[Peace-discuss] News-Gazette: Philosophy department weighs in: No confidence in Chancellor Wise

[Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss]

>From today's edition of the Steven Salaita protest news.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2014-08-28/philosophy-department-weighs-no-confidence.html

Philosophy department weighs in: No confidence
Thu, 08/28/2014 - 12:41pm | Christine Des Garennes

URBANA — Another University of Illinois academic department has approved a
vote of no confidence in university leaders in wake of the decision to not
hire controversial professor Steven Salaita.

The UI Department of Philosophy today issued the following resolution.

“Whereas the recent words and actions of Chancellor Phyllis Wise, President
Robert Easter, and the Board of Trustees in connection with the revocation
of an offer of employment to Dr. Steven Salaita betray a culpable disregard
not only for academic freedom and free speech generally but also for the
principles of shared governance and established protocols for hiring,
tenure, and promotion, the faculty of the Department of Philosophy at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign declares its lack of confidence
in the leadership of the current Chancellor, President, and Board of
Trustees. according to Kirk Sanders, associate professor and department
chair.

The department’s action follows a similar vote by the American Indian
Studies Program on Friday.

A faculty search committee last year recommended the UI hire the American
Indian Studies and Arab American Studies scholar, and Salaita was expected
to arrive on campus this month. But a few weeks before the start of the
semester, Wise and Vice resident for Academic Affairs Christophe Pierre
told Salaita they would not forward his appointment to the board in
September for formal approval. That decision came after a backlash to angry
tweets Salaita posted in July about Israel.

His case has since attracted widespread attention in the media and among
academics.

Since the vote by American Indian Studies Program on Friday, faculty in
that department have been asking other departments to support their action.
An American Indian Studies professor on Monday asked the Senate Executive
Committee, a group of mostly faculty leaders on the Urbana campus’s
Academic Senate, to hold a no confidence vote in the chancellor. The Senate
committee did not take any action on Monday; chair Roy Campbell said any
such proposal would need to be on the agenda in advance of the meeting, per
the Illinois Open Meetings Act.


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