Hot Jobs for Academic Frauds

Instapundit wrote recently about how Ward Churchill got tenured and a department chair, with lots of references to a possible bidding war with other universities for Churchill's services. I got to thinking about what other, comparable universities might have an interest in this guy. I have kind of a failure of imagination about this because I went to a land grant university. One of my cherished chauvinisms is that those schools don't put much store by the kinds of departments in which a Ward Churchill would be at home. I decided to test my theory by visiting the web sites of several Big XII universities and counting what I take to be the candidate departments and programs. Tallied here are deparments or programs with "Studies" and some sort of ethnicity, political identity group, or fuzzy concept in the name. Names with "Sciences" I left out, but "Women's Studies" I left in as part of the political identity group class. Here are the counts I came up with for each school:

Iowa State (4)

• http://www.envs.iastate.edu/
• http://www.sust.ag.iastate.edu/gpsa/
• http://www.language.iastate.edu/home/Languages/RussianStudies/RussianLan.htm
• http://www.iastate.edu/~wsprogram/homepage.html

One of these is Russian Studies, which I'm pretty sure requires actual scholarship, and another is for "sustainable agriculture" which probably requires a verifiable green thumb.

Missouri (4)

• http://www.missouri.edu/~peacewww/
• http://gradschool.missouri.edu/catalog/fieldsofstudy/black_studies.html
• http://gradschool.missouri.edu/catalog/fieldsofstudy/european_union_studies.html
• http://gradschool.missouri.edu/catalog/fieldsofstudy/womens_and_gender_studies.html

I gotta think the Peace Studies people are going bonkers for the past few years.

Nebraska (9)

• http://www.unl.edu/unlies/african/african.htm
• http://ascweb.unl.edu/academics/depts/asian.html
• http://www.unl.edu/plains
• http://www.unl.edu/unlies/latino/latino.htm
• http://www.unl.edu/unlies
• http://www.unl.edu/int_studies
• http://www.unl.edu/unlies/native/native.htm
• http://www.unl.edu/19thcentury/
• http://www.unl.edu/womenssp/wshome.html

Whoa. Heavy ethnicity interest in Lincoln. Plus "Great Plains Studies."

Kansas (6)

• http://www.ku.edu/~amerst/
• http://www.ceas.ku.edu/
• http://www.ku.edu/~kuesp/
• http://www.ku.edu/~insp/
• http://www.ku.edu/~latamst/
• http://www.ku.edu/~wsku/

I had Kansas pegged for more than this.

Kansas State (4)

• http://www.k-state.edu/ameth/
• http://www.k-state.edu/ias/
• http://www.k-state.edu/womst/
• http://www.k-state.edu/ias/lassec.htm

... and Kansas State I had figured about right.

Oklahoma (3)

• http://www.ou.edu/cas/afam
• http://www.ou.edu/cas/nas
• http://www.ou.edu/womstudy

I need to visit Norman one of these days.

Oklahoma State (3)

• http://www.cas.okstate.edu/amstudies/index.html
• International Studies (Graduate College)
  
• http://psychology.okstate.edu/wstudies/wstudies.html

Very lean, as befits an A&M college. Women's Studies in the Psych department. Hmmmmm.

Colorado (7)

• http://www.colorado.edu/EthnicStudies/
• http://www.colorado.edu/ealc/aprg.html
• http://www.colorado.edu/envirostudies/
• http://www.colorado.edu/ArtsSciences/LGBTStudies/
• http://www.colorado.edu/peacestudies/
• http://www.centerwest.org/
• http://www.colorado.edu/UCB/AcademicAffairs/ArtsSciences/WomenStudies/

Texas (14)

• http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/caaas/
• http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/ams/
• http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/asianstudies
• http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/aas/
• http://www.utexas.edu/depts/cas/
• http://www.utexas.edu/cola/eastasia/
• http://www.utexas.edu/depts/german/main.html
• http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/culturalstudies/
• http://www.utexas.edu/cola/llilas/
• http://www.utexas.edu/depts/cmas/
• http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/mes/
• http://menic.utexas.edu/menic/cmes/
• http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/slavic/
• http://www.utexas.edu/depts/wstudies/

Wow. I guess this is what happens when oil and semiconductor money come together with a thriving local music scene. I hope some of these groups get a mention in that new Tommy Lee Jones movie with the cheerleaders.

I kind of ran out of gas after UT-Austin, so I never got to the remaining Big XII members, all in Texas. But here's a breakdown of the above counts, anyway:

• Average count for schools named "State:" 3.67
• Average count for the others: 7.17

I thereby estimate that your child is 50 percent less likely to experience "Chutch" if he or she heads for Moo U.

One last survey for my friend Matt Barr:

Canisius (2)

• http://www.canisius.edu/academics/fact_europe.asp
• http://www.canisius.edu/academics/fact_womens.asp

Advantage: Jesuits!