Chicago Tribune on Finkelstein
Chicago Tribune - August 28, 2007 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-depaul28aug28,1,1437195.story DePaul pulls plug on controversial professor Course cancelled a week before class
By Ron Grossman
The required reading was at the bookstore, the students had the
course syllabus, and space in Political Science 235, “Equality in
Social Justice,” was standing-room only when DePaul University pulled
the plug Friday on what was to have been Norman Finkelstein’s final
year at the school.
A controversial scholar — accused by critics of fomenting anti-
Semitism and lauded by supporters as a forthright critic of Israel –
Finkelstein attracted wide attention across the academic world when
he was denied tenure in the spring.
By Monday, the books for his course had been pulled from the DePaul
bookstore’s shelves, while his case was restarting a firestorm of
protest. The American Association of University Professors was
preparing a letter to the university, protesting Finkelstein’s
treatment as a serious violation of academic ethics.
Finkelstein vowed not to take the rebuff lying down — or, perhaps
more correctly, to do something just like that. In addition to
canceling his course, the university informed him that his office was
no longer his.
“I intend to go to my office on the first day of classes and, if my
way is barred, to engage in civil disobedience,” Finkelstein, 53,
said in a telephone interview. “If arrested, I’ll go on a hunger
strike. If released, I’ll do it all over again. I’ll fast in jail for
as long as it takes.”
Fall classes start Sept. 5 at DePaul, where Finkelstein has been a
faculty member for six years. During that time, his star has risen
and fallen at the Catholic school, founded by the Vincentian order.
His books brought him far-reaching renown. They also were condemned
for their provocative language, as in the “The Holocaust Industry,”
where he called efforts to get compensation from Germany for World
War II slave laborers a “shakedown.” Finkelstein, himself Jewish, has
described leaders of American-Jewish organizations as “Holocaust-
mongers.”
He has engaged in a long-running feud with Harvard University law
professor Alan Dershowitz, a strong supporter of Israel. He has
charged Dershowitz with appropriating other scholars’ findings;
Dershowitz was similarly skeptical of the legitimacy of Finkelstein’s
work when asked by DePaul to comment on his application for tenure,
the academic equivalent of a lifetime job guarantee.
Nonetheless, Finkelstein’s work has been praised by ivory-tower
luminaries such as the distinguished linguist Noam Chomsky and the
late Raul Hilberg, dean of Holocaust historians. Finkelstein’s
supporters are planning a lecture-rally for him in October in Chicago.
Two years ago, Finkelstein was held up as an example of DePaul’s
commitment to freedom of inquiry by its president, Dennis Holtschneider.
Students have held Finkelstein in high regard, reporting that his
tone in the classroom is measured, quite unlike the red-hot rhetoric
of his books.
This year, though, Dean Chuck Suchar found Finkelstein’s scholarship
inconsistent with “DePaul’s Vincentian values,” among them respect
for others’ views. Holtschneider seconded that motion in refusing
Finkelstein’s tenure.
Student support continues
DePaul officials declined to comment on the case. Denise Mattson,
associate vice president for public affairs, said: “Finkelstein has
been assigned to an administrative leave with full pay and benefits
for the 2007-08 academic year. Administrative leave relieves
professors from their teaching responsibilities. He was informed of
the reasons that precipitated this leave last spring.”
He was denied tenure in June, but officials could offer no
explanation for why his courses were left in the schedule.
On Friday, Andrew Riplinger, a DePaul student registered for
Finkelstein’s course, received an e-mail from him.
“Professor Finkelstein wrote that if the course was canceled by the
university, it would be taught at another location,” said Riplinger.
“Then the university sent an e-mail announcing the course had been
canceled.”
Riplinger and other student supporters, fearing such an action, have
been meeting regularly over the summer and communicating their
uneasiness to the administration. Their committee was scheduled to
meet Monday evening in the DePaul student center, Riplinger said.
Final year at school threatened
According to the norms of academia, a professor denied tenure has the
right to a final year of teaching at the university that turns him
down. The watchdog of those rights is the American Association of
University Professors, the umbrella organization of college teachers,
which can censure a school found in violation of its ground rules.
Such a finding also can be the preliminary to a lawsuit against the
university by the faculty member.
According to Jonathan Knight, director of the AAUP’s program in
academic freedom and tenure, a university owes a faculty member
denied tenure more than just a year’s salary. He or she has the right
to a classroom (and presumably an office). A university can’t simply
buy him or her out by invoking administrative leave, Knight said.
He added that a faculty member can’t be put on administrative leave
without a hearing except in an extreme emergency.
“We’re not aware of an emergency requiring DePaul to take such action
at the 11th hour and 59th minute,” Knight said.
Finkelstein said that, rather than filing a lawsuit, he intends to
fight the university’s action with a hunger strike, and the attendant
publicity.
“In the court of public opinion, I can win,” Finkelstein said. “I
say: ‘Let the people judge.’”