BREAKING SILENCE, SALAITA CALLS ON UNIV. OF ILLINOIS TO RESCIND HIS FIRING OVER GAZA TWEETS The administration’s actions have caused me and my family great hardship, says Univ. of Illinois scholar fired over Gaza tweets. Steven Salaita broke his silence today for the first time since administrators at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) fired him from a tenured position in the American Indian Studies program more than a month ago. He reaffirmed his commitment to teaching and called on the university to reinstate him. “I am here today at the University of Illinois to speak against my termination by the administration from a tenured faculty position because of the university administration’s objections to my speech that was critical of recent Israeli human rights violations,” Salaita said. Salaita spoke before a packed hall at the University YMCA in Urbana, Illinois following a student walk-out demanding his reinstatement. “The administration’s actions have caused me and my family great hardship,” Salaita added. “Even worse, the administration’s actions threaten principles of free speech, academic freedom and critical thought that should be the foundation of any university.” Due to university administrators’ arbitrary decision, “my family has no income, no health insurance and no home of our own. Our young son has been left without a preschool. I have lost the great achievement of a scholarly career – lifetime tenure, with its promised protections of academic freedom,” Salaita added. His full statement is available from the Center for Constitutional Rights. ccrjustice.org/files/Salaita%20Statement_Press%20Conf_09%2008%2014.pdf Constitutional violation “The university has violated the Constitution by terminating Professor Salaita’s appointment based on the content of his speech,” Maria LaHood, senior attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, told the gathering, according to a CCR press release. “It has also sent a chilling message to faculty and students everywhere that the First Amendment and basic principles of academic freedom will be ignored when it comes to speech that is controversial or critical of the Israeli government.” Salaita is represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Anand Swaminathan of Loevy & Loevy in Chicago. “Having watched this disaster unfold over the course of more than a month from up close, I am overjoyed that people now have the opportunity to hear the human and passionate voice of Steven Salaita, the scholar and man I have admired for many years,” Professor Robert Warrior, director of the university’s American Indian Studies program, according to CCR. Other speakers included Michael Rothberg, head of the English Department at UIUC, on behalf of the Modern Language Association and UIUC graduate students Eman Ghanayem and Rico Kleinstein Chenyek. The mobilizations and expressions of support for Salaita’s reinstatement are expected to continue in the run-up to a meeting of the University of Illinois board of trustees in Urbana this Thursday. For more information, the Center for Constitutional Rights provides background on the case and also refer to The Electronic Intifada’s ongoing coverage and commentary. electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/breaking-silence-salaita-calls-univ-illinois-rescind-his-firing-over-gaza-tweets
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 19:25:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015