AURORA, Colo. -- University of Colorado administrators Thursday took the first steps toward a possible dismissal of a professor who likened World Trade Center victims to a notorious Nazi.
Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano ordered a 30-day review of Ward Churchill's speeches and writings to determine if the professor overstepped his boundaries of academic freedom and whether that should be grounds for dismissal.
A raucous university board of regents meeting drew dozens of protesters who back Churchill; at least two were arrested for disrupting the meeting and another was led away in handcuffs.
The regents refused to take public comment at their meeting, prompting an outcry. ''I wish the regents had agreed to take some public comments,'' said law professor Barbara Bintliff.
The furor erupted last month after Churchill was invited to speak at Hamilton College in upstate New York. Campus officials discovered an essay by Churchill about Sept. 11.
Among other things, he said those killed in the trade center were ''little Eichmanns,'' a reference to Adolf Eichmann.
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Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano ordered a 30-day review of Ward Churchill's speeches and writings to determine if the professor overstepped his boundaries of academic freedom and whether that should be grounds for dismissal.
A raucous university board of regents meeting drew dozens of protesters who back Churchill; at least two were arrested for disrupting the meeting and another was led away in handcuffs.
The regents refused to take public comment at their meeting, prompting an outcry. ''I wish the regents had agreed to take some public comments,'' said law professor Barbara Bintliff.
The furor erupted last month after Churchill was invited to speak at Hamilton College in upstate New York. Campus officials discovered an essay by Churchill about Sept. 11.
Among other things, he said those killed in the trade center were ''little Eichmanns,'' a reference to Adolf Eichmann.
]