Writing at Minding the Campus, KC Johnson has a superb piece on the Ward Churchill case.

Money quote: “Well before Churchill ever uttered his “Little Eichmanns” line, the University of Colorado — a Tier 1 research university — had hired, then tenured, and then promoted to department chairman a woefully under-qualified academic charlatan. In this respect, the affair provides a case study of ‘diversity’ hiring practices gone awry.”

That’s exactly right. When the foremost criterion for hiring becomes whether a candidate increases the “cultural diversity” of the school rather than his demonstrated capability in teaching and research, cases like Ward Churchill are bound to occur.