Two academic lightning rods for the American right will appear together next month at the University of Colorado at Boulder. William Ayers, of the 1960s radical group the Weather Underground, will speak in defense of CU’s embattled former prof Ward Churchill, who is also slated to speak, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which notes the March 5 event takes place just days prior to Churchill’s trial, a challenge of his 2007 dismissal from CU.

Churchill, who first came under scrutiny after comparing some victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to Nazis, was fired by the university after an investigation alleged plagiarism.

The event, “Forbidden Education and the Rise of Neo-McCarthyism,” will be held at the Glenn Miller Ballroom and is sponsored by student groups, according to the Colorado Daily.