The University of Colorado Board of Regents will hold a special meeting July 24 to consider a proposal to fire Ward Churchill, the controversial ethnic studies professor who has been found by faculty committees and the president of the university system to have committed research misconduct. On Wednesday, several Web sites that have backed Churchill posted announcements of the meeting that reiterated Churchill’s view that he is being punished for his political views, and that called for students and others to protest at the meeting. A university spokeswoman confirmed late Wednesday that the meeting had been scheduled for July 24. She said that Churchill, the university’s lawyer, and a faculty committee would each meet privately with the board, which will deliberate in private, but vote in public on the proposal to fire Churchill, who has tenure. If the board votes to fire Churchill, he has vowed to sue to keep his job.