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university of illinois
University Settles in Flashpoint Academic Freedom Case
"This is an important victory, even if the bigger fight isn't over," said Dr. Steven Salaita
Nov 12, 2015
More than a year after firing Dr. Steven Salaita from a tenured faculty position for publishing personal tweets critical of Israel's 2014 military assault on Gaza, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has agreed to settle the professor's free speech and breach of contract lawsuits for nearly a million dollars.
Announced Thursday by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and co-counsel Loevy & Loevy, the deal falls short of reinstating the professor to the American Indian Studies Department--a demand that has been issued by students, faculty, and Salaita himself. Salaita's job offer was revoked after he signed an employment contract with the university in July 2014.
Heralding the settlement as a "vindication" for himself, Salaita explained the much more important victory was "for academic freedom and the First Amendment."
"The petitions, demonstrations, and investigations, as well as the legal case, have reinvigorated American higher education as a place of critical thinking and rigorous debate, and I am deeply grateful to all who have spoken out," Salaita said.
A vibrant campus movement led by advocates for Palestinian human rights, worker justice, and free speech advocates forced Salaita's firing into the international limelight. In addition to student and faculty walkouts, a successful boycott of UIUC garnered the backing of thousands of academics and students worldwide and led to the cancellation of dozens of lectures and conferences at the university.
These efforts forced a shake-up in the university administration, prompting vote of "no confidence" in the university administration by 16 UIUC departments, as well as public censure by the American Association of University Professors and the Modern Language Association.
When a federal judge ruled in favor of allowing Salaita's breach of contract case to proceed in August, Chancellor Phyllis Wise--who initially served Salaita papers rescinding his job offer--resigned from her position.
Then, a resultant transparency scandal prompted Provost Ilesanmi Adesida to do the same.
What's more, Freedom of Information Act requests that were filed in response to Salaita's ouster revealed that well-heeled donors inappropriately intervened to press for Salaita's firing.
In exchange for the sum of $875,000, Salaita agreed to drop his multiple lawsuits against the university. The lawsuit does not, however, address the academic freedom implications of the case--which impact the campus community far beyond Salaita.
It is not immediately clear whether the settlement will prompt the AAUP to remove UIUC from its list of censured universities.
Meanwhile, Palestinian rights advocates continue to face retaliation and intimidation in universities and colleges across the United States.
A report released in September by CCR and Palestine Legal revealed that, in in 2014 alone, the latter organization responded to 152 incidents of "censorship, punishment, or other burdening of advocacy for Palestinian rights and received 68 additional requests for legal assistance in anticipation of such actions." Just halfway through 2015, the organization had responded to 140 such incidents, marking a considerable increase.
"This is an important victory, even if the bigger fight isn't over," Salaita wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday. "At this point I am ready to move beyond this particular matter and continue doing what I love--teaching, writing, organizing, and contributing in whatever way I can to struggles for justice."
Salaita added on Twitter:
\u201cPlease remember: many were harmed by UIUC's behavior, especially those in American Indian Studies and the Palestinian students on campus.\u201d— Steven Salaita (@Steven Salaita) 1447361611
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University of Illinois Slammed with Censure Over Salaita Firing
Attorneys for Professor Steven Salaita called the move by leading academic group 'a serious blemish on the university’s record'
Jun 14, 2015
In a decision that may have long-lasting repercussions for the university's reputation, a leading university group on Saturday voted to censure the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) for firing Professor Steven Salaita after he made comments critical of Israel's attack on Gaza last summer.
The university rescinded Salaita's tenured faculty appointment at the school's American Indian studies program after he issued a series of Tweets condemning those who defended Israel's military actions against Palestinians in Gaza.
"If it's 'antisemitic' to deplore colonization, land theft, and child murder, then what choice does any person of conscience have?" was among the comments made last July.
Groups accusing the university of having a pro-Israel bias condemned the school board's dismissal of Salaita.
After its own internal investigation, at the annual meeting on Saturday, the American Association of University Professors elected to censure the institution on the grounds that the dismissal "violated Professor Salaita's academic freedom and cast a pall of uncertainty over the degree to which academic freedom is understood and respected at UIUC."
The group explains that such a censure "informs the academic community that the administration of an institution has not adhered to generally recognized principles of academic freedom and tenure. "
The AAUP currently has 56 institutions on its censure list.
In January, Salaita filed a lawsuit against the school, charging that it violated his First Amendment rights. According to the Associated Press, "The censure vote came one day after a judge ordered the university to turn over thousands of pages of documents sought by Salaita."
Following the decision, Salaita's attorneys issued a statement calling the censure "a serious blemish on the university's record."
The statement continued:
The association censured UIUC not only for its summary dismissal of Professor Salaita in violation of academic freedom, due process, and shared governance, but also for its continued refusal to rectify its actions. The university's stubbornness continues in spite of academic boycotts, department votes of no confidence in the UIUC administration, student walk-outs, tens of thousands of petition signatures, a federal lawsuit, and the AAUP's reprimand, suggesting that the UIUC administration is more beholden to donors than it is to due process, academic freedom, and the First Amendment."
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'Uncivil': Professor Sues University For Free Speech Rights
'There is neither a 'civility' exception nor a 'Palestine' exception to the First Amendment,' says attorney
Jan 29, 2015
Professor Steven Salaita, a Palestinian-American professor of Indigenous studies whose offer of a tenured position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was rescinded last year because of his tweets criticizing the Israeli government's bombing of Gaza, has filed a civil rights suit against the school and its top officials and donors, saying that his termination violated his First Amendment right to free speech and other constitutional rights, as well as basic principles of academic freedom.
"Like any American citizen, I have the right to express my opinion on pressing human rights concerns, including Israeli government actions, without fear of censorship or punishment," Salaita said in a statement. "The University's actions have cost me the pinnacle of academic achievement--a tenured professorship, with the opportunity to write and think freely. What makes this worse is that in my case the University abandoned fundamental principles of academic freedom and shared governance, crucial to fostering critical thought, that should be at the core of the university mission."
"Only donor pressure, or sheer pride, can explain the administration's stubborn refusal to revisit a decision that has done so much harm to Dr. Salaita and to constitutional and other principles that academics hold dear."
--Anand Swaminathan, Loevy & Loevy
Salaita, who is being represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights along with the Chicago civil rights law firm of Loevy & Loevy, filed the lawsuit Thursday in a U.S. federal court in Chicago.
The complaint (pdf) alleges that university officials, including the chancellor and university trustees, violated Salaita's constitutional rights to free speech and due process of law, and breached an employment contract with him. According to CCR, the suit is also against university donors who, based on emails made public, unlawfully threatened future donations to the university if it did not fire Salaita on account of his political views.
As Common Dreams reported in September, Salaita had been awarded the tenured position in fall 2013 and was scheduled to begin on August 16, 2014--just two weeks after Chancellor Phyllis Wise rescinded the offer. University documents released in response to a public-records request revealed that Wise had been pressured by numerous pro-Israel students, parents, alumni, and big-money donors to abort his appointment. These demands followed critical comments by Salaita regarding Israel's most recent attack on Gaza, during which thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of children, were killed.
The university's action, which Wise explained was taken because Salaita's speech lacked "civility," spurred protests from within the university as well as the academic community at-large. Sixteen academic departments of the university have voted no confidence in the university administration, and prominent academic organizations, including the American Association of University Professors, the Modern Language Association, and the Society of American Law Teachers have publicly condemned the university's actions.
"The use of 'civility' as cover for violating Professor Salaita's rights must be challenged, as it threatens the very notion of a University as a place for free inquiry and open debate," said Maria LaHood, a senior attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. "There is neither a 'civility' exception nor a 'Palestine' exception to the First Amendment."
According to CCR, the lawsuit seeks Salaita's reinstatement and monetary relief that includes compensation for the economic hardship and reputational damage he suffered as a result of the university's actions.
"Only donor pressure, or sheer pride, can explain the administration's stubborn refusal to revisit a decision that has done so much harm to Dr. Salaita and to constitutional and other principles that academics hold dear," said Anand Swaminathan of Loevy & Loevy. "The administration has something to hide, and through this lawsuit we intend to expose it."
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