THE PSEUDO-INDIAN DEFENSE. To review, the King's Indian and Queen's Indian involve the fianchetto of the King's or Queen's Bishop, respectively; the Nimzo-Indian is the development of the King's Bishop at such time as putting the question to it is unsound.

The Pseudo-Indian is somewhat different, as it involves identifying the best square for a Bishop when one is not clear what color that Bishop is. And, unfortunately, we cannot ignore this story by arguing that the Pseudo-Indian is so much fantasy and science fiction. That is true of Von Goom's Gambit.

In the Pseudo-Indian, a university that seeks to score a higher diversity rating by retaining a faculty member claiming Native roots overprotects that faculty member.

Kaye Howe, a vice chancellor at the time, had warned Middleton in May 1990 that the university could lose Churchill to another school if a role for him was not found. But Howe has said she never expected Churchill to get tenure.

(Hat tip: View from a Height.) The statement is unsound. Tenure is an up or out decision, and most universities will not retain faculty in teaching positions without tenure. Under some interpretations of the AAUP statement on tenure, adjunct faculty of long standing presumptively have tenure. Perhaps Mr Churchill could have obtained a long term contract without tenure and perhaps with a pay raise by resigning from Communications before his tenure case had to be considered, then hiring on in some administrative role with teaching duties. Such dodges are not unknown in the Diversity Boondoggle, disclaimers about Native American Studies being unable to grant tenure notwithstanding.

The Pseudo-Indian offers a way out. The overprotection redesignates the Bishop as a Special Bishop that can be deployed to a square of any color.

Ward Churchill was rejected by two University of Colorado departments in 1991 before the communication department agreed to give him tenure. Even in the communication department, the chairman-elect was "uncomfortable" with the decision, according to documents released Friday by CU.

At the time, CU officials were shopping for a department that would accept Churchill, fearing they would lose him to another university.

A communications department, otherwise known as the refuge of scholarship basketball players, with a shred of propriety. There may still be hope for the academy. (Hat tip: Stephen at Vodka Pundit.)