CHE: My Life as A Cautionary Tale (Salaita)

[ex_mo]

https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/08282019-salaita-academic-freedom?cid=wsinglestory_hp_1

No amount of money, no legal recognition that I was wronged, will replace the loss of my academic career, to which I devoted the majority of my life. Academic freedom can't make any university hire me, no matter how strong my CV. Everybody involved in the imbroglio at Illinois got to pick up the pieces of their vocation and move on to different pastures. I didn't. The fallout for me was permanent. They can put the ugly situation behind them. It's always right in front of me. I think about these things when I'm inspecting my school bus in the dark of a 20-degree morning.

It's important, then, to avoid treating academic freedom as sacrosanct and view it instead as a participant in material politics. Academic freedom cannot function without tenure, worker solidarity, and an adequate job market, which are all in decline. "Can academic freedom be saved?" is a less pertinent question than, "Is there any longer a marketplace for academic freedom?" The corporate university is disarming academic freedom by diminishing the circumstances in which it can be effective.

[ciao_yall]

Puh-leeze.

[nescafe]

I can't read the article because it's behind a paywall (the irony). But the quoted section is right on. There have been several cases like Salaita's in my field the past few years; how well the academic's right to work while also making extramural political speech is protected by their university directly correlates to whether they have tenure protections.

[tuxthepenguin]

"You may be too refined to say it, but I'm not: I wish all the fucking West Bank settlers would go missing."

While I support academic freedom, the concept of "academic freedom" didn't come into existence to protect faculty members from the consequences of political statements unrelated to one's expertise. What does the world lose if academics aren't able to make statements like that? Nothing. I don't need my academic freedom put in jeopardy by idiots lacking judgement.

[ciao_yall]

The only thing that gives me a scrap of sympathy to the academic freedom argument is that the complaints were made by donors, not other scholars in other disciplines.

Academic freedom is not freedom to behave like a complete tool.

[mahagonny]

If the scholar had a second job as a standup comedian, it would be understood that pushing the envelope is part of his job. Just noticing.

[polly_mer]

A non-paywalled (at least for now) link to the CHE article itself. 

For those who don't know, CHE often posts on Twitter non-paywalled links to articles they are promoting.

[polly_mer]

To contribute to the discussion, Salita's article states

"Professional associations talk a lot about this crisis or that emergency but do little to organize their members."

For those who didn't read the recent CHE article on exactly this topic, by law, the professional organizations that hold specific IRS status cannot organize membership the way a union would.  See https://www.chronicle.com/article/Scholarly-Associations-Can-t/246218 for details.

[ergative]

If the scholar had a second job as a standup comedian, it would be understood that pushing the envelope is part of his job. Just noticing.

Well, yes. They are different jobs, with different expectations. But there's nothing wrong with confronting or firing an employee whose performance of his second job is interfering with his ability to carry out his first job.

[Hibush]

"You may be too refined to say it, but I'm not: I wish all the fucking West Bank settlers would go missing."

While I support academic freedom, the concept of "academic freedom" didn't come into existence to protect faculty members from the consequences of political statements unrelated to one's expertise. What does the world lose if academics aren't able to make statements like that? Nothing. I don't need my academic freedom put in jeopardy by idiots lacking judgement.

I agree that Salaita lacks judgement appropriate to the situation. But his commentary was very much in his area of scholarship. That makes it an important case to examine.

The strongest part of Salaita's CHE article is where he examines how the criteria for speech protected under academic freedom shifts depending on who is complaining and who is being complained about. How clear are the rules and how fair is the process for adjudicating at your school?

The article also contains a lot of lashing out and a suggestion that containing him with any rules is unreasonable. I was not particularly sympathetic to those parts.

[nescafe]

If the scholar had a second job as a standup comedian, it would be understood that pushing the envelope is part of his job. Just noticing.

Well, yes. They are different jobs, with different expectations. But there's nothing wrong with confronting or firing an employee whose performance of his second job is interfering with his ability to carry out his first job.

Perhaps I missed this part, but what part of Salaita's twitter criticisms of Israel interfered with his ability to carry out his first job? I mean other than that they angered donors?

[ciao_yall]

If the scholar had a second job as a standup comedian, it would be understood that pushing the envelope is part of his job. Just noticing.

Well, yes. They are different jobs, with different expectations. But there's nothing wrong with confronting or firing an employee whose performance of his second job is interfering with his ability to carry out his first job.

Perhaps I missed this part, but what part of Salaita's twitter criticisms of Israel interfered with his ability to carry out his first job? I mean other than that they angered donors?

I'm Jewish and not even particularly pro-Israel and found his statements absolutely anti-Semitic. I would not trust him, as a person who would make such disgusting statements, to be a collegial faculty member or a fair grader for students, tolerant of different points of view.

[mahagonny]

If the scholar had a second job as a standup comedian, it would be understood that pushing the envelope is part of his job. Just noticing.

Well, yes. They are different jobs, with different expectations. But there's nothing wrong with confronting or firing an employee whose performance of his second job is interfering with his ability to carry out his first job.

Perhaps I missed this part, but what part of Salaita's twitter criticisms of Israel interfered with his ability to carry out his first job? I mean other than that they angered donors?

I'm Jewish and not even particularly pro-Israel and found his statements absolutely anti-Semitic. I would not trust him, as a person who would make such disgusting statements, to be a collegial faculty member or a fair grader for students, tolerant of different points of view.

I can see why you wouldn't. When conflict is going on people are going to take sides. Especially if their ancestors come from somewhere around that region.

I think his story is about how the internet comes into your home and prods you, then tempts you to get into the fray, sound off. So much news available, so much commentary. So easy to reach so many instantly with your tweeting. Approaching getting into your thoughts and broadcasting them. They didn't live in this world when they formulated tenure.

"By that point I no longer thought about the tweets. I couldn't recall my state of mind when I wrote them."

[ciao_yall]

If the scholar had a second job as a standup comedian, it would be understood that pushing the envelope is part of his job. Just noticing.

Well, yes. They are different jobs, with different expectations. But there's nothing wrong with confronting or firing an employee whose performance of his second job is interfering with his ability to carry out his first job.

Perhaps I missed this part, but what part of Salaita's twitter criticisms of Israel interfered with his ability to carry out his first job? I mean other than that they angered donors?

I'm Jewish and not even particularly pro-Israel and found his statements absolutely anti-Semitic. I would not trust him, as a person who would make such disgusting statements, to be a collegial faculty member or a fair grader for students, tolerant of different points of view.

I can see why you wouldn't. When conflict is going on people are going to take sides. Especially if their ancestors come from somewhere around that region.

I think his story is about how the internet comes into your home and prods you, then tempts you to get into the fray, sound off. So much news available, so much commentary. So easy to reach so many instantly with your tweeting. Approaching getting into your thoughts and broadcasting them. They didn't live in this world when they formulated tenure.

"By that point I no longer thought about the tweets. I couldn't recall my state of mind when I wrote them."

Adults take responsibility for their own behavior. "But he started it..." is middle-school crap.

[mahagonny]

Adults take responsibility for their own behavior. "But he started it..." is middle-school crap.

Speaking of that, honest question: suppose  you post something on the twitter account and you realize minutes or hours later that, had you been writing something for publication, you would have edited the thing out or changed it. So which one is taking responsibility for your behavior:

(1) Delete the tweet; it does  not express the distilled, accurate, most true statement that is you, and it might needlessly offend or misinform readers about your truest self. People need not be getting junk to read, or

(2) Leave the tweet. You wrote it and you can't revise history or deny the truth of who you are and what you've said. Man up and own it.