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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Official Probe Calls On Illinois To Reconsider Salaita Firing<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><img width=580 height=346 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.png@01D020E0.7F8D1560" alt="Description: Students and faculty are determined to keep challenging University of Illinois administrators’ decision to fire Steven Salaita. (Jeffrey Putney/Flickr)"></span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.popularresistance.org/category/educate/" title="View all posts in Educate!"><span style='color:blue'>Educate!</span></a> <a href="https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/freedom-of-speech/"><span style='color:blue'>Freedom of Speech</span></a>, <a href="https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/illinois/"><span style='color:blue'>Illinois</span></a>, <a href="https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/israel/"><span style='color:blue'>Israel</span></a>, <a href="https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/palestine/"><span style='color:blue'>Palestine</span></a> <br>By Ali Abunimah, <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/official-probe-calls-illinois-reconsider-salaita-firing" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue'>www.electronicintifada.net</span></a><br>December 25th, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> Powered by <a href="https://translate.google.com" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=116 height=41 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.png@01D020E0.7F8D1560" alt="Description: https://www.google.com/images/logos/google_logo_41.png"></span><span style='color:blue'>Translate</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.popularresistance.org/official-probe-calls-on-illinois-to-reconsider-salaita-firing/" target="_blank" title="View more services"><span style='color:blue'>1</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.popularresistance.org%2Fofficial-probe-calls-on-illinois-to-reconsider-salaita-firing%2F"><span style='color:blue;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=23 height=25 id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image003.gif@01D020E0.7F8D1560" alt="Description: Print Friendly"></span><span style='color:blue'>Print Friendly</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><i><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Students and faculty are determined to keep challenging University of Illinois administrators’ decision to fire Steven Salaita. (<a href="https://flic.kr/p/oUnwRr"><span style='color:#000066'>Jeffrey Putney</span></a>/Flickr)</span></i><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>An official investigative committee at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is calling for the decision to fire <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/steven-salaita"><span style='color:#000066'>Steven Salaita</span></a> to be reconsidered.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The report by the <a href="http://www.senate.illinois.edu/af0402.asp"><span style='color:#000066'>Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure</span></a> (CAFT) states that:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“In light of the irregular circumstances leading up to the Board of Trustees’ disapproval of an appointment for Dr. Salaita, the Committee recommends that Dr. Salaita’s candidacy be remanded to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for reconsideration by a committee of qualified academic experts.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Salaita was fired from a tenured position last August after pro-Israel donors, faculty and students mounted a campaign against him because of tweets he made excoriating Israel’s attack on Gaza.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>His case has become an international cause celebre in the struggle for academic freedom and against censorship on campus of views critical of Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“Game changer”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), whose attorneys form part of Salaita’s legal team, warmly welcomed the CAFT report.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The committee “has found that UIUC’s actions with regard to Professor Salaita were wrong,” CCR <a href="http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/salaita%E2%80%99s-attorneys-praise-academic-freedom-and-tenure-committee-findings"><span style='color:#000066'>said in a statement</span></a>. CCR added that the report had affirmed that “the university had clear contractual obligations to Professor Salaita” which had been violated along with basic commitments to academic freedom and free speech.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Bruce Rosenstock, president of the Campus Faculty Association at the University of Illinois, <a href="http://wuis.org/post/ui-faculty-association-president-calls-salaita-report-game-changer"><span style='color:#000066'>told WUIS public radio</span></a> that the CAFT report is a “bombshell and a game changer” that would force university officials to revisit their decision to rescind Salaita’s appointment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>University violated policies and procedures<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In its summary, the report states:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><i><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The process by which Dr. Salaita’s proposed appointment was withdrawn and eventually rejected did not follow existing policies and procedures in several substantial respects, raising questions about the institution’s commitment to shared governance. The reasons given – the civility of tweets made by Dr. Salaita in the summer of 2014 – is not consistent with the University’s guarantee of freedom of political speech. Statements made by the Chancellor, President, and Trustees asserting that the incivility of a candidate’s utterances may constitute sufficient grounds for rejecting his appointment should be renounced.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“We do not believe that Dr. Salaita’s political speech renders him unfit for office,” CAFT states. “We recommend that statements made by the Chancellor, President, and Trustees asserting civility as a standard of conduct be withdrawn.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>CAFT is part of the university senate, a legislative body established under the<a href="http://www.senate.illinois.edu/"><span style='color:#000066'>University of Illinois statutes</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“Fitness”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Supporters of Salaita may find the report troubling in at least one way: while the report affirms that Salaita’s tweets did not “render him unfit” and that “civility” is not grounds for refusing his appointment, it now introduces another new, vague standard of “fitness.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In an apparent concession to administrators, the report adds, “the Chancellor has raised legitimate questions about Dr. Salaita’s professional fitness that must be addressed.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>CAFT acknowledges that in giving credence to concerns about Salaita’s “fitness” – unrelated to his scholarship, teaching record and political speech – it “might appear to allow the Trustees to ask for a review of the professional fitness of any candidate who makes remarks that they deem unpopular or offensive.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>CAFT adds, “Our opinion derives from circumstances that are extraordinary and unlikely to be replicated.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>But the CAFT report at least calls for Salaita to be “provided the opportunity to respond to any proposed findings of professional unfitness before the body concludes its proceedings.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>It also recommends “that the university take responsibility for the financial consequences to Dr. Salaita of its irregular adherence to its own policies and procedures.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Nonetheless, the substantive findings clearly fault the university administration’s handling of the case. Administrators have always ruled out reinstating Salaita, but this report calls for that option to be considered.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>It remains to be seen if the university will dig in its heels or whether further litigation is the next step in Salaita’s struggle to regain his rights. Salaita has already <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/salaita-sues-univ-illinois-refusing-release-emails-related-firing"><span style='color:#000066'>filed one lawsuit</span></a> against the university for its refusal to release emails related to his case.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The 140-page report, of which I have only made a preliminary review, is attached. It will undoubtedly require further, close study</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>