Home
The Holocaust Industry Past Features Israel-Palestine Conflict The Goldhagen Affair
Biography Contact Letters To Finkelstein Speaking Engagements Search
Beyond Chutzpah Multimedia The Real Axis Of Evil Order Books

Chicago Tribune & International Herald Tribune on settlement

DePaul, embattled professor settle dispute

09.05.2007 | Chicago Tribune

As Finkelstein resigns, university calls him ‘an outstanding teacher’

By Ron Grossman
Tribune staff reporter

The long-running confrontation between embattled professor Norman Finkelstein and DePaul University ended today without the dramatics he had promised.

Instead, he read a statement announcing his resignation this morning on the university’s main quadrangle before about 120 supporters announcing that he and DePaul had resolved the controversy. But the terms were kept confidential.

Finkelstein had vowed to present himself at his office door today and, if denied entrance, to perform an unspecified act of civil disobedience. He vowed to go on a hunger strike if he were jailed.

Finkelstein, a scholar praised and damned for his strong criticisms of Israel, was denied tenure in June. However, his classes remained in the university’s course schedule until abruptly canceled a little more than a week before fall term classes began on the school’s Lincoln Park campus.

At that point, Finkelstein also was notified that he had been put on administrative leave for the 2007-08 school year. By long-standing academic tradition, a professor denied tenure is entitled to one last year in the classroom of his home university.

In July, Finkelstein’s own department of political science had recommended that the 53-year-old professor be put on “non-residential” leave. This was the outcome of allegations that Finkelstein had physically and verbally confronted university officials after his tenure denial.

Finkelstein read both his statement and DePaul’s today. No university official appeared.

In its statement, the university wrote: “Professor Finkelstein is a prolific scholar and an outstanding teacher.”

Generally, the standard for achieving tenure, academe’s equivalent of a life-time job, is scholarship, teaching and service to the institution.

The American Association of University Professors had previously complained to the university that Finkelstein’s summary discharge violated standards of academic freedom.

Although the settlement terms were not disclosed, Finkelstein reiterated his previous determination “to leave with my head unbowed, my reputation intact.”

A colorful demonstration for Finkelstein on campus this morning included representatives of the National Lawyers Guild, the Socialist Workers Party, the Revolutionary Communist League and Jewish Voice for Peace.

Finkelstein has been noted for his support of the Palestinian cause.

rgrossman@tribune.com
Embattled US professor who accused Jews of using Holocaust to stifle criticism agrees to resign

09.05.2007 | International Herald Tribune
By The Associated Press

CHICAGO: A Chicago university professor who has drawn criticism for accusing some Jews of improperly using the legacy of the Holocaust agreed Wednesday to resign immediately “for everybody’s sake.”

DePaul University officials and political science professor Norman Finkelstein issued a joint statement announcing the resignation, which came as about a hundred protesters gathered outside the dean’s office to support him.

Finkelstein, who is the son of Holocaust survivors, was denied tenure in June after spending six years on DePaul’s faculty. His remaining class was cut by DePaul last month.

His most recent book, “Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History,” is largely an attack on Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz’s “The Case for Israel.” In his book, Finkelstein argues that Israel uses perceived anti-Semitism as a weapon to stifle criticism.

Dershowitz, who threatened to sue Finkelstein’s publisher for libel, urged DePaul officials to reject Finkelstein’s tenure bid.

Finkelstein said in the statement that he believes the tenure decision was “tainted” by external pressures, but praised the university’s “honorable role of providing a scholarly haven for me the past six years.”

The school denied that outside parties influenced the decision to deny Finkelstein tenure. The school’s portion of the statement called Finkelstein “a prolific scholar and an outstanding teacher.”

Finkelstein called that acknowledgment the most important part of the statement.

“I felt finally I had gotten what was my due and that maybe it was time, for everybody’s sake, that I move on,” he said at a news conference that followed a morning rally staged by students and faculty who carried signs and chanted “stop the witch hunt.”

Finkelstein said “DePaul students rose to dazzling spiritual heights in my defense that should be the envy of and an example for every university in the United States.”

The professor would not discuss financial terms of the resignation agreement, which he said was confidential, but noted that it does not bar him from speaking out about issues that concern him, including “the unfairness of the tenure process.”

He also said he does not know what he will do next, but came to realize before Wednesday “that the atmosphere had become so poisoned that it was virtually impossible for me to carry on at DePaul.”

“The least I could hope for is to leave DePaul with my head up high and my reputation intact.”
More articles on tenure denial: More articles leading up to the tenure decision:

SHARE THIS POST:
      






What we can do: On Gaza, West Bank, East Jerusalem & the Occupation: On the Lobby & "the New anti-Semitism" On Hezbollah & Hamas: Finkelstein on Israel: QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Video: On the place of civility
in academic life (10.18.2007)
Finkelstein's talk at the academic freedom conference

Tenure Denial Letters
(June - November, 2007)

On How Actual Survivors Were Cheated by
Jewish Organizations: Finkelstein on Jimmy Carter: Israeli civil libertarian's introduction to German edition of Beyond Chutzpah. (03.27.2006)

Communication for Middle East Journal. (02.19.2006)

Alleged Errors in Beyond Chutzpah. (2005)

MEMRI NAZIS (again) (10.23.2006)



New evidence of old lies (2005)
Under the heading DIABOLICAL PLOTS, I stated in Beyond Chutzpah...







Articles and Reviews Related to The Holocaust Industry



Preface to German edition of The Rise and Fall of Palestine

Postscript to German edition of The Rise and Fall of Palestine

The Dershowitz File: