I’m really happy about the boycott by academics of the University of Illinois over the Stephen Salaita business. I have no idea what it was that he tweeted and I’m supremely uninterested in finding out. But it is nothing short of shameful that a university should be in the business of tweet-policing.
The boycott is great, but it’s not clear that it’s going to do anything. Academic freedom at UIUC died on the altar of “civility” yesterday when the Chancellor and Board of Trustees finally made statements about the decision:
http://illinois.edu/blog/view/1109/115906?count=1
http://www.uillinois.edu/cms/one.aspx?portalId=1117531&pageId=1603474
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I wasn’t going to get invited to go to UIUC anyways so boycotting itself was easy. Organizing the history statement took a little bit more work.
http://jpohl.blogspot.com/2014/08/petition-for-steven-salaita.html
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