Churchill arrives for rally at EWU
Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado professor whose visit was deemed by Eastern Washington University’s president as too dangerous, is fighting back in federal court – but he won’t wait for a decision before showing up at a noon rally today on campus.
Churchill, two college students, and a Cheney citizen filed a federal injunction against EWU Monday to obtain use of a campus building to deliver a talk today at noon. The case claims that EWU President Stephen Jordan and the EWU Board of Trustees committed an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech and assembly when they canceled Churchill’s scheduled speech. The case also claims Jordan and the board violated Churchill’s and students’ civil rights.
Despite the cancellation, Churchill kept to his plans to come as originally invited, but it had to be arranged by students so he wasn’t using any university resources.
A hearing has been requested by early today to make that decision. Churchill is scheduled to visit EWU today and give a speech at an outdoor campus rally at noon.
Churchill became a national figure of controversy for an essay he wrote in 2001 that argued that the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks were not innocent, and went on to compare them to a Nazi leader.
Churchill refused to comment on the controversy as he arrived Monday night at Spokane International Airport.
Students from the Native American Student Association had been pushing the EWU administration to allow Churchill to use the same campus building used earlier this year by adult film star Ron Jeremy. The Pence Union Building can hold several hundred people and be equipped with a sound system.
The Churchill dispute has taken several turns since Deirdre Almeida, director of EWU’s Indian studies program, originally scheduled Churchill’s visit in November.
On Feb 4, Jordan announced that for safety concerns he was canceling the Churchill speech, which brought an outcry from the school faculty senate, which asked Jordan to reinvite Churchill.
On March 3, Jordan eventually declined and again repeated his concerns about school safety. The next week at a campus rally March 10, Indian students announced that Churchill was coming no matter what.
School security officials met with student organizers last week to plan for Churchill’s visit.
Almeida said the students were given what seemed to be ever-changing policies as barriers.
“They’re just giving us a really hard time paying for stuff,” Almeida said.
Students had raised private funds to pay for Churchill’s expenses, but there had been complications because the checks were made out to the university, Almeida said. The university press office confirmed that the school is asking that all donations be made to the EWU private foundation to separate public funds from private foundation funds.
“Now they have to get checks resent to them,” Almeida said.
Wheat said he was told Saturday that the students wanted to file an injunction. On Saturday, EWU’s administration and students reached an impasse, Wheat said.
“There were some protracted diplomatic efforts made by my clients to try to persuade President Jordan and the university administration to change their decision in respect to the cancellation,” Wheat said. “Those efforts were exhausted.”
Churchill filed a similar action Feb. 8 at the University of Colorado-Boulder, Wheat said.
Churchill’s visit was planned for today with a rally and classroom visits.
“That was our understanding all the way until we got a stack of legal documents today,” said EWU spokesman David Rey.
Rey said it is entirely possible that a federal judge will rule that EWU must make provisions to host Churchill and the school will comply as directed.