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