Buying Churchill

University of Colorado officials are considering offering Ward Churchill an early retirement package that could end an increasingly uncomfortable standoff with the controversial professor.

Two people familiar with internal CU discussions said the still-undetermined offer is in the idea stage. The discussions come just a week before a three-person panel is scheduled to deliver a report on Churchill's fitness for tenure.

David Lane, Churchill's attorney, said he has not been contacted about a buyout offer.

But, he said, while his primary focus is on protecting Churchill's constitutional right to speak out, he would be willing to listen to a university proposal.

"If they offer $10 million, I would think about it. If they offer him $10, I wouldn't," Lane said.

CU regents have said they are bound by due process and authorized a review of Churchill's writings and speech by a panel comprising the interim Boulder chancellor, the arts and sciences dean, and the law school dean.

Depending on the panel's findings, due the week of March 7, CU president Betsy Hoffman could inform Churchill of the university's desire to terminate his employment. Churchill would then have the right to appeal through a faculty committee.

Typically such dismissals - even if done by the book - result in years of expensive lawsuits that Hoffman told legislators last week the university would like to avoid.

Sources involved in the talks said if an arrangement could be made, it could get everyone off the hook, including Churchill, the subject of daily press revelations.