The fall of Chancellor Wise
Asked if she was taking the fall for the Board of Trustees, Wise said, “no,” she was sharing the responsibility. -- Illinois Public Media, September 04, 2014Phyllis Wise has been forced to resign from her $549,069/yr. job as University of Illinois Chancellor. I say, good riddance to you Chancellor Wise and may the rest of the Board of Trustees go with you. You have helped disgrace the name of a once-great state university system and made me ashamed to call it my alma mater. I received both my masters and Ph.D. from UIC.
Wise takes the fall but it was the Board of Trustees that violated the basic principles of academic freedom and the First Amendment when they rescinded their job offer to professor Steven Salaita over his controversial posts (critical of Israel's attack on Gaza) on Twitter. Rather than stick up for principle, the cowardly chancellor and trustees caved under pressure from a handful of wealthy and powerful donors who threatened to withhold their contributions if Salaita was hired.
This of course, is not the first time the U of I trustees have violated the rights of faculty members and the principles of academic freedom. I'm thinking back to 2010 when my friend and UIC colleague Bill Ayers was denied emeritus status by Board Chairman Christopher Kennedy who was bitter about an obscure Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The fall of Chancellor Wise:
