BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR, YOU MIGHT GET IT. The Faculty Senate at Louisiana State (it's a .pdf, can't copy and paste, grrr) correctly prays for proper procedure in the investigation of Professor Ward Churchill in Colorado.

Therefore, Be It Resolved that the Louisiana State University Faculty Senate endorse this resolution in support of Dr. Churchill's [c.q.] right to academic freedom, as befits a tenured faculty member, that any review of his professional conduct be initiated and implemented only by the appropriate academic committee and that the review consider only those issues which would normally constitute failure of scholarship, service, and pedagogical standards within the university's mission, and

... First, some observations from the Superintendent. Isn't the fact that this fourth-rate Barrington Moore, Jr. holds a tenured post at a flagship university evidence of a failure of scholarship and pedagogical standards within the university's mission? Would it not be "appropriate" (Fred Kahn had a great riff on the lack of content "appropriate" generally had in a bureaucratic setting ... he was speaking of a regulatory commission, but university governance isn't too far removed) for Colorado to come clean on its diversity boondoggles. Otherwise the administration looks too keen to be covering for expense-preference behavior and the State government has a fiduciary duty to investigate that.

Be It Further Resolved, that the Louisiana State University Faculty Senate censure the Colorado House of Representatives and the Governor of Colorado for their attempts to intrude on the academic freedom of a tenured professor, and to dictate limits to any professor's inquiry and right to challenge accepted belief, even in times of war.

A state university enjoys great immunity from legislative intrusion. With that immunity comes great responsibility. A century ago, elected officials in Wisconsin took umbrage at Wisconsin's employment of Richard T. Ely, (yes, cub economists, as in the Richard T. Ely Lecture at the job meetings) who raised questions about railroads, corporations, and "natural" monopolies, and he might have thought well of socialism. /gasp!/ Wisconsin's Regents came back with this declaration.

WHATEVER MAY BE THE LIMITATIONS WHICH TRAMMEL INQUIRY ELSEWHERE, WE BELIEVE THAT THE GREAT STATE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SHOULD EVER ENCOURAGE THAT CONTINUAL AND FEARLESS SIFTING AND WINNOWING BY WHICH ALONE THE TRUTH CAN BE FOUND.

Sifting and winnowing separates the content from the chaff. Colorado's college and university promotion committees confused chaff for content. The history of this case suggests officials acted on unsubstantiated fears of losing an individual they incorrectly viewed as a diversity plus, despite evidence that two Colorado departments had recognized chaff when they were offered it.

In my stints on Faculty Senate, I have sometimes heard colleagues say "we have to do something before somebody in Springfield makes us do it." Those statements tended to set my teeth on edge, as the "something" often involved some unsound fad or some avoidance of the real problem. In this case, however, the onus is on Colorado, and per corollary, Louisiana State, and, yes, Northern Illinois, to take a hard look at whether academic freedom (correctly construed, more on this anon) has translated into academic license and led to the creation of a Division of Cooling Out the Mark in which professional protesters misuse academic respectability for non-academic ends.