It's that time of the year. Universities decide who makes the cut and who doesn't among its faculty, except for those who are tenured. Many who don't make the cut will make noise that they've been wronged, sacked for bad karma, personality conflicts, witch hunts or what have you. But this is a new one.

Environmental ethics instructor Adrienne Anderson has filed a federal whistleblower complaint against the University of Colorado, after she learned recently that she would be dismissed in May.

Anderson, an instructor at the Boulder campus since 1994, learned last month that the school's environmental studies program was planning to offer new classes and that she wouldn't be reappointed to her position. She has called CU's decision political, the result of complaints from corporate and government polluters she has criticized over the years.

Anderson has formalized that claim in a request for whistleblower protection filed last week with the U.S. Department of Labor. The complaint cites seven federal environmental statutes that provide such protection.

She would be fired still if I were president of CU, but I'd hire her lawyer. I need that kind of creativity in legal advising.

Meanwhile, the greenmail dance between Ward Churchill and CU continues.

"We have authorized our attorney to talk to his attorney to see where we are in this situation," Regent Patricia Hayes told CBS News 4. When asked about a dollar value, Hayes said she couldn't comment.

"I'm sure there is a price tag that he's talking about, and I'm sure there's one we're talking about," she said.

Hayes later told The Associated Press that regents were looking at several options, but stopped short of saying attorneys were in negotiations.

Yeah, you were caught saying it, Ms. Hayes. As I said before, Churchill would not be bought out in my presidency, but would be on a speaker tour for as long as he held his position at CU, with cameras. Gary Barnett would be reassigned to carry his bags and give entertainment tips.