University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

New Faculty Union at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Nearly five hundred non-tenure-track-faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were successful last spring in forming a union, which was certified by the state labor relations board in July. The local union, the Campus Faculty Association, is affiliated with the AAUP and the American Federation of Teachers.

Faculty in the new union are a diverse group of lecturers, instructors, and clinical, visiting, teaching, and research faculty whose work is vital to the teaching and research missions of the university.

Academic Freedom and Tenure: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This report finds that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) administration and the board of trustees of the University of Illinois violated principles of academic freedom when they withdrew a tenured faculty appointment that had been offered to Professor Steven Salaita. The job offer was withdrawn after Professor Salaita made a series of impassioned Twitter posts expressing outrage about the war in Gaza.

The Changing Media and Academic Freedom

The media have been both enemies and allies of faculty in the fight for academic freedom during the past century.

Steven Salaita, the Media, and the Struggle for Academic Freedom

On August 6, 2014, as I was preparing to check news accounts about the solemn, annual remembrance of the Hiroshima bombing, I came across a “breaking” story from Inside Higher Ed: the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had dismissed Steven G. Salaita, a newly appointed tenured associate professor in the American Indian Studies Program, for his postings on Twitter.

Everything Old Is New Again: Bertrand Russell and Steven Salaita

The decision by trustees of the University of Illinois to revoke a tenured position offered to Steven Salaita evokes another, long-ago controversy. In 1940, a New York court revoked the appointment of Bertrand Russell to a faculty position at the College of the City of New York, in part because of Russell’s allegedly “immoral” writings. It is difficult, if not impossible, to simultaneously deplore Russell’s firing and support Salaita’s.

Response to Cary Nelson

In a response to an essay in this issue of the Journal of Academic Freedom by Cary Nelson about the appointment of Steven Salaita at the University of Illinois, the author seeks to set the record straight and suggests that Nelson is grinding a political ax.

Developments Relating to Association Censure

Acting on behalf of Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, members of the Association’s staff communicate biannually with each administration under censure. The staff offers its assistance and that of Committee A in taking the steps necessary to enable the committee to recommend to the annual meeting that censure be removed.

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