In the Chronicle of Higher Education:
DePaul University has canceled all of Norman G. Finkelstein’s courses, taken away his office, and put him on administrative leave for his final year, but the controversial political scientist said that would not stop him from coming back to teach this fall. If necessary, he says, he will go to jail.
In an e-mail message, Mr. Finkelstein told The Chronicle that he intended “to show up on the first day of the academic year to teach my classes (students are currently searching for an alternative venue) and to use my regular office in the political-science department. If the university attempts to impede my movements, I intend to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience and go to jail. If incarcerated, I intend to go on a protracted hunger strike until DePaul comes to its senses.”
“It is regrettable,” Mr. Finkelstein continued, “that I have been driven to such drastic actions to defend basic principles of academic freedom and my contractual rights, upon which DePaul has been riding roughshod for so long.”
Mr. Finkelstein lost his bid for tenure at DePaul in June, after a bitter public fight that involved the Harvard University law professor Alan M. Dershowitz.
Mehrene E. Larudee, an assistant professor of international studies who supported Mr. Finkelstein, was denied tenure by DePaul at the same time, in another case that attracted widespread attention and criticism. A university spokeswoman said that Ms. Larudee’s case was not connected with Mr. Finkelstein’s “in any way,” and that Ms. Larudee is still scheduled to teach this year.