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Professor demands U of I job

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A professor who lost a job offer from the University of Illinois over dozens of sometimes-profane Twitter messages that critics deemed anti-Semitic demanded Tuesday that he be given the position and threatened to take legal action otherwise.

Attorneys for Steven Salaita said during a news conference at a YMCA on the Urbana-Champaign campus that they believe the university's board of trustees will make a decision on his hiring during a meeting scheduled Thursday. If he isn't given the job, they said they'll go to court to try to get an injunction to force the university to hire him.

"My Twitter messages were no doubt passionate and unfiltered," said Salaita, who was speaking publicly for the first time since he lost the job offer after he posted messages about Israeli military action in Gaza.

Salaita accepted an offer in October 2013 to become a Native American Studies professor and was due to start in August 2014 before being told that same month that the offer was rescinded.

"I had one foot in the door already," Salaita said, adding that he didn't regret posting the messages but regretted they'd led to "hurt feelings."

"I'd come to Champaign-Urbana twice already looking for housing, trying to get the move in order. ... My classes had already been assigned."

Neither board Chairman Christopher Kennedy nor Urbana-Champaign campus Chancellor Phyllis Wise, who wrote Salaita on Aug. 1 to tell him he didn't have a job, responded to requests for comment.

But Robin Kaler, a spokeswoman for Wise, said the chancellor would not change her mind and that the university "stands by the decision not to hire Professor Salaita."

"We remain devoted to fostering a campus-wide dialogue on the most uncomfortable issues that are vital to our very foundation and will continue to work closely with our students, faculty and staff to nurture an environment where all issues, including the most complicated ones, can be discussed," she said.

Trustees are scheduled to meet Thursday in Urbana. The meeting agenda doesn't reference Salaita but includes a closed-door executive session.

Salaita wrote dozens of anti-Israel Twitter messages in July and August. Some were profane while others drew charges of anti-Semitism and other concerns from university students, parents and donors who emailed Wise.

Trustees hadn't approved Salaita's hire, the final step before he would have been granted tenure, which likely would have protected his speech. Salaita's defenders say that since many professors begin work before trustees have the chance to approve their hires, Salaita was already effectively employed.

After she wrote to Salaita, Wise said her decision was based concerns about the "abusive" nature of his messages and the need for civility in the classroom.

On Tuesday, Salaita said he'd never "brow-beaten" a student for his or her views and that the tone and content of Twitter messages don't reflect the approach he takes in class.

"Twitter is a kind of medium in which argument is happening in real time amid a rush of reaction and perspectives," he said.

Salaita and his wife, Diana, and their young son are now living with his parents in the Washington, D.C., area, he said. He hasn't started looking for other jobs, though his wife said she has.

Salaita said he would still be comfortable working at the University of Illinois given he has some on-campus support, pointing to about 150 students and faculty who gathered at the news conference.

Earlier they chanted slogans such as "This is what democracy looks like," and "Phyllis - Wise up!" They held a rally in steady rain outside the university union.

Salaita's situation has led faculty in some university departments to approve votes of no confidence in Wise and has led academics from elsewhere to cancel several appearances at the university.

University of Illinois Chancellor Phyllis Wise Associated Press
Students tape their mouths shut in support for Steve Salaita, a professor who lost a job offer from the University of Illinois over dozens of profane Twitter messages that critics deemed anti-Semitic. Associated Press
Steve Salaita Associated Press
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