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

[C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss]

I think this is largely right, except for the characterization of the UIUC administration as "a bunch of know-nothing yahoos" - as if their personal failings account for the university's hypocrisy in regard to academic freedom. 

If we agree with that ungenerous assessment, we have to conclude that American universities have generally been run by "know-nothing yahoos" through a century of violations of academic freedom, from World War I through Vietnam. That may well be the case, but I think the problem is more political than personal. It will not be solved by appointing "good guys" as administrators, in the academy or the polity. But that would be a place to start.

--CGE

On Aug 27, 2014, at 7:36 AM, Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> 
> 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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