Nova Scotia School Sends CU A Report on Churchill Essay
University of Colorado officials investigating embattled professor Ward Churchill received documents this week purporting to show that he plagiarized another professor's work. Officials at Daihousie University in Nova Scotia sent CU an internal 1997 report detailing allegations about an article Churchill wrote.
"The article ... is, in the opinion of our legal counsel, plagiarism," Daihousie spokesman Charles Crosby said in summarizing the report's findings.
Churchill did not return calls to his home or office Thursday seeking comment.
Daihousie began an investigation after professor Fay G. Cohen complained that Churchill used her research and writing in an essay without her permission and without giving her credit. Although the investigation substantiated her allegations, Cohen didn't pursue the matter because she felt threatened by Churchill, Crosby said.
Crosby said Cohen told Daihousie officials in 1997 that Churchill had called her in the middle of the night and said, "I'll get you for this."
Cohen still declines to talk publicly about her experience with Churchill, but she agreed the Daihousie report could be shared with CU officials, Crosby said, because "whatever concerns she may have about her safety are outweighed by the importance she attaches to this information getting out there."
Crosby declined a request for a copy of the report but said it does not contain information about the alleged threat from Churchill.
It is not clear if CU officials are aware of the alleged threat. A CU spokeswoman said officials there would not comment on any matter related to an ongoing review of Churchill's work.
A three-person panel is reviewing that to determine if he meets the standards of professional integrity set by CU.
The CU Board of Regents ordered the review after the public outcry over an essay Churchill wrote comparing victims of the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to notorious Nazi bureaucrat Adolph Eichmann. Since then, Churchill has come under fire for some of his other writings and speeches, his scholarship, his claim of American Indian ancestry, and even his artwork.
The review panel, led by Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano, originally was expected to issue its report this week but said it likely won't be released before Monday and perhaps later.
In 1991, Churchill edited a book of essays published in Copenhagen, Denmark, which included a piece by Cohen on Indian treaty fishing rights in the Northwest and Wisconsin. When publishers wanted to reprint the essay in the United States, Cohen declined to allow her essay to appear, Crosby said.
So Churchill penned an essay on the same topic under the name of the Institute for Natural Progress, a research organization he founded with Winona LaDuke. In the contributors section of the book, Churchill said he took the lead role in preparing the essay.
If that be the case...