DENVER, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Colorado Gov. Bill Owens Tuesday pressed a University of Colorado professor to resign because of remarks about victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Ward Churchill stepped down Monday as chairman of CU's ethnic-studies department after coming under fire for comparing victims of the World Trade Center attack to Nazis, the Denver Post reported. He did not resign from the faculty.
Owens called Churchill's remarks "indecent, insensitive and inappropriate" in a letter to Young Republicans at the university. He said Churchill's resignation as head of the department was a "first step," but urged him to leave the faculty.
"No one wants to infringe on Mr. Churchill's right to express himself," the governor wrote. "But we are not compelled to accept his pro-terrorist views at state taxpayer subsidy, nor under the banner of the University of Colorado."
In an essay, Churchill compared the World Trade Center victims to "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who managed the Nazi plan to exterminate Jews. He said Monday he was not referring to all the victims, nor defending the attack.
