Judge refuses to throw out fired professor Steven Salaita’s case against University of Illinois-UC
A federal judge has just ruled against the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which had sought to have Steven Salaita’s case against it tossed out. At the same time, the chancellor who had fired Salaita, Phyllis Wise, has just resigned.
Salaita was the professor whose often acerbic and biting tweets critical of the state of Israel, particularly during its bloody attack on Gaza last summer, led to his being fired from his position at UIUC. His dismissal immediately led to worldwide outrage--thousands signed a petition demanding his reinstatement, and thousands, including Cornel West and Angela Davis, honored a boycott of the university. A dozen prestigious academic organizations wrote letters of protest.
What is at stake are issues of academic freedom, free speech, faculty governance. But also, and tremendously important, is the issue of donor interference in faculty governance. Salaita has sued for the emails that were exchanged between the university and wealthy donors regarding his dismissal.
