James Barrett, an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Illinois and Urbana-Champaign, wrote a letter-to-the-editor of the local News-Gazette, “2 Faculty Members Have Weakened UI.” The two are Nick Burbules and Joyce Tolliver, both of whom were involved in the ‘off-server’ email conversations of ex-Chancellor Phyllis Wise.
Barrett writes:
administrators relied upon this ad hoc consultation with two random faculty members (our senate chair, it seems, was not consulted) in reaching decisions which have brought the university into disrepute. Their advice was not very good, but that’s not the main problem.
Administrators violated campus communications policy and ignored shared-governance structures, which Burbules and Tolliver have recommended to us in these pages and elsewhere.
Read the whole letter here.
[h/t Michael Berube]
Odd to focus on two relatively insignificant faculty members – surely no better than they should be – while the serious violations of academic freedom were committed by administrators (and trustees) of a neoliberal university at the behest of the Israel lobby.