Thursday, October 30, 2014

Open Letter to Chancellor Phyllis Wise, President Robert Easter, and the University of Illinois Board of Trustees

We, the undersigned faculty members of the University of Illinois, write in reply to the statements of August 22, 2014 by Chancellor Wise and the Board of Trustees concerning the Chancellor’s retraction of the offer of a tenured professorship to Dr. Steven Salaita.  We find these statements disappointing in providing no details of how this remarkable decision was reached. Instead, the statements put forward a troubling rationale for leadership which seems to threaten the excellence and integrity of a world-class research institution with a land-grant mission.  

The University of Illinois has strict protocols for tenured hires, including extensive review of scholarship and teaching.  The tenure process involves consultation with outside experts and rigorous oversight at several levels.  When Professor Salaita accepted the offer of a tenured professorship in October 2013, he was the approved choice of American Indian Studies, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Office of the Provost, the chief academic officer of the Urbana campus.  The Chancellor’s withdrawal of that offer just days before the expected start date came without the knowledge of the relevant academic program or college. As news of this decision spread, thousands of scholars and professional organizations including the American Comparative Literature Association, American Historical Association, American Political Science Association, Center for Constitutional Rights and the Modern Language Association wrote in protest. Many have promised to boycott the university until the decision is reversed.

In light of these statements, it appears that the Chancellor’s withdrawal of the offer on August 1 was a hurried response to what began as a campaign by off-campus political groups to tarnish Salaita as an anti-Semitic critic of Israel.  As the News-Gazette reported on July 22, the incoming UI professor had drawn “the ire of a conservative website after posting angry commentary on Twitter about Israel’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.”  In retracting Salaita’s offer just a few days later with no apparent faculty consultation, the Chancellor violated the university’s established procedures and principles of shared governance. As a public institution, the University of Illinois has clear protocols for handling concerns from the public, which appear to have been entirely disregarded in this case.

Moreover, as the statements make no attempt to deny, Chancellor Wise terminated this offer in response to Professor Salaita’s political utterances as a private citizen. Neither her statement nor the Board’s demonstrates that Salaita's specific words or actions properly place him outside the bounds of proper faculty conduct.  Indeed, Salaita’s record of highly reputed scholarship and teaching is nowhere in dispute.  The decision thus constitutes a dangerous attack on academic freedom which will exert a chilling effect on political speech throughout our campus. 

As scholars and teachers, we understand the importance of civil discourse.  But the facts of this case do not support the conjecture that Salaita’s private tweets somehow constitute a threat to the “traditions of scholarship and civility upon which our university is built.” Read in their entirety, Salaita’s tweets indicate that his criticism of Israel consists in a “principled stand against state violence” and that he is “fundamentally” committed to “acknowledging and countering the horror of antisemitism.” None of the statements that we have seen represents an attack on any racial or ethnic group, unless one accepts the disingenuous equation of the state of Israel and Jewish people generally. 

The decision to terminate Salaita also raises serious questions about the University’s stated commitment to diversity and to supporting the study of racialized communities and underrepresented people.  Salaita is Palestinian-American, a group that constitutes a tiny minority on campus and in the U.S academy.  He was hired by a small academic unit that has struggled for years with the administration over the racially divisive “Chief” mascot and the validation of American Indian Studies as a legitimate scholarly discipline.  Given these issues, we are concerned that the revocation of Salaita’s position might embolden intolerant forces in the community and on campus. These actions have already created a climate of fear and stoked an already tense racial climate.

This makes it all the more troubling that the Chancellor and Board have described this decision as a victory for civility, academic excellence, and “robust debate.”  Their statements leave us to ponder how one upholds civility by overriding the decision-making of faculty members and deans without consultation or due process. How, we must ask, does one foster academic excellence by making academic decisions without the advice of scholars in the field?  Can it really be that debate is best served by secretive decision-making that silences dissent?  Recent reporting on this issue suggests that particular donors may have had an impact on this decision and that a task force will soon be charged to “develop a new process” for situations in which the chancellor “does not agree with a hiring decision.”  This seems to represent a radical departure from principles of shared governance which have been the bedrock of academic excellence on this campus.  

The Chancellor and the Board write eloquently of their support for academic freedom.  We call on them to fulfill that claim by affirming that a faculty member’s extramural political opinions have no place in the evaluation of that individual's scholarship, teaching, or collegiality.  If shared governance means anything, it means that if a faculty member’s speech raises any public concern those concerns should be addressed by an appropriate faculty body in adherence to established university procedures. To assert otherwise in the name of promoting student “comfort” or assuring a "welcoming environment" is, in effect, to license political censorship and arbitrary decree.  It unacceptably endows the Chancellor and Board with authority to monitor, evaluate, and punish faculty members for the way they exercise their rights and duties as citizens.   

Chancellor Wise has set a dangerous precedent that the Board of Trustees has now emphatically endorsed.  The integrity and reputation of our campus has suffered a terrible blow. We call on the Chancellor, President, and Board to heed the thousands of voices now protesting this illegitimate course.  We ask them to reverse their decision, act in accordance with the AAUP's principles on academic freedom and tenure as they are reiterated in the August 29 AAUP letter that calls upon UIUC to honor its obligations to Salaita, and open this process to investigation by the UI Senate's Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure.  In calling on these leaders to reinstate the offer to Professor Salaita, we ask them to show the campus and the world that the University of Illinois is genuinely committed to shared governance, academic freedom, and robust debate.  We ask them to reaffirm the importance of a diverse campus where all voices can be heard.

Signatures as of September 11, 2014
[including additions as of 9/20/2014]


Evelyne Accad, Professor of French and Global Studies
Gul Agha, Professor of Computer Science, Coordinated Science Laboratory, Information Trust Institute
       and Affiliate Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Abdul Akalimat, Professor, Emeritus, of African American Studies
Imad L. Al-Qadi, Founder Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Director, Illinois Center for       Transportation and Advanced Transportation Research & Engineering Lab
Tariq Omar Ali, Assistant Professor of History
Dustin Allred, Lecturer in Urban & Regional Planning
Ikuko Asaka, Assistant Professor of History
Jayadev Athreya, Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Ronald W. Bailey, Professor and Head of African American Studies 
Pallassana R. Balgopal, Professor, Emeritus, of Social Work
Teresa Barnes, Associate Professor of History and Gender & Women's Studies
James R. Barrett, Professor of History and African American Studies
Robert W. Barrett, Jr., Associate Professor of English, Medieval Studies, and Theatre
Thomas J. Basset, Professor of Geography & Geographic Information Systems
Anustup Basu, Associate Professor of English
Manisha Basu, Assistant Professor of English and African Studies
Atoma Batoma, African Studies Librarian 
Asef Bayat, Catherine and Bruce Bastian Professor of Global & Transnational Studies and Professor of
        Sociology and Middle East Studies
Ericka Beckman, Associate Professor of Spanish and Comparative & World Literature
Howard Berenbaum, Professor of Psychology
Bruce Berndt, Professor of Mathematics
Ann Peterson Bishop, Associate Professor, Emerita, of Library & Information Science
Nancy Blake, Professor of Comparative & World Literature
Botond Bognar, Professor and Edgar A. Tafel Endowed Chair in Architecture
Merle L. Bowen, Associate Professor of African American Studies and Director of the Center for African
                Studies
Jake Bowers, Associate Professor of Political Science and Statistics
Steven Bradlow, Professor of Mathematics
Richard Brazee, Associate Professor of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences
Timothy Bretl, Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering
Jared Bronski, Assistant Professor of Math
Samantha Brotman, Visiting Lecturer and Arabic Specialist, Intensive English Institute
Ruth Nicole Brown, Associate Professor of Gender & Women's Studies and Education Policy Organization & Leadership
Robert Bruno, Professor of Labor & Employment Relations
Donna A. Buchanan, Associate Professor of Musicology and Anthropology, School of Music
David S. Bullock, Professor of Agricultural & Consumer Economics
Adrian Burgos, Jr., Professor of History and LAS Centennial Scholar
Antoinette Burton, Catherine & Bruce Bastian Professor of Global & Transnational Studies and Professor of History
Jodi Byrd, Associate Professor of American Indian Studies and English and Conrad Humanities Scholar
Lisa Cacho, Associate Professor of Latina/Latino Studies and Asian American Studies
J.B. Capino, Associate Professor of English and Media & Cinema Studies
Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, Associate Professor of African American Studies and History
Arnab Chakraborty, Associate Professor of Urban & Regional Planning
Tamara Chaplin, Associate Professor of Modern European History
José Antonio Cheibub, Harold Boeschenstein Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy 
Kiel Christianson, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, Psychology, Linguistics, and Beckman Institute 
Amanda Ciafone, Assistant Professor of Media and Institute for Communications Research
Julie Cidell, Associate Professor of Geography
Kathryn B. H. Clancy, Assistant Professor of Anthropology 
CL Cole Professor of Media & Cinema Studies
Jennifer S. Cole, Associate Professor of Linguistics, Beckman Institute Cognitive Science Group
David L. Cooper, Director of the Russian, East European, & Eurasian Center and Associate Professor of
                Slavic Languages & Literatures
Eleanor Courtemanche, Associate Professor of English
Clare Crowston, Professor of History and Conrad Humanities Scholar
Kenneth M. Cuno, Associate Professor of History and South Asian & Middle Eastern Studies
Kenny Cupers, Assistant Professor of Architecture
Jerry Dávila, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor of Brazilian History
Peter A. Davis, Associate Professor of Theatre
Susan G. Davis, Professor of Communication and Library & Information Science
L. Elena Delgado, Associate Professor of Spanish, Criticism &Interpretive Theory, Gender and Women’s Studies 
Christine DeLisle, Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies and Gender & Women's Studies
Jane Desmond, Professor of Anthropology and Gender & Women's Studies and Director of the International Forum for US Studies
Vicente Diaz, Associate Professor of Anthropology and American Indian Studies (Co-Chair of Salaita Search     
     Committee)
Brian Dill, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Pradeep Dillon, Associate Professor of Educational Policy, Organization and Leadership
Lisa Gaye Dixon, Associate Professor of Theatre 
Adrienne Dixson, Associate Professor of Critical Race Theory and Education
Emanuel Donchin, Professor, Emeritus, of Psychology
Julie A. Dowling, Associate Professor of Latina/Latino Studies
Nathan Dunfield, Associate Professor of Mathematics
Christopher Dunn, Associate Professor of Spanish & Portuguese (beginning January 2015)
Mary M. Edwards, Associate Professor of Urban & Regional Planning and MUP Program Director
Amr S. Elnashai, FREng and Adjunct Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Ahmed Ettaf Elbanna, Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Hadi Salehi Esfahani, Professor of Economics
C. G. Estabrook, Visiting Professor of Sociology (retired)
Brenda M. Farnell, Professor of Anthropology and American Indian Studies
Zsuzsanna Fagyal, Associate Professor of French & Italian
Walter Feinberg, Charles Hardie Professor, Emeritus, of Educational Philosophy
Karen Flynn, Associate Professor of Gender & Women's Studies and African American Studies
Stephanie Foote, Professor and Chair of Gender & Women’s Studies
Eduardo Fradkin, Professor of Physics
Karen L. Fresco, Associate Professor of French
Liz Freivogel, Clinical Assistant Professor of Music
Peter Fritzsche, Trowbridge Professor of History
Samantha Frost, Associate Professor of Political Science and Gender & Women's Studies
Poshek Fu, Professor of History and Asian American Studies
Peter K. Garrett, Professor, Emeritus, of English and Criticism & Interpretive Theory
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi, Associate Professor of History and Sociology
Daniel A. Gilbert, Assistant Professor of Labor & Employment Relations
Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert, Associate Professor of American Indian Studies and History
Zsuzsa Gille, Associate Professor of Sociology
Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Professor of English and Criticism & Interpretive Theory
Govindjee, Professor, Emeritus, of Biochemistry, Biophysics & Plant Biology
Radhika Govindrajan, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology 
Catharine Gray, Associate Professor of English
Jessica Greenberg, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Ryan Griffis, Associate Professor of New Media, School of Art & Design
Joseph Grohens, Senior Instructor of English
Kevin Hamilton, Associate Professor of Art & Design
James A. Hansen, Associate Professor of English
Brendan Harley, Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Dianne Harris, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Director, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities
Faye V. Harrison, Professor of African American Studies
Stacy Anne Harwood, Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
Waïl S. Hassan, Professor of Comparative & World Literature, English, French, South Asian & Middle Eastern         Studies 
Julie A. Hengst, PhD CCC-SLP, Associate Professor of Speech & Hearing Science 
Linda Herrera, Associate Professor of Educational Policy, Organization & Leadership
Marc Hertzman, Assistant Professor of History
Stephanie M. Hilger, Associate Professor of Comparative & World Literature, German, French, and Gender & Women's Studies
Valerie Hoffman, Director, Center for South Asian & Middle Eastern Studies and Professor of Religion
Lou van den Dries, Professor of Mathematics
Lillian Hoddeson, Professor, Emerita, of the History of Science
Margarethe Hoenig, Professor Emerita, College of Veterinary Medicine
Kristin Hoganson, Professor of History
Valerie Hotchkiss, Andrew S. G. Turyn Endowed Professor and Director of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library  
Frederick E. Hoxie, Swanlund Professor of History, Law and American Indian Studies
Jonathan Inda, Associate Professor and Chair of Latina/Latino Studies
Javier Irgoyen-Garcia, Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
Sharon Irish, Adjunct Lecturer of Library & Information Science
Nils P. Jacobsen, Associate Professor of History
Candice M. Jenkins, Associate Profess of English
Brian K. Johnson, Professor of Journalism
Laurie Johnson, Associate Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures
Lawrence E. Jones, Professor, Emeritus, of Psychology
Lilya Kaganovsky, Associate Professor of Slavic, Comparative Literature, and Media Studies and Director of the         Program in Comparative & World Literature and LAS Centennial Scholar
Ilya Kapovich,Professor of Mathematics
Stephen Kaufman, Professor, Emeritus, of Cell and Developmental Biology
Lori Kendall, Associate Professor of Library and Information Science
Marcus Keller, Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature 
Margaret Kelley, Associate Professor of Sociology
Diane P. Koenker, Professor and Chair of History
Roger Koenker, William B. McKinley Professor of Economics
Craig Koslofsky, Professor of History and Germanic Languages & Literatures
Susan Koshy, Director of the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory and Associate Professor of English and
                Asian American Studies
Betsy Kruger, Associate Professor, University Library
Mosbah M. Kushad,  Associate Professor of Crop Sciences
Soo Ah Kwon, Associate Professor, Department of Asian American Studies & Human and Community Development
Kathryn La Barre, Associate Professor of Library & Information Science
Richard S. Laugesen, Professor of Mathematics
Brumsoo Lee, Associate Professor of Urban & Regional Planning and Director of MUP Admissions
Carol Skalnik Leff, Associate Professor of Political Science
Ing Vidar Lerum, MNAL, Intl. Associate AIA, ASHRAE, Associate Professor of Architecture
Bruce Levine, J.G. Randall Distinguished Professor of History and Professor of African American Studies
Trish Loughran, Associate Professor of English and History
Alejandro Lugo, Professor of Anthropology and Latina/Latino Studies
Christopher Macklin, Assistant Professor of Musicology
Gayle Sherwood Magee, Associate Professor of Music
Vicki Mahaffey, Clayton & Thelma Kirkpatrick Professor of English and Gender & Women’s Studies
William J. Maher, Professor, University Library and Director of the University Archives
Martin F. Manalansan IV, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Asian American Studies
Robert Markley, W.E. and Sara D. Trowbridge Professor of English
Adam T. Martinsek, Professor, Emeritus, of Statistics
Ralph Mathisen, Professor of History, Classics, and Medieval Studies
Jean-Philippe Mathy, Professor of French and Comparative & World Literature and Director of the School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics
Cameron McCarthy, Professor of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership
Cris Mayo, Professor of Educational Policy, Organization & Leadership and Affiliate Professor of
                Gender & Women’s Studies
Robert W. McChesney, Gutgsell Endowed Professor of Communication
Monica McDermott, Associate Professor of Sociology
Jerome McDonough, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science
Erik McDuffie, Associate Professor of African American Studies and History
Robert McKim, Professor of Religion and Philosophy
Megan McLaughlin, Professor, Emerita, of History, Gender & Women's Studies and Medieval Studies
Clark McPhail, Professor, Emeritus, of Sociology
Heather Hyde Minor, Associate Professor of Architecture
Faranak Miraftab, Professor of Urban & Regional Planning
Feisal Mohamed, Professor, Department of English
Isabel Molina-Guzmán, Associate Professor of Media & Cinema Studies
Ellen Moodie, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Jennifer Monson, Professor of Dance
Richard Mulvaney, Professor of Soil Fertility, Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences
Justine S. Murison, Associate Professor of English
Chantal Nadeau, Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies
Name Withheld, Assistant Professor, School of Art & Design
Name Withheld, Instructor, College of Fine & Applied Arts
Name Withheld, Assistant Professor, College of Fine & Applied Arts
Name Withheld, Assistant Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Name Withheld, Assistant Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Name Withheld, Assistant Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Name Withheld, Assistant Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Name Withheld, Assistant Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Name Withheld, Assistant Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Name Withheld, Assistant Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Name Withheld, Assistant Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Name Withheld, Assistant Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Name Withheld, Assistant Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Name Withheld, Associate Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Name Withheld, Associate Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Name Withheld, Associate Professor, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Hina Nazar, Associate Professor of English
Michelle Nelson, Associate Professor of Advertising
Tim Newcomb, Professor and Associate Head of English 
Alexandra Newton, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Carl Niekerk, Professor, Germanic Languages & Literatures
Fiona I. B. Ngô, Associate Professor of Asian American Studies and Gender & Women's Studies
Mimi Thi Nguyen, Associate Professor of Gender & Women's Studies and Asian American Studies
Ned O'Gorman, Associate Professor of Communication
Kathryn Oberdeck, Associate Professor of History
Cynthia Oliver, Professor of Dance
Melissa A. Orlie, Associate Professor of Political Science and Criticism & Interpretive Theory
Andrew Orta, Professor and Head of Anthropology
Ramona Faith Oswald, Professor of Family Studies and Human & Community Development
A. Naomi Paik, Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies
Robert Dale Parker, James M. Benson Professor of English
Timothy R. Pauketat, Professor of Anthropology and Medieval Studies
Curtis Perry, Professor of English and Classics
Philip Phillips, Professor of Physics
Patricia M. Phillips-Batoma, Lecturer and Director of the Center for Translation Studies
Wayne T. Pitard, Professor of Religion
John S. Popovics, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Catherine Prendergast, Professor, Department of English
Paul Prior, Professor  of English, Center for Writing Studies
David Prochaska, Associate Professor, Emeritus, of History
David H. Price, Professor of Religious Studies
Christopher J. Prom, Associate Professor of Library Administration and Assistant University Archivist
François Proulx, Assistant Professor of French
Dana Rabin, Associate Professor of History
Junaid Rana, Associate Professor and Interim Chair of Asian American Studies
John Randolph, Associate Professor of History
Leslie J. Reagan, Professor of History and University Scholar
Ann Reisner, Associate Professor of Media & Cinema Studies
Jesse Ribot, Professor of Geography and Director of Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy Initiative
Paul Ricker, Associate Professor of Astronomy
Kristina Riedel, Lecturer in Linguistics and Director of Sub-Saharan African Languages Program
Rachele Riley, Assistant Professor of Art & Design
Kyle Rimkus, Assistant Professor, University Library
Richard T. Rodriguez, Associate Professor of English & Latina/Latino Studies
Rolando J. Romero, Associate Professor of Latina/Latino Studies
Jay Rosenstein, Center for Advance Study Professor of Journalism
Bruce Rosenstock, Associate Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies
Gilberto Rosas, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Latina/o Studies
Emanuel Rota, Associate Professor of Italian
Michael Rothberg, Professor and Head of English/Director of Holocaust, Genocide & Memory Studies
                 Initiative
James Rounds, Professor of Educational Psychology and Psychology
D. Fairchild Ruggles, Professor and Interim Head of Landscape Architecture 
Brian Ruppert, Associate Professor of East Asian Languages & Cultures and Religion
Robert A. Rushing, Associate Professor of Comparative & World Literature, Italian, Cinema Studies, and Criticism & Interpretive Theory
Rebecca L. Sandefur, Associate Professor of Sociology and Law
Kirk R. Sanders, Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy and Associate Professor of Classics
Mahir Saul, Professor of Anthropology
Julia F. Saville, Associate Professor of English
Daniel Schneider, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
Jeannie Natsuko Shinozuka, Ph.D. and Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Sarah L. Shreeves, Associate Profess and Coordinator of IDEALS, University Library
Daniel J. Simons, Professor of Psychology
Kirstie Simson, Associate Professor of Dance
Gisela Sin, Associate Professor of Political Science
Valeria Sobol, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages & Literatures
Gabriel Solis, Associate Professor of Music and African American Studies
Siobhan Somerville, Associate Professor of English and Gender & Women’s Studies
Antonio Sotomayor, Assistant Professor and Librarian for Latin American & Caribbean Studies
Carol Spindel, Lecturer in English
John D. Stack, Professor, Emeritus, of Physics
Mark D. Steinberg, Professor of History
Andrea Stevens, Associate Professor of English
William Sullivan, Professor of Landscape Architecture
David Sussman, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Anna Stenport, Associate Professor of Scandinavian Studies and Director of the European Union Center
Inger Stole, Associate Professor of Communications
Michael Stone, Professor of Physics
Eleonora Stoppino, Associate Professor of Italian
Zohreh Sullivan, Professor, Emerita, of English, African Studies, and Global Studies
Carol Symes, Associate Professor of History, Theatre, and Medieval Studies
Caroline Szylowicz, Associate Professor, University Library
Marina Terkourafi, Associate Professor of Linguistics
Robert Tierney, Associate Professor of Comparative & World Literature and East Asian Languages & Culture and Director of Graduate Studies
Carol L. Tilley, Associate Professor of Library and Information Science
Maria Todorova, Gutgsell Professor of History
James Treat, Associate Professor of Religion
Renee R. Trilling, Conrad Humanities Professorial Scholar of English and Medieval Studies
Dallas R. Trinkle, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Emily E. LB. Twarog, Assistant Professor of Labor & Employment Relations
Rizwan Uddin, Professor of Nuclear, Plasma, Radiological Engineering
Ted Underwood, Professor and LAS Centennial Scholar of English
Angharad N. Valdivia, Professor of Media Studies and Institute for Communications Research
Oscar E. Vázquez, Associate Professor of Art History
Joaquin Vieira, Assistant Professor of Astronomy
Edna A. Viruell-Fuentes, Associate Professor of Latina/Latino Studies
Renée Wadleigh, Professor of Dance
Robert Warrior, Professor and Director of American Indian Studies
Deke Weaver, Associate Professor of Art & Design
Terry Weech, Associate Professor of Library & Information Science
Michael B. Weissman, Professor of Physics
Terri Weissman, Associate Professor of Art History
Kristin Wilcox, Lecturer in English
Kate Williams, Associate Professor of Library & Information Science
David Wilson, Professor of Geography
Martin Wolske, Senior Research Scientists and Senior Lecturer of Library & Information Science
Tony Wong, Associate Professor of Astronomy
Gillen Wood, Director of Sustainability Studies Initiative and Professor of English
Charles D. Wright, Professor of English & Medieval Studies
Gary G. Xu, Associate Professor and Head of East Asian Languages and Cultures
Yasemin Yildiz, Associate Professor of German
Jaya G. Yodh, Research Assistant Professor of Physics 
Assata Zerai, Associate Professor of Sociology

Signatories from the University of Illinois, Chicago

John Abbott, Lecturer in History
Jennifer Ashton, Associate Professor of English
Natasha Barnes, Associate Professor of English and African American Studies
Aleeca Bell, Assistant Professor of Nursing
Jennifer Brier, Associate Professor of Gender & Women's Studies and History
Nicholas Brown, Associate Professor of English and African American Studies
Mark Canuel, Professor of English
Barbara DiEugenio, Professor of Computer Science
Stephen Engelmann, Associate Professor of Political Science
Giamila Fantuzzi, Professor of Kinesiology and Nutrition
Judith Kegan Gardiner, Professor, Emerita, of English and  Gender & Women's Studies
Anna Guevarra, Associate Professor and Director of Asian American Studies
Thomas M. Guenthner, Professor of Pharmacology
John Hagedorn, Professor of Criminology, Law & Justice
Lynette A. Jackson, Associate Professor of Gender & Women's Studies and African American Studies
Anna Kornbluh, Associate Professor of English
Susan Levine, Professor of History and Director of the Institute for the Humanities
Pauline Lipman, Professor of Education Policy Studies and Director of the Collaborative for Equity & Justice in Education
Walter Benn Michaels, Professor of English
Norma Claire Moruzzi, Associate Professor of Political Science and Gender & Women's Studies
Nadine Suleiman Naber, Associate Professor of Gender & Women's Studies
Nicole Nguyen, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Educational Policy Studies
Irma Olmedo, Associate Professor, Emerita, of Education
Amalia Pallares, Associate Professor of Latin American & Latino Studies and Political Science
Paul Preissner, Associate Professor of Architecture
Barbara Ransby, Professor of Gender & Women's Studies, African American Studies and History
Gayatri Reddy, Associate Professor of Gender & Women's Studies and Anthropology
A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff, Professor, Emerita, of English
Therese Quinn, Associate Professor of Art History and Director of Museum and Exhibition Studies
Dale Reed, Clinical Professor of Computer Science
Gene W. Ruoff, Professor, Emeritus, of English
David Schaafsma, Professor of English
Natalie Crohn Scmitt, Professor, Emerita, Theatre and English
Sally Sedgwick, LAS Distinguished Professor of Philosophy
Linda J. Skitka, Professor and Associate Head of Psychology
Blake Stimson, Professor of Art and Art History
Karen Su, Clinical Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies
Venkat Venkatakrishnan, Associate Professor of Computer Science
Robert R. Williams, Professor, Emeritus, of German, Philosophy, and Religious Studies
Milos Zefran, Professor of Electric & Computer Engineering and Director of Graduate Studies

Signatory from the University of Illinois, Springfield

Michael J. Murphy, Assistant Professor of Women & Gender Studies