Steven Salaita and the Modern University

When I speak, I speak as Professor Mark A. Graber (my eldest daughter, now Professor Naomi Graber, correctly observes that “Dad does not speak, he lectures”).  Many academics wish professors had more authority in our society.  Some wish professors had less authority.  Whatever the authority of academics in an ideal world, in this world a university decision to confer upon us the title of “Professor” increases our authority to some degree, like it or not.

Having conferred authority upon us, a university might insist that we speak as professors even when we are outside the classroom and not in a professional setting.  Of course, we often speak in ways that no one thinks “professorial.”  No one takes my Super Bowl picks seriously.  Nevertheless, when we comment on public affairs, our comments have some extra weight because we are professors in a society that places some value on knowledge.  There is a presumption when I speak about global warming, about British poetry or about Gaza that I have some specialized knowledge or at least training in critical reasoning that gives my words a little more weight than the same comments made by someone of unknown employment.

For this reason, we might think a university justified in denying an appointment to a candidate for a professorship on the ground that the person’s statements on matters of public interest were too often “vulgar,” “juvenile,” and “insulting.”  The First Amendment protects my right to speak in ways that are vulgar, juvenile and insulting, but I have no First Amendment right to be a professor.  Just as no one would think twice about a university who refused to hire a person whose scholarship was vulgar, juvenile and insulting, so in circumstances where our speech is given some authority because we are professors, universities might in the abstract insist that our speech not be vulgar, juvenile and insulting as a condition of obtaining employment.

These observations suggest a somewhat different context for the debate over the decision by the University of Illinois to rescind a job offer to Steven Salaita on the ground that his tweets on the Gaza crisis were disrepectful.  For the most part, Salaita’s defenders emphasize two points, both of which strike me as largely correct.  The first is that Illinois as a matter of policy trusts departments to vet professors.  The decision by Chancellor Phyllis Wise to revoke a departmental offer for non-budget reasons is unprecedented, although I think this is less a free speech/academic freedom issue than a faculty governance/academic freedom issue.  The second is that the circumstances make clear that the offer was revoked because Salaita made “disrepectful” comments about Israel.  Had he made disrespectful comments about Hamas, the Senate Majority leader or the most recent production of Carmen, no one would have noticed or cared.  Viewpoint discrimination is a core First Amendment violation.  We might tie these concerns together by noting that when administrators make unprecedented interventions in hiring decisions, viewpoint discrimination is probably afoot.  Still, some defenses of Salaita suggest a third ground, that professors have constitutional rights to be vulgar, juvenile and insulting when they comment on public affairs, as long as they do not do so in the classroom or, maybe, professional settings.  I am less sure for reasons noted above

But I am more certain that an increasing number of university administrators disagree with me.  Each year, more and more pressure seems to be put on faculty to spend less time on traditional forms of publishing and rely more on social media in which significant incentives often exist for vulgar, juvenile, and insulting speech (I’ve never been told I should be especially careful to avoid such temptations).  Take a look at the website of many law schools and other academic institutions.  Many strongly suggest that the way to gain fame and respect at the institution is through the social media or other outlets where eight second soundbites are norm and footnotes forbidden.  More and more of my friends who do traditional, lots of footnotes, scholarship complain that they have fewer and fewer friends (if any) in the administration and they are becoming the first to be asked about buyouts.  In short, Salaita strikes me as doing exactly what a great many professors are now doing to get ahead in our professions.  Having pressured us to get on the social media, the administrators at our universities can hardly complain if we adopt the conventions of the social media rather than what I think are the better norms of academic discourse.