Inside Higher Ed: Reaching Out at Hamilton
The controversy over Ward Churchill could have broken out at any number of campuses. He taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder and lectured for years all over the country. Typically, supporters of his views came to see him, and opponents paid little attention. That all changed last year, when — in advance of a talk scheduled for Hamilton College — people started to pay attention to Churchill, and especially to his comments comparing those who died on 9/11 to “little Eichmanns.”
The Hamilton talk never took place. College officials resisted political demands that they call the speech off, but ended up doing so because of death threats to Churchill. While the Churchill debate shifted back to Colorado, where officials are trying to fire him, Hamilton was left with its own questions. The Churchill invitation came not long after a dispute over another aborted invitation, that one to Susan Rosenberg, a one-time activist against the Vietnam War who was indicted but never tried for a 1981 armored car robbery that left a guard and two police officers dead. Some faculty members, and many conservative alumni, criticized the college, saying that in the name of academic freedom it was inviting to campus people who could incite, but not necessarily educate.
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