Not serious enough to merit dismissal?

Ward Churchill committed multiple, "deliberate" acts of academic misconduct, according to a review by a faculty panel, released today by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

While the panel was unanimous in its findings about Churchill's conduct, it was divided about whether he should lose his tenured position as professor — as politicians and many others have been demanding for more than a year. Three of the panel's five members believe that the violations of academic standards are severe enough to make dismissal "not an inappropriate sanction." But only one of those three members believes that dismissal is the "most appropriate sanction." Two others favor suspension without pay for five years.

Two other members of the panel said that they did not believe that the violations were serious enough to merit dismissal. They recommend a suspension of two years without pay and say that they fear dismissal would "have an adverse effect on other scholars' ability to conduct their research with due freedom."

Among the violations that the committee found Churchill had committed were falsification, fabrication, plagiarism, failure to comply with established standard regarding author names on publications, and a "serious deviation from accepted practices in reporting results from research."

So "falsification, fabrication, plagiarism, failure to comply with established standard regarding author names on publications, and a 'serious deviation from accepted practices in reporting results from research'" is not necessarily serious enough to merit dismissal of a professor. But enough to flunk a student, of course.