Open Letter Addressed to Chancellor Phyllis Wise

By Ariell Carter-Cameron on September 2, 2014

Photos courtesy of Google images and illinois.edu

An open letter has been addressed to University of Illinois’ Chancellor Phyllis Wise on the subject of reinstatement for Professor Steven Salaita.

Steven Salaita was hired by the University of Illinois back in October to come on staff as an American Indian Studies professor. Salaita was to begin earlier in August after leaving his position at Virginia Tech.

After being brought on by the university and during the midst of the turmoil occurring in Gaza, Salaita made the following posts to Twitter in early August, among many others.

 

(Photos Via: Twitter)

Salaita was quite adamant on social media about his stance on Israel and Palestine, but the university, and many others, deemed some of his tweets questionable. Shortly after, Salaita’s hire was reconsidered and he was later terminated as being “not the right fit for the campus.”

After his termination, many took to social media to express their discontent with the University’s decision. Outcries ranged from tweeting under the hashtag “#reinstatesalaita,” to starting a change.org petition to get the professor reinstated.

Another plea with the University has been an open letter written by Dr. Rima Najjar, the organizer of the change.org petition, addressed to Chancellor Phyllis Wise. The letter leads by appealing to the emotions by stating how Salaita uprooted his family to move from Virginia to Chicago, only to lose his position. The letter then quickly gets into more serious accusations by stating UIUC has made an “unconstitutional revocation of employment” and that it violated the American Association of University Professors “academic freedom” by terminating someone solely on their opinions expressed via a social networking site.

According to a release from the university, Salaita’s opinions do not seem to be the cause of unhire. The release states trustees and other officials support Salaita’s termination due to the university’s lack of toleration for “disrespectful and demeaning speech that promotes malice.” The explanation for this being the use of profanity and aggressive language in some of Salaita’s tweets.

To that reasoning, Dr. Najjar responds that the university has earned itself 16,500 petitioners, though now 17,004 have signed Dr. Najjar’s petition. Also according to the doctor, U of I has gained “the voices of more than 3,000 scholars from around the world who are now boycotting the University of Illinois.”

Dr. Najjar also closes the letter urging Chancellor Wise to stand with everyone who believes Salaita should be reinstated and follows it with the threat that “the fight is far from over” if the chancellor refuses to reconsider.

As of yet,  neither Chancellor Wise nor any university officials have responded to the letter.

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