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WEDNESDAY September 24, 2014
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C-U celebrates 10 years of the college town’s favorite festival with strong musical line-up
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Salaita in process of filing suit
Attorney: Salaita taking legal action after not being appointed BY ANDREW NOWAK CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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Most of the exterior of the new Electrical and Computer Engineering Building is built with glass walls. This ties in with ECE's idea of a net-zero energy environment, and allows students and faculty to constantly view what is happening both inside and outside of the building.
Top-ranked department receives new building BY JANE LEE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Since the first day of the semester, faculty and students have been able to step foot into the newest contribution to the North Quad: the Electrical and Computer Engineering Building. For years, ECE classes were located in the Everitt Laboratory, 1406 W. Green St. The new building was completed after three years of construction and decades of planning. The cost of the building
totaled $95 million, with half of the funds coming from the state of Illinois, and the other half from private and corporate donors. Other than a difference in location, the new building provides features such as more flexible classrooms, soundproof rooms, project lab areas and spacious work regions, said Meg Dickinson, communications specialist of ECE. These improvements allow faculty and students to better engage with one anoth-
er, collaborate on projects and advance in their teaching and studies. Dickinson added that the University’s ECE department is consistently top ranked in the nation, and she thinks the upgraded building reflects that expectation. “You want the building to showcase what this department is capable of doing, and I think this building does that. It really makes a
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Salaita case concerns college faculty BY FARAZ MIRZA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The University has had a complex history when it comes to academic freedom. John Wilson, co-editor of the American Association of University Professors’ Academe Blog, brought this history into the context of Steven Salaita’s ongoing case at a talk on Monday. Wilson opened the lecture in Allen Hall by stat-
ing that he believes the University has once again violated academic freedom. “It’s really a violation in two senses,” Wilson said. “One is the prohibition on judging faculty based on their political borders, and the other is the issue of punishing professors for what we call ‘extramural utterances.’” Salaita was set to start teaching in the American Indian Studies program
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John Wilson, of the American Association of University Professors, speaks to students at Allen Hall on Monday night. this fall. However, his offer was rescinded after he posted several politically charged tweets regarding the conflict in Gaza, which many categorized as “hate speech.” Wilson stated that opin-
ions expressed outside of one’s profession, such as tweets, have been significant in the “extraordinarily important” history of the University. He cited sev-
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Steven Salaita’s attorney said his client will seek relief in a lawsuit against the University, although one has yet to be filed. On Sept. 9, during a press conference at the University YMCA, Salaita was joined by a team of lawyers who said they were prepared to pursue legal action if the Board of Trustees did not apppoint Salaita to a position as a tenured professor to the American Indian Studies program. Two days later, the Board of Trustees voted 8-1 to reject Salaita’s appointment. Now, Salaita, his lawyers and a legal team from the Center for Constitutional Rights are in the process of preparing a case against the University on behalf of Salaita, his lawyer said. “Professor Salaita was hopeful that the University would do the right thing and complete that appointment process voluntarily and amicably,” said Salaita’s legal representative Anand Swaminathan, attorney at Loevy & Loevy based in Chicago. “Having not done so, his only option at this point is to pursue his legal remedies, and that is what he is in the process of doing.” Campus spokeswoman Robin Kaler responded to questions about the lawsuit over email. “If that (litigation) occurs, we will deal with it appropriately with the help of our attorneys,” Kaler said. “Right now, we are focused on moving our campus forward by engaging with our faculty and the larger Illinois community.” She also said that representatives for Salaita and the University “continue to be in communication.” Swaminathan said there are a number of legal arguments that Salaita and his team may use in their case against the University. “Professor Salaita has constitutional claims — claims under the First Amendment, based on free
speech and expression, and to claims of due process, especially other constitutional claims,” Swaminathan said. The claims of free speech are in reference to one of the reasons why the Board of Trustees didn’t complete Salaita’s appointment at the University: a number of controversial tweets about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In one of his tweets, Salaita said, “At this point, if (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu appeared on TV with a necklace made from the teeth of Palestinian children, would anyone be surprised?” However, Swaminathan said he believes the University did not look at Salaita’s full record. “If they had looked at his tweets from the exact same time period of the tweets that have been blown up, they would have seen quotes from professor Salaita,” he said. Swaminathan referred to a tweet in which Salaita wrote, “I refuse to conceptualize Israel-Palestine as Jewish-Arab acrimony. I am in solidarity with many Jews and in disagreement with many Arabs.” Swaminathan said Salaita could seek injunctive relief in multiple forms, including damages for the loss of income. Jon Loevy and Gretchen Helfrich of Loevy & Loevy will also be working with Swaminathan alongside Maria LaHood and Baher Azmy from the Center for Constitutional Rights, according to a press release published on the Center for Constitutional Rights’ website. LaHood was present with Swaminathan at his press conference. “It was great to be on U of I’s campus and see so much support for Prof. Salaita,” LaHood said. Salaita’s team is working on his case; however, no dates have been given for when the possible lawsuit may be filed.
Andrew can be reached at news@dailyillini.com.
Talk show host, a ‘product of the streets’ shares success story BY MICHAL DWOJAK ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
When ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith spoke at the Illini Union in front of a crowded ballroom Tuesday night, he came with a message for all college students, not just those present in the audience: “Everything has a price. Are you willing to pay it?” This message is something he has used as motivation throughout his life. Smith said he never allowed anything, or anyone, to get in his way of his goals. Growing up in New York City, he was forced to take summer school before he could enter the fourth grade because he read at a firstgrade level. Children mocked him, but that only motivated him. To this day, he can list every child’s name who dared
to make fun of him. “No one will ever laugh at me again unless I want them to,” Smith said. As students prepare to enter corporate America, Smith encouraged them to fight for a position in a competitive world. A diploma only shows a student is trainable; it’s up to the student to see what he can do with it. Smith’s road was not easy. A kid from Queens, he was surrounded by drug dealers and crime. He could have used that as an excuse, but two factors played a role in Smith being the man that he is: his mother and drug dealers. His mother could have been expected. But the ballroom was filled with “huhs?” when he mentioned the second. Drug dealers controlled
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Smith’s neighborhood. But they noticed Smith had basketball talent. Drug dealers saw he had the potential. So they allowed him to shoot on the basketball courts. They would stop others from dealing drugs on the courts when Smith was practicing. This helped him receive a scholarship to play basketball at Winston-Salem University in North Carolina. An injury would sideline his basketball career, but his journey to that point was due to his roots; he was “a product of the streets.” “What I knew didn’t defend me,” Smith said. “It showed me how to survive.” According to Smith, a person needs both a mentor and a cheerleader in his life. A mentor is someone who is a professional in a field, someone who helps others aspire
to excel. A cheerleader is someone who will guide others during the journey to success. They will be there when a person hits a bump in the road or has success. A person must have both, or they will never succeed. After giving his advice for college students, he answered questions. One dealt with Smith’s recent week suspension from ESPN for comments made about domestic violence. Smith told the audience how he had to defend his four sisters from such violence. He wasn’t upset with ESPN. He was upset at being associated with domestic violence. The night ended with a question from a 50-year-old man with two daughters. He asked what message Smith would relay to students preparing to enter today’s world. Smith explained that today’s
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Television personality Stephen A. Smith spoke to students about his background at the Illini Union on Tuesday.. generation believes the world has to adapt to it, when it’s the other way around. Today’s generation must be willing to put in the work and never feel as if it could’ve done more. “Understand what is wait-
ing for you,” Smith said. “Everybody in here has potential to be better than me.”
Michal can be reached at dwojak2@dailyillini.com.
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