Steven Salaita has filed a lawsuit filed in Champaign County Court against the University of Illinois’ Board of Trustees. Salaita and his legal team at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) maintain that the university administration has failed to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by refusing to provide certain documents. A number of documents were requested, most importantly e-mails between university officials that include keywords such as “Palestine” and “Uncivil.” These documents would help shed light on the circumstances leading to the controversial decision by the UIUC’s Chancellor and the Board of Trustees to rescind Salaita’s job offer in August. According to the CCR,
The University initially denied the FOIA request as ‘unduly burdensome,’ and even though the request has been substantially narrowed, the University continues to refuse to comply with the FOIA law and produce the documents that reveal the full story behind its decision to fire Professor Salaita from a tenured position.
To download a PDF of the lawsuit filed, click here.
To listen to a recently published interview with Steven Salaita, click here.
If you are attending the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association in Washington DC, click here to learn about a pre-program panel featuring Steven Salaita and others on the issue of new assaults on academic freedom.