A campus day of action was held Tuesday at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign over the unhiring of a professor critical of the Israeli government. Steven Salaita was due to start work as a tenured professor in the American Indian Studies Program. But after posting a series of tweets harshly critical of this summer’s Israeli assault on Gaza, Salaita was told the offer was withdrawn. In his first public comments on the controversy, Salaita told a packed news conference the unhiring has caused personal hardship, leaving his family without income, a home and health insurance. More broadly, Salaita said school administrators are trampling academic freedom.

Steven Salaita: “As hard as this situation is on me personally, the danger of the university’s decision has farther-reaching implications. Universities are meant to be cauldrons of critical thinking; they are meant to foster creative inquiry and, when at their best, challenge political, economic or social orthodoxy. Tenure, a concept that is over a hundred years old, is supposed to be an ironclad guarantee that university officials respect these ideals and do not succumb to financial pressure or political expediency by silencing controversial or unpopular views.”

The school’s Board of Trustees is expected to take up the controversy at a meeting on Thursday.