The Buck Stops (and Kicks Her Fanny Out)
University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman announced Monday that she is resigning amid a football recruiting scandal and a national controversy over the hiring of Ward Churchill, a radical-fringe professor who committed art fraud and called victims of the Sept. 11 attacks "little Eichmanns" in reference to infamous Nazi Adolf Eichmann, Head of Hitler's Gestapo and responsible for the murder of millions of German Jews.
"It has become clear to many in the CU family that our university — one of the most distinguished in the nation — has suffered greatly from a series of controversies that seem to be growing, not abating," stated CU Board of Regents Chairman Jerry Rutledge.
At least nine women have said they were assaulted by Colorado football players or recruits since 1997, two female trainers alleged they were sexually assaulted by an assistant coach and a "slush fund" was reportedly created with money from coach Gary Barnett's football camp.
The controversy over Ward Churchill erupted in January after he was invited to speak at Hamilton College in upstate New York. Hamilton officials discovered an essay and a follow-up book in which Chruchill wrote that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were a response to a history of American abuses abroad. Churchill has refused to apologize for his statements, and has most recently appeared on Bill Maher's 'Real Time with Bill Maher' to support his view that the thousands of people who were killed in the Twin Towers on September 11th were responsible for their own murders.