According to this Huffington Post article, current speculation suggests that former Associate Professor at Virginia Tech Steven Salaita lost a job offer due to his controversial tweets. It is believed that the University of Illinois rescinded their job offer to Salaita after he made Anti-Israel comments on his Twitter account.
Although the American Association of University Professors’ Illinois committee has stated that Salaita’s comments were “strident and vulgar,” they describe the tweets as “an impassioned plea to end the violence currently taking place in the Middle East.” The committee further elaborated, “Speech that is deemed controversial should be challenged with further speech that may abhor and challenge a statement. Yet the University of Illinois cannot cancel an appointment based upon Twitter statements that are protected speech of the United States of America.”
In a Huffington Post report last month, a University of Illinois spokeswoman stated that, “Faculty have a wide range of scholarly and political views, and we recognize the freedom-of-speech rights of all of our employees.” The university since rescinding their offer to Salaita.
Former president of the AAUP and current English professor at the University recently stated that Salaita stepped over the line with the tone of his tweets and his comments regarding the Gaza conflict.
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