Public
Comments to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, September 11 2014
I
have asked to speak to you about matters of institutional advancement and
faculty involvement in fundraising and development. I am a tenured faculty
member of Scandinavian Studies, an LAS Conrad Humanities Professorial Scholar,
an elected Academic Senate member, and Director of the European Union Center,
an interdisciplinary unit representing faculty and students interests from
Engineering to Applied Arts. For almost a decade, I have been wholeheartedly
dedicated to providing stellar teaching, scholarship, and academic leadership
to the UI.
Three
weeks ago, I filmed a segment for the University of Illinois Foundation. In the
video, I told my story about the positive impact of private giving on my
scholarship and teaching. Such funding has a multiplier effect. It benefits the
students I teach and advise and it allows me to bring my research out into the
world as a public intellectual.
I
currently work with advancement staff to garner grants and donations for the
many disciplines I represent. Building on past fundraising successes, I had
planned to reach out to new potential high contribution donors and private
foundations this month. I am now quite reluctant to do so. I am unwilling
to be the face of an institution whose Board of Trustees is seen by global
media as failing to respect legally protected first amendment rights of free
speech, established practices of academic freedom, and the faculty governance
structures in place at Illinois. Interference in the Salaita appointment has
made it untenable for me to act in good faith as a public figure for the U of
I.
I
am strongly opposed to the non-instatement of Dr. Salaita. So are the 300
tenured and tenure stream faculty who have publicly stated so.
Interference
in the Salaita appointment has inflamed tensions between departments in ways
that impede our work and collegiality. It has pitted faculty against
faculty, and student against student. Furthermore, the rescission of a hire
after approval by American Indian Studies, LAS, and the Office of the Provost,
has been interpreted as a reason for the local community and even some faculty
members to discredit the contributions of ethnic studies or the humanities writ
large.
The
humanities necessarily take positions that challenge and concern
deeply-held values. They are “controversial.” In that way, Humanities
disciplines are critical contributors to the liberal arts education that is the
cornerstone of the UI. The Humanities are the repository of the core principles
on which a civil and egalitarian society rests. Every UI alum has experienced
and learned about these core principles of the Humanities while studying at
Illinois. Donors support the Humanities because they believe in these core
principles. This kind of education is what private sector employers seek in new
hires.
Interference
in the Salaita appointment process is wrecking the humanities, and by extension
the institution as a whole, right now. Some departments are considering
cancelling their own approved faculty searches because they don’t feel that
anyone will want to come to a campus where they perceive the Board of Trustees
does not respect faculty governance and intellectual freedom. As long as the
international boycott is in effect, there will be pressure on them, and good
reasons for them, not to accept positions here. This will have catastrophic
long-term effects on our ability to recruit and retain the best faculty.
This
perilous trajectory has multiple consequences. Not only do our students have a
right to be taught by professors who are leaders in their fields; without these
faculty, external grants will plummet. Rankings will be impacted. Donors’
willingness to contribute to the Humanities could be eviscerated.
By
interfering in university governance, the heart and soul of this great
university risks being destroyed. I am calling upon you to recognize the
deplorable situation in which we have now been placed. I ask you to
reconsider and reverse this damaging course. This will allow my colleagues and
I to help the institution and UI students put this behind them as much as they
can and for the university to again reach its full potential.
Anna
W. Stenport
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