A month ago, when I reported that the University of Illinois had apparently hired and then fired professor Steven Salaita because of his anti-Israel tweets, the UI administration wasn’t talking.
Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise issued a statement explaining why she’d effectively killed Salaita’s appointment, refusing to forward it to the board of trustees for what was to have been perfunctory approval. And the board of trustees issued its own statement supporting her.
“Tempering” academic freedom and free speech? Valuing civility “as much as” scholarship? Ensuring that the academic environment is “comfortable”?
By August 1, when Wise informed Salaita in an e-mail that his job offer had been voided, he had given up his professorship, put down earnest money on a home for his family in the Urbana-Champaign area, and was in the midst of preparations for the move. His fall courses had already been scheduled. The board’s approval, understood to be a formality, was to have been granted at its mid-September meeting—nearly a month after Salaita would have started work.
Salaita’s attorney, Maria LaHood of the Center for Constitutional Rights, charged that the University of Illinois “has violated the Constitution by terminating Professor Salaita’s appointment based on the content of his speech.”
