The Best Policy?
By Nicole Russell
Posted On March 10, 2005

Honesty is the first chapter in the Book of wisdom. Let it be our endeavor to merit the character of a just nation.
--Thomas Jefferson

In terms of pure gall, Ward Churchill’s comments about his Native American Indian identity are perhaps as disconcerting as any other he’s made. The Rocky Mountain News could not find any evidence of Churchill’s claimed Indian heritage and reported he refuses to provide documentation. Likewise, the Indian Country Today said that “that nothing whatsoever has surfaced that gives evidence to Churchill's claims to having Cherokee Indian origins.” Mr. Churchill should be held accountable for lying about his racial status, if that’s what he did, and the University of Colorado should re-evaluate his teaching credentials, now that it seems he may not have possessed adequate academic qualifications that, in turn, made him eligible for tenure years before he should have been.

On the heels of Churchill’s awful 9/11 comments, University of Colorado President Betsy Hoffman said lawmakers should not rush to that judgment and fire Mr. Churchill. She claimed the issue would become a free-speech nightmare and that Churchill would win a lawsuit against the University on those grounds.

But what of Mr. Churchill’s dishonest application for professorship (and then tenure)? Surely the University realizes that his Indian record may be false and could easily investigate his application. Yet they have not, and we struggle to understand why fraud, it seems, is all right with the University. (Perhaps they’re afraid Mr. Churchill would claim this too is a free speech issue.) Regardless, it’s almost beyond argument that the University should verify that Mr. Churchill is who he claims to be. Maybe it would simply eliminate one ugly question about Churchill.

Dishonesty may not be contagious, but it’s hard to ignore that when it goes unpunished, the message reverberates. Mr. Churchill is not the only one who believes he can be rewarded with tenure despite his false application. According to a recent survey conducted by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, a large majority of young Americans does not tell the truth and don’t see anything wrong with this. Nearly 62% have cheated on exams and 40% admit they "sometimes lie to save money." In the same study, two thirds of the males and half of the females studied demonstrated they believe that “successful people do what they have to do to win, even if others consider it cheating." (Ironically, 92 % of the young people surveyed said they were satisfied with their ethics and character; perhaps they are satisfied with their character - or lack of it - because dishonesty reaps rewards.)

If a teenager can lie on an exam in high school and then lie on an application to be a college professor and succeed at both, why tell the truth? The kid-glove treatment of Mr. Churchill only reinforces this —however wrong or unethical it may seem. He has lied on his application and yet is a tenured professor who has achieved his fifteen minutes of fame — what success!

Ward Churchill should be fired, not for any of his ridiculous comments—I would not make a first amendment martyr of him. But as events have unfolded, we’ve learned he is dishonest to the core. Ms. Hoffman and others should step above the political correctness, hold the University to a higher standard, and demonstrate that honesty is still valued, if only on occasion. In the end the University has an opportunity to do the right thing and teach our youth that, as Thomas Jefferson said, “…to merit the character of a just nation,” we must begin by telling the truth.

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