A week after the University of Illinois' Board of Trustees voted to not hire Steven Salaita, the professor's supporters are still hopeful he'll prevail over the school in a legal battle. That includes Columbia Law Professor Katherine Franke, who traveled to Urbana at her own expense Thursday, boycotting an invitation from the University--to lead a discussion on academic freedom.
Salaita had been hired as a tenured professor at the University, but the offer was rescinded after he made inflammatory comments about Israel on Twitter this summer. Franke says that's a clear violation of academic freedom, a universally accepted protection for university professors.
"The academy and the academic mission is really devoted to interrogating any idea, no matter how controversial, no matter how frightening, and no matter how well settled it already might be."
Franke says Salaita's comments have been painted as anti-Semitic, but insists they were only critical of Israel as a state. She says Salaita has a case against the University under the First Amendment, and contract law.
