Colorado prof. wants $1M if not rehired

BOULDER, Colo., April 7 (UPI) -- Wrongfully fired University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill says if he isn't reinstated to his job, he wants $1 million from the school.

The former ethnic studies professor last week won a wrongful termination lawsuit against the school, as a Denver jury agreed administrators fired him not for the academic misconduct reasons cited, but in retaliation for a controversial article critical of U.S. policies published the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Churchill became a lightning rod for anger when conservative commentators came across the article, in which Churchill scathingly criticized U.S. policies and called the terror attacks a case of "chickens coming home to roost."

Churchill told the (Boulder, Colo.) Daily Camera that if Chief Denver District Judge Larry Naves doesn't now follow through by ordering CU to reinstate him, he'll ask the university for $1 million.

"If (returning) would make a bunch of people uncomfortable on the Boulder campus, what's the argument?" Churchill told the newspaper. "They violated my rights, therefore to spare them discomfort I should not be restored to what I was unlawfully deprived of? That's somewhat tenuous."