The University of Illinois’s Board of Trustees voted on Thursday to deny the appointment of Steven G. Salaita to a professorship on the Urbana-Champaign campus, in the latest chapter of a month-old saga that has inflamed academe.
That Mr. Salaita’s appointment appeared on the list of proposed faculty hires to be voted on by the board came as a surprise. The campus’s chancellor, Phyllis M. Wise, who has been the subject of several no-confidence votes at the college, maintained in recent weeks that she would not send the appointment to the board. Trustees have expressed support for her leadership.
The university last year offered Mr. Salaita a tenured professorship in its American Indian studies program. But Ms. Wise told him last month that his appointment would not be submitted to the board after Mr. Salaita drew criticism for strongly worded tweets critical of Israel.
Mr. Salaita broke his public silence on Tuesday, saying in a speech at the University YMCA that he still wanted to teach at the university. If he was not hired, his lawyer said, he would consider taking legal action.
