Last week, University of Illinois professor emeritus Cary Nelson was getting ready to travel to Washington for the annual meeting of the American Association of University Professors, where he expected to be a minority voice in support of the university’s decision to retract a job offer to professor Steven Salaita.
According to Salaita’s contract, his appointment was contingent on approval by the university board of trustees. There wasn’t any specified date for that, and as it turned out, the board didn’t get around to voting on it until September 11, 2014—nearly a month after he was slated to report to campus. In the interim, Salaita had given up his tenured job at Virginia Tech, been welcomed to his new department, and put on the class schedule for the fall term.
And then there’s the most egregious part of the whole scenario: the possible influence of a few donors threatening to withdraw financial support of the university if Salaita were hired. Wise has denied that this was a factor, but the timing of events—she told Salaita the job offer was retracted on the same day she apparently met with one of those donors—and the content of e-mails released so far has raised the question. It’s reasonable for the administration to keep an open ear to student and alumni opinion, but it would be outrageous for a public university to kowtow to donors on hiring decisions.
