Steven G. Salaita
Steven G. Salaita had hoped to become a tenured professor at the University of Illinois. Instead he became a symbol in one of academe’s most heated debates, over the acceptable limits of speech attacking Israel.
He entered the fray at a time when the stakes had escalated for both sides. Mr. Salaita joined a growing list of college instructors whose statements on social media have spawned backlashes that threaten their careers. Meanwhile the boycott, divestment, and sanction movement directed at Israel had been taking hold on American campuses and within scholarly associations.
Mr. Salaita, 39, already had a pugilistic reputation. Last year conservatives besieged his previous employer, Virginia Tech, after he wrote an article for Salon in which he took issue with patriotic slogans like “Support our troops.” That controversy, however, began with him already on his way out Virginia Tech’s door, having been offered a job in American Indian studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He made plans to begin the new job in August, just before the expected rubber-stamp approval by the Board of Trustees.
In late July, however, The Daily Caller published an article that labeled Mr. Salaita “a world-class Israel hater” and drew attention to the vitriolic, profanity-laced tweets he had posted in response to Israel’s recent military actions in Gaza. Other news media followed suit. Angry supporters of Israel barraged Illinois with protests of its decision to hire someone they regarded as an anti-Semite and a threat to Jewish students. Several past donors threatened to withhold future contributions.
The university slammed shut the door it had opened for him. Phyllis M. Wise, the chancellor, refused to forward his appointment to the board, arguing that its approval was unlikely.
Her decision provoked a new wave of protests—this time on Mr. Salaita’s behalf. Scholarly associations accused her of violating his academic freedom and rights of due process. Several academic departments at Illinois declared no confidence in the university’s top officials. The Urbana-Champaign campus itself became the target of a boycott: More than 5,000 scholars pledged to stay away. Some academic-department heads there complained that the university’s treatment of Mr. Salaita had scared off prospective faculty hires.
The university’s assertions that Mr. Salaita had been disqualified by his lack of civility only made scholars there and at other institutions wary that appeals to that virtue merely cloaked efforts to stifle speech.
The university’s board ended up considering his appointment and overwhelmingly voting against it. He is mounting a legal challenge to that decision and, in the meantime, has gone on a speaking tour. He received a standing ovation last month at the annual conference of the Middle East Studies Association.
—Peter Schmidt
