Bill Ayers, Professor No More

by Collin Hitt Bill Ayers – state employee and university professor in Illinois for 25 years – is retiring. He’ll get the normal pension perks due to state university professors, but he won’t get the ornamental emeritus title.  When the decision was considered by the board of trustees last month, University of Illinois chairman Chris...

by Collin Hitt

Bill Ayers – state employee and university professor in Illinois for 25 years – is retiring. He’ll get the normal pension perks due to state university professors, but he won’t get the ornamental emeritus title.  When the decision was considered by the board of trustees last month, University of Illinois chairman Chris Kennedy inveighed against Ayers, whose body of work included a book dedicated to  a man named Sirhan Sirhan, known to the world solely because he murdered a man running for president – the victim being Bobby Kennedy, the U of I chairman’s father.

The Chicago Tribune reports today that the University faculty senate is considering an appeal of the decision.  The student senate is urging an appeal as well.

“I also think that there was a bit of a conflict of interest that should have been ironed out before the meeting,” said Ellithorpe, a sophomore from Highland Park [who is fighting on behalf of Ayers’ emeritus status].

I don’t mean to condescend – college-age interns are often the life-blood of the Illinois Policy Institute. They are mature and able to handle sophisticated ideas.  But…”conflict of interest”? Grow up, man.

And may readers be reminded that Ayers was unanimously denied tenure by the board, not unilaterally by Kennedy.

My friend Anne Neal got in a good quote, towards the bottom of the story.

Meanwhile, reflecting national interest over the Ayers’ decision, the president of a prominent academic group released a statement Tuesday urging U. of I. trustees to “hold the line” on their decision and praising Kennedy and other board members for being “willing to do their job.”

“Denying or granting emeritus status to a retired professor is not a question of academic freedom. It is a question of conveying an honorific title,” said Anne Neal, of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.
“The status should not be conveyed automatically — as it perhaps has been done in the past — and the board should not simply be a rubber stamp for the faculty’s recommendations.”