A UI Trustee Breaks Ranks! We Have an Opening!
In another bombshell, UI trustee James D. Montgomery tells Ali Abunimah, well, I’ll just quote from Ali’s piece:
A trustee of the University of Illinois has added to public criticism over the decision to fire Palestinian American professor and Israel critic Steven Salaita.
“I think it would have been far better had it been dealt with differently and had it been done with more consultation with faculty,” James D. Montgomery told The Electronic Intifada today.
He also acknowledged the “adverse” impact that a growing boycott was having on the university’s ability to function.
Montgomery, a prominent Chicago attorney, echoed the regrets expressed by Chancellor Phyllis Wise over her own role in the affair.
Montgomery was careful, however, to say that he was undecided about the merits of the case, but he sounded far less certain and more circumspect than a public statement he signed last month along with other trustees forcefully backing Wise’s decision.
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Montgomery laid out some of the issues that the board would be faced with at its upcoming 11 September meeting.
“Obviously there’s a lot of uproar on both sides of the issue from the perspective of students and alums who are offended by the manner in which Salaita spoke,” Montgomery said.
“And there are folks who are claiming that is a violation of the right to academic freedom. It’s a difficult decision in terms of what is right and what is wrong,” he continued.
“I know we’re going into executive session and obviously there are people who are seeking to pressure the university to reverse its decision. It’s coming from very significant places. It’s had an adverse impact because people are declining to participate in university activities and there have been a number of events canceled.”
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“How it will turn out is anybody’s guess and I would not hazard one at this point,” Montgomery now says, adding he personally has not made up his mind about the issues the board would have to decide.
Here’s the take home:
First, and most important, this is not a done deal. Montgomery very clearly says that he has no idea how or what the Trustees will decide, and how he will vote. So keep up the pressure (more below).
Second, a member of the BoT has now admitted that the faculty should have been involved in this decision.
Third, that a trustee would be willing to go on the record like this, again, it shows a university that is not in control of itself.
Fourth, as Bonnie Honig pointed out to me, the UI Board of Trustees is very small. There are twelve members, and two of them (students) can’t vote. That means at least one out of ten of the trustees is undecided. Believe it or not, that’s huge.
Fifth, when we went through a similar battle over BDS at Brooklyn College, this is how it happened. One cracked, and then they all fell down. No predictions, no guarantees. But this could be the beginning of the end.
Sixth, and again most important, email the Board of Trustees. We have an opening, so let’s take it. Be polite, be firm, reach out to them as people. All of you have gotten us to this point. Now take us all the way there.
Again here are the emails:
Christopher G. Kennedy, Chair, University of Illinois Board of Trustees: chris@northbankandwells.com
Robert A. Easter, President: reaster@uillinois.edu
Hannah Cave, Trustee: hcave2@illinois.edu
Ricardo Estrada, Trustee: estradar@metrofamily.org
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, Trustee: patrick.fitzgerald@skadden.com
Lucas N. Frye, Trustee: lnfrye2@illinois.edu
Karen Hasara, Trustee: hasgot28@aol.com
Patricia Brown Holmes, Trustee: pholmes@schiffhardin.com
Timothy N. Koritz, Trustee: timothy.koritz@gmail.com or tkoritz@gmail.com
Danielle M. Leibowitz, Trustee: dleibo2@uic.edu
Edward L. McMillan, Trustee: mcmillaned@sbcglobal.net or mcmillaned@msn.com
James D. Montgomery, Trustee: james@jdmlaw.com
Pamela B. Strobel, Trustee: pbstrobel@comcast.net
Thomas R. Bearrows, University Counsel: bearrows@uillinois.edu
Susan M. Kies, Secretary of the Board of Trustees and the University: kies@uillinois.edu
Lester H. McKeever, Jr., Treasurer, Board of Trustees: lmckeever@wpmck.com
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34 Comments
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Patrick J. Fitzgerald, Trustee: …
Is that Patrick Fitzgerald of prosecuting Scooter Libby fame?
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jonnybutter
Yes.
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Evidently one of the e-mails I sent yesterday has had an effect.
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fwiw here’s my letter just sent:
Ralph Johansen
Attorney at Law (inactive)
130 Lakeside Loop
Crescent City, CA 95531
707-465-3570
September 5, 2014Christopher G. Kennedy, Chair,
University of Illinois Board of TrusteesDear Mr. Kennedy.
I feel much regret for the pickle you find yourselves in as a Board, and for all the implications for academic freedom and for the reputation, most likely to be permanently affected, of this university. The only saving solution. obviously, is to bite the bullet and rehire Steven Salaita.
Yours truly,
Ralph Johansen
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I like it, especially “bite the bullet”, which is something we all have to do sometimes.
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Here’s what I emailed to your list…..in case it makes a useful template.
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FYI: Thomas Bearrows, whose email you have above is upset about all the email he is getting. He says he’s not a member of the B of T and please stop. Sounds like a lot of people are writing.
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Where did he say that?
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The first of the Koritz email addresses bounced my letter back to me; will try the second and hope it goes through. Thanks for sticking to this Corey. It’s worth the fight.
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The second address — tkoritz@gmail.com — seems to have worked.
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Please make sure to include this article in your emails:
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/183813/steven-salaita-academic-work
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And this one:
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Hard to take Liel Liebowitz seriously given his last hatchet job on Salaita. Seriously, this is freaking embarrassing.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/09/strategic-misuses-academic-freedom.
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Sadly, no he’s not kidding.
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Let’s see shall we?
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Donald,
No, I’m just mystified why an obviously negative review from Tablet would prompt you to buy a book. Why, for example, didn’t my critique of the book from the other day do the same for you? What is it about Tablet’s reading, specifically (since that’s what you specify), that makes you want to run out and buy his book?
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Donald, would you be kind enough to point out what makes Tablet a “right wing news/propaganda” site?
Thanks.
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Your examples didn’t represent a right wing slant. Maybe Lee Smith if you push it. Perhaps what you consider right wing is what most of us consider Clinton left? That would place your political views on the spectrum somewhere in the vicinity of Soviet Russia. But since in the end you recognize the quality of the publication, we can just skip the discussion and revert back to the original link I provided. It may not be aligned with your politics, but it is actually a well reasoned and well presented argument. You should consider its merits.
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One may suspect that the trustees have read them or have them in emails as links in order to get UIUC to hold firm in firing Salaita. But due to Tablet’s reading of “Israel’s Dead Soul”, I may have been convinced to shell out for my own copy. I will take that citation as a positive review and an enthusiastic recommendation, and promising a quite enlightening read. Right up there with Max Blumenthal’s “Goliath: Life And Loathing In Greater Israel”.
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I’m drafting my email now (which will be sent to each Trustee individually). Just trying to keep it to the point.
I’m feeling VERY hopeful.
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The reason Mr. Montgomery is having trouble telling right from wrong boils down to his phrase “pressure the university to reverse its decision.” The decision of the university was to hire. The decision of the Chancellor was to reverse that decision, under pressure. Trustees and head administrators who see themselves as “the university” and the faculty as something else are the entire problem.
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Very sharp eye there, Ben Chappell. Good close reading of the passage. And very revealing as regards the nature of subjective institutional identification where power distribution runs into conflict with stated institutional goals and interests — or discloses them.
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Is it that Tablet is a Jewish magazine that makes you want to buy a book after Tablet publishes a negative review?
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You’re kidding, right?
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I just thought I’d mention this. I was promted to read Rick Pearlstein’s “Nixonland” because George F. Will gave a scathingly negative review of it in the New York Times. It was after I had read that book that I suspected that Mr. Will has probably never the read it — or at best, did not finish it. I have read it two more times since. I think it would make a great PBS miniseries documentary.
Have you never been prompted to read something that someone else publicly rejected?
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“I feel much regret for the pickle you find yourselves in”
Now this made me giggle. Pickle is something of a massive understatement.
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I fear you may be right. Can the epithet “anti-Semite!” be far behind?
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Because you are just a commenter on blog post, like me. You are not someone who reviews books — and I will read books reviewed on right wing news/propaganda sites, like the New York Times or Tablet or the National Review.
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This: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/183033/israel-insider-guide
And this: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/179742/kristof-reasonable-middle-east
And this: http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/183949/sunday-the-rabbi-skipped-the-new-york-times-part-ii (a follow up to the piece that promted it, already linked therein)
And this: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/182878/zionism-for-refugees?all=1 (what, no love for Palestinian refugees?
And now Judith Miller writes there (as movie and theatre critic)
But Tablet does have J. Hoberman! (Yay!!!) and I will give them that, plus this (which is also good — maybe YOU should read it): http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/164153/short-history-of-academic-freedom
I will also say, the more I see there the more I find to be thoughtful stuff in good measure.
But it is still right-wing!
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This guy will be the next one to get fired, just watch.
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Just a reminder of the structural forces aligned against his appointment:
Chairman of the Board of Trustees Christopher Kennedy:
Our intention isn’t to hurt him financially. We don’t like to see that. We are not trying to hurt the guy. We just don’t want him at the university.
Did you catch that. Without any formal finding of fact. On behalf of whom does JFK’s nephew speak? The faculty? The students? They didn’t consult any of them. The “Donor Class,” the Champaign Country Club? The Nomenklatura? Like, I missed the part where there was some due process to determine that Dr. Salaita’s communication’s rendered him so dirty, that this XXXX in a suit, is justified and authorized to say: “we don’t want him here.”
I’ve never heard of trustees vetoing a faculty appointment. We’re talking less than $80k/year.
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I’m curious about journalists’ use of the term “Israel critic.” When people object to the invasion of Iraq and other actions and policies of the U.S., it would be inconceivable for a journalist to refer to them as “America critics.” The apparent purpose of “Israel critic” is to bolster the idea that any criticism of Israeli policies or actions is a criticism of the nation’s very existence.
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More likely, it’s just that many more Americans recognize the name “Israel” than recognize the name “Likud” or “Netanyahu”
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We now also have this article about Salaita’s “scholarship,” which includes at the end a section from the article I had found in looking over the 430 emails released by the university as part of Salaita’s application for the position at UI. It’s highlighted in blue. But read the entire article first.
Read it and weep, not only because this man actually got tenure, not only because he was actually published by university presses, not only because he was hired by a new university, not only because he’s a key member of the BDS movement (completely unsurprisingly, by the way, since those of us who oppose this movement keep trying to tell you all what it’s about), but especially because so many of you are defending him.