Bill Ayers Denied Emeritus Status

This photo of domestic terrorist Bill Ayers showing his disdain for America appeared in the New York Times.

From the New York Times, September 11, 2001, read "No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen."


The controversial Ayers, friend of Obama, isn't considered a controversial figure by some. The man who actively sought to overthrow the U.S. government, an enemy of the state, is admired by some, including his colleagues at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Although Ayers has hero status in some extremist circles, the University of Illinois trustees denied the retired Professor Ayers emeritus status.

From the Chicago Tribune:

In a very unusual move, University of Illinois trustees Thursday denied giving emeritus status to controversial retired professor William Ayers.

The vote, at a U. of I. board meeting in Urbana, was unanimous and came after a passionate speech by board chair Christopher Kennedy, who invoked the 1968 assassination of his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, in saying that he was voting his conscience.

The other trustees, without comment, also voted against the appointment.

Ayers, the Vietnam War-era radical, had been an education faculty member at UIC since 1987. He retired effective Aug. 31 and then sought the emeritus faculty status, a largely honorific title that includes some benefits such as library privileges.

While trustees regularly vote on emeritus appointments, they rarely comment about them.

But in an emotional statement, Kennedy discussed his reasons for voting against Ayers' request.

"I am guided by my conscience and one which has been formed by a series of experiences, many of which have been shared with the people of our country and mark each of us in a profound way," Kennedy said.

He said he could not confer the title "to a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father."

Kennedy was referring to a 1974 book co-authored by Ayers, "Prairie Fire," which was dedicated to a long list of people including Robert Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan and "all political prisoners in the U.S."

Read more about Ayers and Prairie Fire here.

...According to the UIC faculty handbook, the granting of emeritus status is "based on merit" and is "an extraordinary title that is given for extraordinary service."

Kennedy said he hoped faculty, staff and Illinois residents "understand my motives and my reasoning" and concluded: "How could I do anything else?"

Read the transcript of Chris Kennedy's comments regarding emeritus status for Ayers here.

Chris Kennedy and the trustees got it right.

It would be outrageous to grant Ayers emeritus status. To honor a man who dedicated his manifesto to Sirhan Sirhan, assassin of Robert F. Kennedy, and advocated the violent overthrow of the U.S. government would be an abomination.

However, some Ayers allies strongly disagree.

Ayers could not be reached for comment, and UIC School of Education Dean Vicki Chou did not return a call from the Tribune. She told the Tribune last month that Ayers has "been really a very good colleague here" and "the good far outweighs any negative press."

A UIC professor said Friday she was "shocked" by the trustees' decision not to grant Ayers emeritus status.

"Professor Ayers has a 47-page resume of academic accomplishments," Barbara Ransby, a professor of history and African-American studies, wrote in an e-mail response to the Tribune. "I am sure his publication and service record far exceeds that of many of our retired colleagues who have been granted emeritus status by the University in the past."

Ransby, who has publicly supported Ayers in the past, said decisions are supposed to be based on "academic merit."

"It is a real threat to academic freedom, and the foundation of a democratic university, when we begin to make professional and institutional decisions based on personal or political sentiments, however strongly felt they may be," she wrote.

Here we go with the "threat to academic freedom" crap. I suppose it's no surprise that the academic freedom card would be played. (It really comes in handy!)

The fact is Ayers was employed as an education professor at UIC since 1987. He chose to retire at the end of summer 2010.

Where's the threat to academic freedom?

UIC proudly had Ayers as a faculty member. He found a home in the Ivory Tower, in the country he intended to undermine via violence and bloodshed.

From Ayers' Prairie Fire:

We are a guerrilla organization. We are communist women and men, underground in the United States for more than four years. We are deeply affected by the historic events of our time in the struggle against U.S. imperialism.

Our intention is to disrupt the empire, to incapacitate it, to put pressure on the cracks, to make it hard to carry out its bloody functioning against the people of the world, to join the world struggle, to attack from the inside.

In spite of Ayers' radical views, the University of Illinois embraced him for decades.

I don't see how academic freedom is being threatened because the trustees made the decision not to HONOR Ayers.

If the Ayers allies were really concerned about freedom, they wouldn't be attempting to take away the freedom of the trustees.

Poor Bill Ayers was denied emeritus status. I guess he'll have to be satisfied with the hero status he enjoys among his fellow radicals.