You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

U. of Illinois Settles with Professor Fired for Tweets about Gaza

HeadlineNov 13, 2015

University of Illinois has agreed to a $875,000 financial settlement with Professor Steven Salaita. Salaita’s job offer for a tenured position at the Urbana-Champaign campus was withdrawn last year after he posted tweets harshly critical of the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza. Salaita’s case caused a firestorm, with thousands of academics signing petitions calling for Salaita’s reinstatement and the American Association of University Professors calling the school’s actions “inimical to academic freedom and due process.” In August, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis Wise resigned after she was implicated in a scandal that involved attempting to hide emails detailing Salaita’s ouster. In a statement, Salaita said: “This settlement is a vindication for me, but more importantly, it is a victory for academic freedom and the First Amendment.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top