U of Illinois considers settlement with professor

CHAMPIAGN, Ill. (AP) - University of Illinois trustees are expected to consider a legal settlement with a professor who lost his job offer over a series profane anti-Israel Twitter messages.

University spokesman Tom Hardy confirmed trustees are expected to vote on a proposed settlement with Steven Salaita in his lawsuit against university trustees, former Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis Wise and others. Hardy declined to offer details and neither the university nor Salaita's attorneys responded to requests for comment.

Salaita was offered a job to teach at the university starting in August 2015.

But after his messages on Israeli military action against Palestinians that summer Wise withdrew the offer. Some university donors had complained about Salaita.

Salaita claimed he had already been hired as a tenured professor. That would mean his messages were protected speech.