UPDATE [9/2/14]: Ted Underwood, a professor of English at UIUC, tweets: “Regret to say that last night’s report from students appears premature. Faculty have since met with Wise, & report no change in position.” (via John Protevi, in the comments)
[OP 9/1/14] According to undergraduates who met with her today, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis Wise “has forwarded Professor Salaita’s appointment to the Board of Trustees, and they will be voting on his appointment during the Board of Trustees Meeting on September 11th, on the UIUC campus.” It appears that the boycott (discussed previously here) is having some effect, though see the report from the undergraduates for more detail. (via John Protevi)
I would suspect they’re just trying to provide political cover for the chancellor.
Unfortunately, I think this guy is right:
http://academeblog.org/2014/09/01/update-on-the-salaita-case-and-a-sept-11-board-vote/
Unfortunately, it seems now that the students misunderstood the Chancellor: https://twitter.com/Ted_Underwood/status/506826669311918080
Hmm. I thought Wise deciding to forward it afterall was just a way to duck the charge that she held it back under pressure from fat cat donors. People (meaning I) assume trustees are political and corrupt, so it seemed legally safer to let them do the dirty work and pretend the Chancellor was an academic who valued scholarship. Now I’m confused.