James writes, with a naivete I had thought gone out of the world:

Academics are, after all, the university’s raison d'etre whereas sports are a side business.

I had the same reaction. Take a look at any major university budget and it become very clear what the priorities are...

But, it is unforgivable, and should be illegal for these supposedly educated, responsible, and people you pay to educate your kids fail see no harm in people like Churchill.

The guy was a fake, a fraud and I bet most students could see it a mile away but the faculty pays no mind to students. The administration would pay no mind to students. Like Eneils this is making me rethink how much involvement I will have in my son's college education. Turning him over to a profession that cannot police itself seems foolish.

He was awarded a dollar in damages, presumably because his actual plagiarism mitigated the fact that it wasn’t the reason for his termination.

He was overly-compensated for his damages; if I had a dollar for every time I said or did something that violated common sense, I would be a rich person.
Churchill is a certifiable nut case, existing in the world of modern-day academia. Think about when this person could exist outside the world of modern-day high-level scholars and a tax-payer funded educational environment.
Wanna send off your kids to this fool's rantings and ravings.
No, I had rather my kid be a man, not fall for the idiocy of failed ideas, moral confusion, and separate themselves from the overly stimulating emotional and foolish ideas of those who requires an overly-stimulating emotion and very little common sense.
Personal rectitude, no matter the age will overcome silliness, dishonesty, and the urge to believe because what a mass of your young contemporaries and his fellow professional educators believe. The man should have been recognized as a fool by his fellow professional and by his students.

Academics are, after all, the university’s raison d'etre whereas sports are a side business.

Someone should just kick his ass.

Ohhhh...tough guy! Are you offering to do that?

First, they [the jury] asked whether it was possible to award no damages. A few minutes later, they asked whether, if all but one jury member could agree on a dollar amount, that person could be replaced by another juror. (The answer was no.)

Possible compromise verdict, with some thinking Churchill didn't prove his case, other's thinking he deserved a lot of money.

Churchill said he was satisfied with a $1 judgment and said his case was not about money. “Reinstatement, of course,” he said. “I did not ask for money. I asked for justice.”

Is that true? Did his lawyer ask the jury for money? Lawyers have asked for $1 when it's the principle of the matter. How come I don't believe that happened here?

I find it a non sequitur, however, that a University has no right to be upset with professorial misconduct if it houses a big time athletic program with a history of NCAA violations. Academics are, after all, the university’s raison detre whereas sports are a side business.

Really? If push came to shove, which program would the University of Alabama jettison first--the football team or the history department? How about Kentucky--basketball or philosophy?

I can guarantee he randomly brutalized students that had to sit through his B.S. classes. Did they get the jury from the Womens Studies department?

It's no wonder people are disgusted with academia. Examples like this expose the soft corruption of colleges today.