Neologisms from the "Blizzard of 2015"

Bombogenesis: a scientific term that the Weather Channel has popularized because it combines suggestions of the destructive power of heavy ordinance and associations with the Biblical story of the origins of life—that is, it suggests re-creation out of the maelstrom. Here is the explanation from the Weather Channel’s website: “Bombogenesis. The word sounds ominous, but…

The Gates Foundation Profiles American College Students

The following infographic was produced by designer Eleanor Lutz and journalist Linda Kennedy for the Gates Foundation. It has been publicized under the lead “If There Were Only 100 College Students in America,” but it basically presents percentages rounded to the closest integer. The sources of the statistics in each category are indicated on the…

The Troubling Case of Professor Stephen Cohen and the American Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Recently considerable attention has been paid on this blog and elsewhere to potential threats to academic freedom posed by the undue influence of outside donors on scholarship.  One thinks immediately, of course, of efforts by the Koch brothers at Florida State and elsewhere to fund academic positions that reflect their personal ideology and of the…

University of Illinois Responds to Salaita Lawsuit

In response to Steven Salaita’s lawsuit yesterday, the University of Illinois administration issued a statement (copied in full below). Many claims in the U of I statement are incorrect, and others seem to confess to precisely the punishment of political speech that Salaita’s lawsuit is based upon. The U of I statement claims that Salaita’s tweets…

Salaita Legal Team Stands Tall as They Fight for Justice in US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

I would like to add a few items to John Wilson’s fine summary of the law suit filed in US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on behalf of Steven Salaita. The Center for Constitutional Law and the Chicago civil rights law firm Loevy and Loevy have been providing legal counsel to Professor Salaita. The…

Steven Salaita Files Lawsuit Against the University of Illinois for Dismissal

Steven Salaita filed a lawsuit today in a federal district court against the University of Illinois trustees and top administrators, seeking reinstatement and damages because of his dismissal. The lawsuit makes many counts against the University of Illinois, including federal violations of the First Amendment (“firing him for his political speech”), procedural due process (“summarily stripping…

New Development in Salaita Case is at Hand

The Center for Constitutional Rights has been providing legal counsel to Professor Steven Salaita who returned a signed contract to teach in the American Indian Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Tomorrow this intrepid organization is announcing a press call to inform the public of a “new development” in the Salaita summary dismissal case. I presume…