[Peace-discuss] Salaita aftermath

Fri Oct 10 11:30:49 EDT 2014

Diversity, in the narrow sense.

On 10/10/2014 10:25 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote:
> Great letter. Where's the local Democratic Party academic corruption 
> fighter on this matter? Surely he's condemned the Chancellor's 
> egregious violation of academic freedom.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Oct 10, 2014, at 7:26 AM, David Green via Peace-discuss 
> <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net 
> <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:
>
>> I've pasted below a message that Phyllis Wise has distributed to the 
>> university community, as well as a letter that I have submitted to 
>> the News-Gazette:
>> Dear members of the campus community:
>> As chancellor, it is my responsibility to annually reaffirm our 
>> campus commitment to equal opportunity, affirmative action, and equal 
>> access.  This commitment is consistent with my unwavering belief that 
>> diversity, as part of a living, learning, and working community, is a 
>> cornerstone of excellence and a strategic imperative for us all in 
>> our effort to be a pre-eminent public research university with a 
>> land-grant mission and global impact.
>> The campus, as reflected by Inclusive Illinois, is committed to 
>> creating and maintaining a community that recognizes and values the 
>> inherent worth and dignity of every person, while fostering an 
>> environment of mutual respect among its members.  The campus takes 
>> seriously our responsibility to provide leadership in ensuring that 
>> equal employment opportunity, affirmative action, and equal access is 
>> our standard practice rather than an aspiration.  As such, university 
>> policy prohibits discrimination or harassment of any member of the 
>> campus community during any stage of the employment process.  This 
>> includes recruitment, selection, promotion, transfer, merit 
>> increases, salary, training and development, demotion, and separation 
>> on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, 
>> ancestry, age, order of protection status, genetic information, 
>> marital status, disability, sexual orientation including gender 
>> identity and unfavorable discharge from the military or status as a 
>> protected veteran.  In addition, our affirmative action plan requires 
>> the campus to undertake good faith efforts to achieve the 
>> university’s affirmative action goals for women, minorities, persons 
>> with disabilities, and protected veterans.
>> In compliance with Title IX, the campus prohibits discrimination on 
>> the basis of sex in employment as well as in admissions, enrollment, 
>> and in the provision of all services, programs and activities. The 
>> campus’s Title IX Office monitors compliance with this law and 
>> oversees the campus’s response to complaints of discrimination based 
>> on sex, including reported incidents of sexual assault.
>> The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Access 
>> (http://www.diversity.illinois.edu/) is a resource for the campus and 
>> is available to address any campus concerns involving these matters.  
>> Realizing our shared vision of an Inclusive Illinois requires that we 
>> all annually reaffirm our individual commitment to building a truly 
>> diverse, welcoming, and inclusive community of students, scholars and 
>> staff.
>> Sincerely,
>> Phyllis M. Wise
>> Chancellor
>> Editor,
>> It’s fitting that James Heins has bought a full-page ad in support of 
>> Phyllis Wise. Heins’ reputation goes back decades; the website 
>> sciencecorruption.com <http://sciencecorruption.com> states that in 
>> the early 1980s Heins was part of “the original cabal of economists 
>> who became the nation-wide network for the Tobacco Institute … to 
>> provide the industry with academics willing to write propaganda 
>> material ... provided their names were not linked to the industry.”
>> Heins’ famous libertarian mentor Julian Simon also taught here. 
>> Simon’s work foreshadowed that of climate change deniers and those 
>> claiming that only “free market” solutions can address environmental 
>> problems. The University has also for decades provided a collegial 
>> environment for “law and economics” free market/property rights 
>> perspectives favored by the far right.
>> The move towards a corporate/entrepreneurial university promoted by 
>> Herman-Easter-Wise with the assistance of the right-wing Kauffman 
>> Foundation fits perfectly with “libertarian” doctrines and interests 
>> of the state/local 1%. Zionism is a salient aspect of this 
>> ideological package, but more central is support for the 
>> military-technological complex. This brand of libertarianism has no 
>> qualms about state-sponsored violence and its attendant corporate 
>> profits.
>> A Kauffman Foundation report in 2012 on the university’s 
>> “transformation” makes for both banal and chilling reading. Regarding 
>> faculty governance it concludes in language befitting /Mad Men/that 
>> “the transformation of a university's internal culture and external 
>> reputation has to be one of persuasion, not compulsion.” It would 
>> seem, however, that Wise and the BOT have given compulsion a vote of 
>> confidence in the name of “civility.”
>> David Green
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>
>
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