University censured over Salaita job withdrawal

Associated Press 19 June 2015

A leading academic group voted on 13 June to censure the University of Illinois’ flagship campus over its decision not to hire a professor following his anti-Israel Twitter messages, a vote the university’s chancellor said would have repercussions, reports Associated Press.

In a voice vote, the membership of the American Association of University Professors affirmed the censure at the group’s annual meeting in Washington, DC. The decision came in reaction to the university rescinding Steven Salaita’s job offer following his posts on Twitter concerning Israel and the West Bank. The vote hinged on the principle of academic freedom, said Anita Levy, an association staff member involved with the group’s investigation of the matter.

An AAUP censure is a relatively rare condemnation that can damage a university’s reputation in the academic world. The university rescinded Salaita’s job offer after some donors complained his tweets were anti-Semitic. He has since sued the school. The censure vote came one day after a judge ordered the university to turn over thousands of pages of documents sought by Salaita.
Full report on the Guardian site

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