Plagiarism story scuttles professor talks

DENVER – Settlement talks between the University of Colorado and the professor who compared some Sept. 11 victims to a notorious Nazi broke down Friday after a newspaper reported the teacher had once been accused of plagiarism.

David Lane, attorney for ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill, said the school broke off the talks, which were prompted by Churchill’s 2001 essay calling some World Trade Center victims “little Eichmanns,” a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who orchestrated the Holocaust.

University regent Michael Carrigan declined to comment on the negotiations but said he had “substantial concern” about a report in Friday’s Rocky Mountain News that Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia had accused Churchill of plagiarizing the work of one of its professors eight years ago.

“I personally was not comfortable proceeding until I knew more,” Carrigan said.

Churchill denied the plagiarism allegation, saying it appeared that one footnote by the Dalhousie professor had been used without attribution in a publication he helped assemble, but he said it looked inadvertent, and that he had not taken credit for the work.

Gov. Bill Owens has called on the university to fire Churchill. A spokesman said Owens had no comment on negotiations over the professor’s future.

A 30-day university review of Churchill’s work to see whether he should be fired was to have wrapped up this week, but university spokeswoman Pauline Hale said Friday it was taking longer than expected because of the volume of material. She said no new target date had been set.

University President Elizabeth Hoffman has said Churchill could be fired if the inquiry turned up misconduct, but that he would not be dismissed because of his statements. Hoffman announced Monday she was resigning by June so questions about her own future would not interfere with her attempts to deal with Churchill’s case and other controversies facing the school.