[Peace-discuss] Academic rebellion against Salaita firing growing?

[Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss]

Reading the News-Gazette yesterday was like reading the "Stephen Salaita
protest news."

The department of American Indian studies has voted no-confidence in
Chancellor Wise. The English department may follow suit. Other departments
are considering similar action.

What I suspect is happening, in part, is that the boycott of the University
of Illinois is working, in the sense that it's drawing national and
international attention, especially among academics, to the idea that there
is a grave threat to the principles of free speech and academic freedom at
the University of Illinois. And a lot of writing about this is also
mentioning the Kilgore case, to establish the idea that there is problem in
the University of Illinois Administration that runs deeper than the Salaita
case.

I suspect that part of what is happening is that academics around the world
are writing to their friends on the U of I faculty and saying, "What's
going on?" And U of I faculty are reading in the academic press that their
University has become a laughingstock, the kind of place where a modern-day
Bertrand Russell couldn't get a job, because the University Administration
is run by a bunch of know-nothing yahoos. And this is impelling them to
action.

This is very positive. Good things may yet come of this, if the pressure
continues to increase.

===

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1
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