Rocky Mountain News, CO
Feb 4 2005

2nd college yanks Churchill invitation

President of school in Massachusetts cites security fears

By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News
February 4, 2005

A Massachusetts college withdrew a speaking invitation Thursday to
University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill.

Wheaton College, in Norton, Mass., had invited Churchill to
participate in a March 29 panel on genocide.

President Michael Crutcher withdrew the invitation amid concerns
about public safety, college spokesman Michael Graca said.

“Freedom of speech is an important principle both for the country,
but certainly as well for educational institutions,” Graca said. “And
it needs to take place in a secure and safe environment, and that’s
the fundamental issue.”

Eastern Washington University will decide today whether to rescind an
invitation to Churchill to speak April 5.

The ethnic-studies professor is under fire nationally for a 2001
essay in which he referred to victims in the World Trade Center on
9/11 as “little Eichmanns,” a reference to Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi
Gestapo officer who headed Adolf Hitler’s effort to wipe out Jews in
Europe.

On Tuesday, Hamilton College in upstate New York canceled an address
by Churchill because of security concerns. Churchill’s remarks on the
Sept. 11 attack were brought to light by a student journalist at
Hamilton.

Graca said Wheaton College has not received any threats, but acted in
light of the threats at Hamilton.

“Given the experience of Hamilton this past week, we felt it was
prudent to take some action to maintain a secure campus,” Graca said.

Churchill was to speak about the American Indian experience with an
expert on the Turkish genocide of Armenians in 1915, and survivors of
the Holocaust and mass killings in Rwanda. That discussion will take
place now without Churchill.

Wheaton College is a 1,500-student liberal-arts college in southeast
Massachusetts.

At Eastern Washington, Churchill is scheduled to take part in Native
American Awareness Week. The school in Cheney, Wash., is 6 percent
American Indian – considered a large proportion for a college, said
spokesman David Rey.

Rey said faculty members who invited Churchill knew his views about
Americans Indians were controversial. They didn’t know about his
essay on Sept. 11.

“I don’t think this is what they expected,” Rey said.

President Stephen Jordan spent Thursday discussing the matter with
trustees and faculty, Rey said. Jordan will issue a statement during
a trustees meeting this morning.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress