Professor Inquiry Partially Closed

The University of Colorado has dropped two parts of its investigation into Ward L. Churchill, a professor who stirred controversy by comparing the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to Nazis, but is still determining whether he committed plagiarism, Churchill’s lawyer confirmed Tuesday.

David Lane, Churchill’s lawyer, announced on a radio program Monday that he had received a letter from the university formally closing the portions of its inquiry dealing with whether Churchill had faked his Native American heritage or had violated copyright in his academic writing.

Lane said Tuesday that ending the investigation into Churchill’s ethnic background was particularly important.

“We have been protesting this ethnicity issue from Day One,” he said. The academic panel investigating Churchill, he added, said it didn’t “care about his ethnicity and it’s not relevant to anything.”

In an interview with Associated Press, Churchill, who has said he was raised believing he was part Native American, said, “You’ve got essentially a gaggle of white guys out there trying to discredit me, and the worst they can do is call me a white guy.”

Another academic panel is investigating allegations that Churchill plagiarized some of his writings on Native Americans.

Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Churchill compared the victims to Nazi official Adolf Eichmann and called the suicide attackers “combat teams.” The writings drew little notice until he was invited to speak at a private college in upstate New York this year.

The University of Colorado said it could not dismiss Churchill, who is tenured, because of the 1st Amendment, but it began the investigations into his ethnic background and the allegations of plagiarism.