S^^UILFORDIAN
H — Guilford College | February 13, 2015
; xisWSft:?
News
BY BRIANNA PARKER
Staff Writer
“Universities need academic freedom to function at
their best,” said Steven Salaita in his lecture on Feb. 3, at
Guilford College. “They just do.”
The lecture, originally scheduled to take place in
the Frank Family Science Center, was delivered in the
Carnegie Room last Tuesday evening. The event was
moved at the request of a family member of the donor
who funded the Science Center.
Academic freedom, the occupation and assault of
Palestine by Israel and modern forces of colonialism were
some of the controversial topics discussed by Salaita,
whose visit to Guilford was contentious from the start
due to recent controversy.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
revoked Salaita’s professorship in American Indian
studies in August, 2014, for incendiary posts on Twitter
expressing criticism of Israel’s actions in the Gaza
conflict.
“What we cannot, and will not, tolerate at the
University of Illinois are personal and disrespectful
words, or actions that demean and abuse either
viewpoints themselves or those who express them,” said
Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis Wise in an email
statement to students. “We have a particular duty to
our students to ensure that they live in a community of
scholarship that challenges their assumptions about the
world but that also respects their rights as individuals.”
The lawsuit Salaita filed against Urbana-Champaign on
Jan. 29, claims that his appointment had actually gone
through all the necessary hiring procedures. Salaita was
in fact fired, instead of the offer of employment simply
being revoked.
Salaita claims firing someone for expressing their
political beliefs in a public forum violates academic
freedom.
Volume 101 I Issue 13
Serving the Guilford College community since 1914
See SALAFTA \ Page 3
WWW.GUILFORDIANXQM