U. of Illinois-Chicago faculty leaders may ask trustees to reconsider denying emeritus status to William Ayers
Los Angeles Times
October 1, 2010
Faculty leaders at the University of Illinois-Chicago are weighing whether to ask the board of trustees to reconsider its controversial decision to deny emeritus status to retired professor William Ayers.
It's the latest twist in a showdown 40 years in the making between Ayers, a Vietnam War-era radical who later joined the university faculty, and Christopher Kennedy, the university's board chairman, who was 4 when his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated.
With a passionate speech last week, Kennedy voted against Ayers' appointment, saying he was guided by his conscience and could not support someone who had dedicated a book to the man who assassinated his father. The other trustees, without comment, also voted to deny the title to Ayers, a UIC education professor since 1987.
