The university also will pay $275,000 to Steven Salaita’s attorneys to end a 14-month dispute.
Advertisement
Salaita’s goal in his lawsuit was to be reinstated to the position the U of I had offered him in the American Indian Studies program.
“I think the university from the beginning recognized that we disrupted Dr. Salaita’s career and made it hard for his family, so we feel a few amount of compensation is reasonable and appropriate”, she said. Officially, Salaita hadn’t been hired yet, as his hiring had to be approved by the board of trustees, but Salaita argued this approval was ordinarily a formality and that the school had already been treating him as a full employee.
The decision to revoke the job offer from Salaita, who had quit his previous job, sold his house, and moved to IL, ignited another round of outrage among free-speech activists and those in academia who saw the encroachment of partisan politics into an academic appointment.
It was also revealed that wealthy university donors had threatened to withhold funding unless Professor Salaita was terminated. “Although the amount is significant, it is less than what we would spend if the case were to continue and proceed to trial over the next year”, Wilson said. The Center for Constitutional Rights co-authored a report this fall with the organization Palestine Legal on the widespread attempts to silence USA activists critical of Israel’s policies, called “The Palestine Exception to Free Speech”. This is an important victory, even if the bigger fight isn’t over.
A proposed settlement has been reached between the UI and Steven Salaita. Among them: “At this point, if Netanyahu appeared on TV with a necklace made from the teeth of Palestinian children, would anybody be surprised?” Then-Chancellor Phyllis Wise rescinded the offer after his tweets objecting to Israeli action against Palestinians.
“This settlement is a vindication for me, but more importantly, it is a victory for academic freedom and the First Amendment”, Salaita said in a Facebook statement Thursday.
Advertisement
“Make no mistake: the size of this settlement is an implicit admission of the strength of Professor Salaita’s constitutional and contractual claims”, Anand Swaminathan of Loevy & Loevy was quoted as saying in the press release Thursday.
