructor who attracted pupils to the university was always asked back, year after year.

What makes all this relevant is that we are going to see a legal clash, over the meaning of tenure, between a spineless, weedy, finger-in-the-wind, college management team and a lying, racist, sociopathic phony.

But, THEY invited HIM to teach there. They KNEW he was a powder-keg, saying unreasonable things when they hired him. They even granted him tenure. If they had bothered to read his doctoral thesis, they would have found it to be utter rubbish, with lots of "undocumented" quotes (plagiarism? - even Prof. Tom Mayer admits Churchill plagiarizes in the same manner as Larry Tribe, and calls his statements "strident" & "dubious"- and he's DEFENDING the man) - his publish-or-perish publications are the very worst of academia. THEY KNEW ALL ABOUT HIM.

Look carefully at your local university. They have already begun to discuss the abandonment of tenure as a school policy. And that would be a shame. Tenure is the only real defense against corporate ageism. Just because you're old doesn't mean you have nothing to offer. Churchill should be fired, but not for a violation of tenure. He should be fired because what he does is not scholarship.

There will be a few Universities who choose to do the right thing. But most won't. Whatever the wrong thing is, you can bet Colorado U. will do it - just as you can put safe money on the exanguination of another racist, hate-filled statement from Churchill.

I don't even know why I'm bothering to write about this. Most good people in this state have given up on fixing our own system. Wouldn't it be great if we could apply education directly to the forehead?

- Dick Anderson