University of Colorado Regents are poised to adopt rules that will sharply reduce the time it takes to fire a tenured professor.

The new rules come as the case of fired ethnic studies professor Ward Churchil continues to drag through the appeals process, nine months after he received his pink slip for violations that included plagiarism, inventing facts and publishing essays under pseudonyms which he then quoted as scholarly sources. He remains on leave but is drawing his $96,000 salary.

Under the new rules, the appeals process would be reduced to 100 days, although regents themselves would have no deadline to hear and rule on the final appeal. Current rules have no time limit.

The regents will vote on the plan Thursday morning. Individual regents were pleased with the new rules during a study session Wednesday.



Regent Steve Bosley said the plan could be a model for other universities.

Regent Michael Carrigan of Denver said, "We all know there is a misconception out there that tenure is an appointment for life, no matter what you do, and that's not true."

The plan has the backing of the faculty. It won two-thirds backing in a faculty vote.

"We're very happy to condense this timeline," said Englsih professor RL Widmann, who chairs the Faculty Council.