From Illinois Public Media:
The chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana campus Thursday expressed regret about the way she came to a decision to withdraw a job offer to a professor who posted inflammatory comments on Twitter – a decision she said was “pretty unilateral.”
Chancellor Phyllis Wise said members of the Board of Trustees told her in July that they likely would not approve the appointment of Professor Steven Salaita. A week later, Wise sent a letter to Salaita rescinding the job offer.
“The judgment I made in writing him was to convey the sentiment of the Board of Trustees, it was not mine.” She said. “And I did it because I thought I was doing something humane for him.”
Humane, she said, because she didn’t want Salaita to move his family to Urbana only to learn his appointment was not approved.
Cory Robin, a professor of political science at CUNY, reported on a meeting Wise had with students on Wednesday, The Chamcellow told the students “I, in hindsight, wish I had been a little bit more deliberate and had consulted with more people before I made that decision.”
And then she says “the sentiment of the Board of Trustees, it was not mine.”
So not only did her decision not reflect any of the academic voices on campus; it didn’t even reflect her own opinion.
Faculty at the University, including the Faculty Senate, department of anthropology and the department of comparative and world literature took votes of no confidence in the leadership of UIUC. That makes for a total of eight votes of no confidence.