The academic left is split on the University of Colorado decision to fire Ward Churchill for plagiarism, creation of a fraudulent identity, and bad research.

A petition drive has been organized on his behalf by the likes of Nicholas De Geneva of Columbia, who called for “a million Mogadishus,” and Timothy Shortell of Brooklyn College, who tagged religious believers as “mental retards.”

Parting company from this group are academics such as Oneida Meran of Metropolitan State College of Denver who objects to “academic freedom absolutists” rallying around “Churchill–the man or the myth.”

That so many ideologues like Churchill are hired in the first place–and that a chunk of academic notables are willing to dismiss his professional transgressions–reflect the debased state of professional ethics and peer review on campuses.