Paul Boghossian (NYU) kindly gave me permission to share his:

Dear Chairman Kennedy,

I join many others in urging you to reinstate Professor Steven Salaita’s appointment as Associate Professor with tenure at UIUC.  The manner in which he was ‘unhired,’ just weeks before he was to start teaching, and nearly a year after he had formally accepted the offer of a tenured post, was procedurally and morally irregular in several major respects.  Failure to reinstate him will, without a doubt, result in irreparable damage to the well-being and reputation of one of our nation’s premier research universities.

It is an established norm within higher education in the United States that, after all the relevant academic controls have been cleared, the approval of an appointment by the Board of Trustees is pro forma.  This is why professors trustingly resign their posts at one institution, move their families and homes, and begin working at another institution, before they receive formal Board approval.  It is foul play to violate that norm without warning.

Furthermore, it seems both unjust and unwise to take a decision of this magnitude without any sort of due process, without providing any sort of clear explanation as to its basis, and without consulting with the relevant academic units and deans.

Such a way of proceeding is especially disturbing in light of the revelation that the Chancellor and Board members were lobbied heavily by donors representing a particular political viewpoint, and who threatened to withhold financial support from the University.

If you believe that Professor Salaita crossed a line that he ought not to cross, there is an easy, honest and honorable remedy, suggested to you by the AAUP: consider Professor Salaita to be a tenured member of the UIUC faculty, suspended (with pay) pending a hearing on his fitness to continue.

Otherwise, you risk doing permanent damage to your fine institution.

Respectfully,

Paul Boghossian

Silver Professor of Philosophy

New York University