CU's president just resigned over two issues, (NY Times Article) one her football team uses pot, booze and sex to recruit other members, and the other, an outspoken activist professor on her campus compared victims of sept. 11th to Adolph Eicmann, the Nazi leader who created the systematic methods of exterminating jews in the Holocaust.
Personally, I don't see what the problem is. I haven't found a college football team yet that is succsessful and isn't mired in scandal. You give anyone that much money and fame and what do you think they're going to spend it on? So far nine women have filed complaints against members of the football team. If you ask me, CU needs to rethink whether it wants to continue having a football team. You get a bunch of guys to run around smacking the shit out of eachother, you're going to see the academic climate on campus deteriorate, to say the least.
And secondly, more importantly, what the hell is going on with Ward Churchilll? Doesn't CU see that he is one of the best things they have going for them? He's an outspoken, intelligent, internationallly recognized native american activist. The general take is you don't compare victims of a crime to Nazis, that's wrong. Bull shit. The victims of the September 11th l worked in the world trade center (most of them), a cluster of organizations that Churchill has written are tied to systems of modern day genocide, systematically depraving third world countries and chasing the buck as the almighty measure of worth, the ultimate cost-benefit analysis. Firing Churchill for making this obvious comparison would be like firing Oppenheim for suggesting that it might not have been a good idea to make the atomic bomb. A University, like the Manhatten project, without critical minds constantly questioning becomes a breeding ground for oppression. In the case of The Manhatten project, when none of the scientists spoke their concerns, they made a two bombs for the US government under the premise that the bombs would be used to defeat the Nazis. But when the Nazis were defeated and the Government told the scientists to keep working, none of the scientists said anything or questioned their motivations.
At a university, when a professor suggests that American culture harms the rest of the world, it should be brought onto the table and discussed, but instead, our reaction is to express disgust and outrage, remove any element of inquiry, and immediately stiffle the outspoken. Universities have become nothing more than job training programs, where little rats grow up to become big rats, running on a wheel that fires the kiln that burns the bodies we generate in our holocaust.
Colorado University President Resigns
