U of Illinois trustees won't hire professor
URBANA - University of Illinois trustees on Thursday decided not to hire a professor who previously lost a job offer at the school because of anti-Israel Twitter messages.
Steven Salaita has threatened legal action if he doesn't get the job. His attorneys have said if he isn't hired, they'll go to court to try to get an injunction to force the university to hire him.
His supporters in the audience at Thursday's board of trustees meeting shouted "shame on you," after the 8-1 vote.
Salaita was offered and accepted a job in October 2013 to begin teaching this fall in the university's Native American Studies Program after working at Virginia Tech University. But after he wrote dozens of the sometimes-profane and, according to his critics, anti-Semitic tweets in July and August, Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis Wise informed him he wouldn't have a job.
Salaita's hire hadn't been approved yet by the Board of Trustees. That was the final step in granting him tenure. His defenders say that the approval was a formality since professors regularly start work before the board OKs their appointments. They believe he was already effectively employed and his speech protected by tenure.
Salaita had said he would still be comfortable working at the University of Illinois given he has some on-campus support.
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.