I don't think I'm unique when I say I was motivated to join the #boycottUIUC movement for two reasons.
1) I support academic freedom and faculty governance, the issues raised by the #Salaita case, and it's just wrong of Wise, Easter, Kennedy and the others to endanger a century of work on those issues; we follow some giants in Dewey and Lovejoy, founders of the AAUP.
2) I support the person, Steven Salaita, even though I had never met him or heard him speak or read his work when it all started. Because it's just wrong to hurt a person the way he's been hurt by Wise, Easter, Kennedy, and the others -- endangering his career, keeping him from what he loves doing, stopping his life's work, all to curry favor with rich people.
But it's also very good to be able finally to hear from Salaita, the person at the center, the person we support along with the issues, for he sounds like someone I would be proud to have as a colleague, someone who is committed to his craft, his teaching and writing, and someone who is handling a terrible amount of pressure with wit, grace, and courage.
Partial evidence for this claim can be found at 43:30 of the clip. It forms the title here. It's in response to the question "after all this, why do you want to work here?"
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