Updated: Group puts UI in top 10 'worst colleges for free speech'

Photo by: The News-Gazette

Protesters chant for Chancellor Phyllis Wise to go, in front of the Swanlund Administration Building in Champaign on Tuesday August 26, 2014. Wise chose not to pass on Professor Steven Salaita's appointment to the university's board of trustees.

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URBANA The Steven Salaita saga has landed the University of Illinois on a list it probably would rather not make.

The UI is included in the fourth annual "10 worst colleges for free speech" list published by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

The foundation criticized the UI for revoking a job offer to Salaita after he posted inflammatory tweets about Israel last summer. The decision sparked a nationwide debate over free speech and "civility" on college campuses and prompted boycotts by prominent academic groups.

Salaita had left a tenured position at Virginia Tech to accept a job with the UI's American Indian Studies program when the job was withdrawn by campus administrators. Chancellor Phyllis Wise later issued a statement explaining that the campus would not tolerate "personal and disrespectful words or actions that demean and abuse either viewpoints themselves or those who express them." That prompted critics to charge administrators were imposing a "speech code" on faculty. Wise has repeatedly said that was not her intent.

The UI Board of Trustees has upheld her decision and said recently it would not revisit the issue. Salaita is suing the university in federal court to get his job back.

Spokesman Nico Perrino said the UI was cited both because Salaita was "censored" for his personal tweets but also because the university "doubled down" with the email.

"Professors tweet personal opinions all the time," Perrino said. "You don't always see a job offer revoked for expressing their personal viewpoints."

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Updated: Group puts UI in top 10 'worst colleges for free speech'