Is the Boycott of the University of Illinois Illiberal?
I’m hearing whispers that some liberal-ish academics think the boycott of UIUC is illiberal and censorious. So let me get this straight. Is the underlying idea that, as an academic, you’re obligated to accept every single speaking invitation you receive? (Let’s recall the terms of the boycott: simply that we will refuse to accept an invitation to speak, or otherwise participate in an event, at the UIUC, until Steven Salaita is reinstated.) Or is it that you’re allowed to say no if your reasons are strictly careerist—i.e., the institution is not high-prestige or the honorarium too low—but not if your reasons are moral principles? Or is it that you think careerism is not only a moral principle but the only acceptable moral principle that would justify a refusal of an invitation? Or is all this liberalism talk besides the point, and it’s just Israel Israel Israel?
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47 Comments
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Antonio
As always, very well said, Corey. Except that there’s a third alternative: supporting the boycott on the basis not of moral but political principles. It is too bad that most boycotts nowadays are framed in moral terms (some, retroactively so). One could have boycotted apartheid in South Africa, and boycotted the occupation of Palestine and the University of Illinois on political criteria, or on the basis of the political ethic binding one’s political commitments: say, equality, solidarity, accountability and shared power, freedom of expression, etc. That is, at any rate, why I support this particular boycott, not on the basis of moral principle.
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Calling for an academic boycott in this case is shooting squirrels with elephant guns. We should be careful about boycotts. It’s a business academics in particular should not be getting into except of course in the most egregious cases – and this isn’t it.
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I would say that a full frontal assault on academic freedom and on the Palestinian perspective would qualify as an egregious case.
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More like shooting elephants with squirrels, in terms of the actual effect and probability of success.
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The boycott of the University of Illinois is not an academic boycott, it’s a personal boycott. People are refusing to speak at the University of Illinois (a personal boycott), not refusing to invite U of I faculty or students to their institutions (which would be an academic boycott). Even Cary Nelson has endorsed personal boycotts. Personal boycotts are not illiberal, although they may be ineffective. Academic boycotts can be illiberal, but it largely depends on the consequences: if an academic boycott quickly leads to the end of a policy that seriously harms someone’s academic freedom and no other tactic would work, then the illiberal aspects of it may be a necessary evil. However, I think that academic boycotts rarely have any beneficial impact, and therefore I oppose them (and pretty much all boycotts, in fact).
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http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/157026
hope you saw this from HNN and critique it strongly ________________________________
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[academic boycotts are] a business academics in particular should not be getting into except of course in the most egregious cases – and this isn’t it.
Notwithstanding that, as JKW notes, this isn’t an academic boycott, if this isn’t an egregious case, what is?
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Maybe if Mengele opened up a medical school that would be sufficiently egregious. I suppose I don’t think Salaita should have been fired (or not hired) because I have pretty expansive views of freedom of expression. Still, he did say some things and represent himself in a few ways that make him impossible to imagine as a respected academic.
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Let the boycott stay in place as the terms make sense.
Some liberals always want to ignore the civil rights movement as these tactics work.
Who are these big donors that seem to hate Professor Steve Salaita?Peace,
George Munchus,PhD
Professor of Management
Faculty Affirmative Action Officer
COLLAT School of Business/Graduate School of Management
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Business-Engineering Complex
1150-10th Ave. South
Birmingham,Alabama 35294
(205) 934-8895 (phone)
munchus@uab.edu-
Okay, he has received tenure and published. I can say the same thing but I don’t know why I need to. I mean getting tenure someplace else doesn’t guarantee it later. Not even sure the relevance of this point except that you can find someone who likes him and would promote him. It’s easy enough to do in most cases. Still, I’m not coming after him with lanterns and torches to drive the monster away but he has some borderline behaviors that at least deserve conversation. He admits to being so one-sided and rejecting of anything else that I don’t how a student could study with them.
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My main critique of this on CHE and elsewhere was the part of the boycott you left out, the part where people are saying they will refuse to review tenure cases, write recommendation letters, serve on unit accreditation panels, etc., for anyone at UIUC.
My argument is that that is unethical and unprofessional to do this. If UIUC is to be punished, it should be punished through legitimate means, not by sabotaging the careers of innocent bystanders. I can’t accept that the potential harm done to a person in that scenario is acceptable “collateral damage” in some kind of war against an institution.
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That’s actually not part of virtually any of the boycott statements. The only one that conforms to your description is the English Department statement. About 300 scholars signed that statement; roughly 5000 scholars signed the other statements.
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Sorry, I should have cited Robert Warrior’s CHE commentary, where he wrote “At least a thousand add that they won’t write tenure letters or sign on to be external departmental reviewers” (http://chronicle.com/article/After-Illinois-s/148853).
Anyway, I’m not clear — are you in favor of that kind of boycott? Are those 300 and/or 1,000+ people right? Wrong?
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You list a variety of reasonable instances of why people decline requests to review. No one is arguing that someone who is already reviewing several junior faculty who are up for tenure should be forced to write yet another T&P letter. But if I’m otherwise perfectly willing and able to review that person in Native American studies or philosophy or English but decide not to using the boycott as the sole criteria for my decision, that seems unethical and petty.
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We’re right back where we started, Corey. You have a scholar in AIS (who supports Salaita, demonstrated for him, spent weeks organizing and protesting on behalf of academic freedom) who’s up for tenure next year and can’t get a letter from her external peers, not because they’re overloaded, but simply because they’re “seeking to apply and enforce a basic (and universal) principle of academic freedom”.
“Sorry, you gotta take one for the team this time. Hope you can find a job somewhere else.” How does that punish the U of I? How does that help Salaita get his job back? How does that help *anyone*?
If that’s acceptable collateral damage to you, then wow. I hope nobody who gets solicited for letters for my case thinks like you.
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Just for the record (then I’m gone): I think Salaita got screwed, and I hope he gets a big settlement and can get on with his life. Unfortunately it will come out of our taxes rather than our idiotic administrators’ ample salaries.
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Steven Salaita was respected enough to be awarded tenure at two academic institutions, one of which is a top-tier research university. His books have been published by respected academic presses. I’m afraid I don’t know you, so forgive the question that follows, but can you say the same thing for yourself?
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As opposed to the academics who explicitly support American expansionism and war — the murder of millions in our name — and who we somehow find in our hearts to give tenure and lifetime security to?
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I don’t have any problem with that kind of boycott. Everything I said in this post applies to that kind of boycott as well. People get asked all the time to evaluate tenure files, and they refuse, all the time, for a variety of reasons: they’re on sabbatical, there’s nothing in it for them if the candidate is a completely unknown scholar at fifth-tier institution (believe me, I’m more than familiar with this problem), they’re teaching too many courses, they’ve already committed to writing such letters for other candidates. Nobody has a problem with those reasons b/c they’re career-oriented reasons. But suddenly refuse to do it for a principle like academic freedom, and people start using language like “collateral damage.” Sorry, not buying it.
On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 3:14 PM, Corey Robin wrote:
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Wow, so you think that someone refusing to write a tenure letter because they’re too busy or tired or lazy — or on sabbatical — is a perfectly acceptable reason, but someone who refuses to do so because s/he is seeking to apply and enforce a basic (and universal) principle of academic freedom is “unethical and petty”? This is like a whole new definition of morality, PreTenured Radical! If you can successfully defend it, against something like two millennia of moral philosophy, you should become Tenured Radical pronto!
On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 4:18 PM, Corey Robin wrote:
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So much concern for the hypothetical untenured professor (who may very well support the boycott), and not a word for the man whose career has been ruined. Again, a novel conception of morality, though one well suited to the powers that be. I wouldn’t worry about your tenure case: you’ll actually go far.
On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 5:11 PM, Corey Robin wrote:
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The U of I as a state university is going to sued big time. I presume you guys have read the September 19, 2014 (page A4) issue of the Chronicle on the current Chancellor. Her leadership and management style remain in question. Once she is deposed under oath and tell’s the truth the world will then know why the current Board of Trustees are now so involved in such a routine matter as faculty hiring? Do all such offers get treated this way? I bet not. I wonder if race is factor in 2014 in the Steve Salaita case? As a large federal contractor the U of I needs to hope the OFCCP, DOL. and DOJ are not doing a routine audit .
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I’m going to light a candle for PretenuredRadical’s hypothetical up-for-tenure prof.
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The Boycott campaign is targeting the powerful at UIUC, not the weak as the case suggested by some in the discussion here. It is a stand against external interference and the chancellor and the BoT giving in to political lobbying against Prof. Salaita, and against the AIS department. It is part of putting a pressure on those powerful and let them know that their abuse of power won’t go unanswered. Those who are engaged in the boycott are not heartless as those who fired Prof. Salaita, and those who supported boycotting him, like Cary Nelson, who are so active in opposing the boycott of Israel.
It is their boycott that needs to be questioned, highlighted, and discussed. They are the ones who while talking about the boycott of Israel as not the right “answer” yet so active in silencing and boycotting those who disagree with them, firing some, and in some cases not allowing even one job offer in this country at any university for those who disagree with them like in my case.
Liberals are good at twisting the discussion, yet they are the ones who are most illiberal. The fact that the vote against Prof. Salaita had only on dissenter speaks volume about fascism. -
No, I think the specific question was whether you had been awarded tenure not in one institution, but two, with one of them being an upper-tier research university. And whether you had published with respected academic presses. And I take it, through all the blather of your armchair psychoanalysis and ill-informed speculation about Salaita’s teaching (there is actually an empirical record that contradicts your hallucinations here), that the answer is no. I thought as much but was just curious.
On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 6:47 PM, Corey Robin wrote:
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Don, you make an excellent point. I see lots of students who are very one-sided (maybe the State of Alabama is unique with the illiberals-ha aha) in class as will Salaita went he is reinstated at the U of I going forward. You may be surprised how the students may welcome some professor who has a passion for teaching the one -sided view of an issue.
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We really need a list of the current Board of Trustee members and when their terms expire and the process of how they are appointed or elected? Then follow the dots and the golf tee’s. I suspect this a much lot deeper that we suspect. Has anyone been following Regent Wallace Hall who sits on the Board of Regents for the University of Texas System . We was appointed by Governor Rick Perry of the Republic Of Texas. Some state republican House members tried (and failed) to impeach him this year. Follow the big donors at the UIUC. .
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The trustees are appointed by the governor, Dem. Pat Quinn, who has expressed support for firing Salaita. The Republican candidate, Bruce Rauner, has denounced Quinn for not defending the trustees loudly enough. http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2014-09-25/rauner-backs-ui-trustees-salaita.html
So don’t expect any changes anytime soon. But this does seem to be Phyllis Wise’s decision, which the Board simply agreed with.
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Each of us has some list of entities that we do not consent to interact with. That is an exercise of our indivudal autonomy and it is the only semantic of a boycott.
It doesn’t even mean that we never interact with those entities; only that, when we do, it is not by our consent.
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Corey:
So both the current Governor (a so-called Democrat) and the republican candidate have choosen to support the rogue Trustees appointed by the Governor.
Some amazing business and political interest at work thus far. Are the KOCH Brothers in play this time?
So political theory says Chancellor Wise made this decision based on what-input from herself?Peace,
George Munchus,PhD
Professor of Management
Faculty Affirmative Action Officer
COLLAT School of Business/Graduate School of Management
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Business-Engineering Complex
1150-10th Ave. South
Birmingham,Alabama 35294
(205) 934-8895 (phone)
munchus@uab.edu -
As a side note, a funny aspect of this boycott is that it affects essentially only the departments enthusiastically supporting Dr. Salaita (about a third of the college of liberal arts and sciences on U-C campus), while the rest have their speakers, workshops, conferences and tenure letters arriving as scheduled.
There are quite a few authoritarian regimes around who love to punish their populace for transgressions by third parties. Putin’s regime comes to mind, which responded to Western sanctions on some of his cronies with a ban on adoption of Russian orphans abroad.
I can understand how a depressed community would want to emulate an authoritarian leader, but why choose one of the most inept?-
This is an interesting way of presenting the boycott and the analogy as well is off the mark.
The boycott is not targeting individuals. It is a way to register a disapproval of the university administration’s decision to fire Prof. Salaita due to his off campus critical writing and tweeting about Israel, and the complacency between these administrators and Zionist lobbying to fire Salaita. It is a form of educating the public about that and the target of the boycott is to put pressure on these powerful officials.-
The Board of Trustees are involved. The Chancellor just served up Dr. Salaita based on a phone called from some Trustee I assume?
The truth will surface in the lawsuit.
These political appointed folks travel in packs.
I email Trustees all the time .
Some respond and insight into their role while other are like let me alone!!
Peace,George Munchus,PhD
Professor of Management
Faculty Affirmative Action Officer
COLLAT School of Business/Graduate School of Management
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Business-Engineering Complex
1150-10th Ave. South
Birmingham,Alabama 35294
(205) 934-8895 (phone)
munchus@uab.edu
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Once the litigation heats up and deposition starts the boycott will continue by those who know the process of getting Board members to speak the truth under oath.
Peace,
George Munchus,PhD
Professor of Management
Faculty Affirmative Action Officer
COLLAT School of Business/Graduate School of Management
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Business-Engineering Complex
1150-10th Ave. South
Birmingham,Alabama 35294
(205) 934-8895 (phone)
munchus@uab.edu
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I simply do not understand how refusing to support the very people who are supporting Salaita is a useful way of registering disapproval with the administration.
Wise and the administration took direct actions that harmed Salaita. They deserve punishment, and Salaita deserves redress.
Boycotters who withhold T&P letters do not punish Phyllis Wise at all. They do not harm Chris Kennedy or any other members of the administration. They do not help Steven Salaita in any way. They only *directly harm* early-career faculty who support Salaita.
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Actually those who support Prof. Salaita at UIUC are part of the campaign. Some of us from outside will not let them down as they are faculty members who took an ethical stand. So, there is no reason to keep pushing this point and making it central in the campaign.
The more faculty members at UIUC vote no confidence in Wise and the BoT the more the target of the campaign will be sharpened at those who need to be fired (Wise, and the BoT), and those who are part of the witch hunt at UIUC like Cary Nelson will be exposed further for what they are.These Zionist lobbyists from outside the academic institutions who are pushing for repression on campuses and aided by figures like Cary Nelson are working all around the country this year to silence, intimidate, and fire academics who are critical. On the other side we are fighting back: the more they work to interfere in the academy the more boycott resolutions and endorsements of boycott against Israel till this issue ends its exceptional status on campuses around the country and beyond.
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I’m not sure what you mean by “[s]ome of us from outside will not let [UIUC Salaita supporters] down”. Does that mean there really is no reviewer boycott? Or that there’s some kind of list of who’s naughty and nice? I guess if I have to ask whether I’m on the “nice” list it probably means I’m not.
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We do not have a blacklist (naughty/nice) as AMCHA and other Zionist groups have about academics in the field of Middle East regardless of these academics are “radical” or not.
I wonder how could a self declared radical ask all these questions? -
Well, pretty much the entire point of being a radical is asking questions rather than being silenced! The whole reason this scandal was uncovered is that we didn’t stop asking questions of the administration.
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Look at the ethnic composition of the Board of Trustees.
They say they are Democrats-we have them in Alabama as well.Peace,
George Munchus,PhD
Professor of Management
Faculty Affirmative Action Officer
COLLAT School of Business/Graduate School of Management
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Business-Engineering Complex
1150-10th Ave. South
Birmingham,Alabama 35294
(205) 934-8895 (phone)
munchus@uab.edu -
True. A lot of things will be uncovered in the lawsuit, and other efforts many are doing including some here
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Asking questions is very human. Radical questions are something that go further.
In this case, the real issues are: the firing of Prof. Salaita, the Department of AIS whose choice was rules without discussion and by people who have no knowledge of the field, the assumed “freedom of speech,” and lobbying of pro-Zionist individuals and groups to silence real radical questions and positions. -
Hello Magid Shiade:
So you are on the faculty at the UIUC?
The land of the good Abe Lincoln some will say.
WAs he a radical republican-see the movie? -
No I am not faculty member at UIUC. I am unemployable at universities in the U.S., but pretty much everywhere else I am!!
I am not sure if any of the “Founding Fathers” can be thought of as radical in any meaningful way. Would Abe Lincoln disapprove the firing of Prof. Salaita? What would he say about The Chancellor and the BoT? -
I do not think President Lincoln would approve of what UIUC has done, but then he realized the civil war was not a popular war in the south either, but slavery in America was racist as well. .
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“Look at the ethnic composition of the Board of Trustees”. Wow.