The Chicago Tribune has updated the Steven Salaita whirlwind speaking tour in Chicago. Kindly see here. I noticed that a scheduled appearance at the University of Illinois at Chicago was canceled according to the paper. This is a link to another article in the Chicago Tribune that announces the tour and discusses the Salaita tenure travesty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Chicago Tribune reported that $17,000 has been raised as honoraria to assist the indigent Salaita who has been living with his family in his parents’ house. He had resigned his tenured position at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University when he was informed without concrete explanation in a letter from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise and Vice President for Academic Affairs Christophe Pierre on August 1, that he was fired. His signed and returned contract was not honoured by the Board of Trustees. It should be reiterated that Students for Justice in Palestine is one of the principal organizers of the tour along with the Gay Liberation Network.
This is from the Tribune:
Professor Steven Salaitia, denied a job by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign because of his controversial social media posts about Israel, will kick off a speaking tour in the Chicago area this week.
Monday: Northwestern University, Evanston, 5 p.m., Harris Hall, Room 107.
Tuesday: University of Chicago, 5:30 p.m., International House, 1414 E. 59th St.
Wednesday: Columbia College, 7 p.m., 600 S. Michigan Ave., Ferguson Lecture Hall, Room 101.
Thursday: DePaul University, 4 p.m., 1036 W. Belden Ave., O’Connell Hall, Room 360.
Why are you promoting the speaking tour of Steven Salaita, a radical-left bigoted hatemonger who writes for ‘intifada’ websites and spews unhinged antisemitism?
(Intifada was when Palestinian terrorists were strapping bombs to themselves, running at Jews and trying to blow everyone up.)
What’s “progressive” about gay-hating Islamic fundamentalists, or blowing up Christians and Jews, bigotry, Sharia law, etc exactly?
Have you read Salaita’s tweets… ALL of them? Aren’t you making unwarranted assumptions?
If you are interested, there are plenty of posts on the Salaita situation here that can explain what is really going on. Ultimately, you might discover that Salaita’s beliefs are not even the question. The underpinning of our university system, academic freedom, is.
Useful perspective about Steven Salaita from an Illinois professor:
http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/157026