Several friends and readers have sent along this news, namely, that the Chancellor has forwarded Salaita's appointment to the Board of Trustees.   The happy scenario is that the University is going to relent and the appointment will actually be approved, in the wake of the bad publicity and especially the AAUP letter.  The less happy scenario is that since the original offer letter never made the offer contingent on the Chancellor forwarding the offer to the Board (as I and others noted), they are now doing that formally in anticipation of litigation.   I certainly hope it is the former, but not being by nature optimistic about bureaucrats and political hacks…