DePaul University’s decision to deny tenure to Norman G. Finkelstein and another professor who supported the controversial scholar prompted student protests last week.
On Wednesday, administrators ejected a group of students and alumni from a conference room, ending a three-day sit-in near the president’s office. The group is demanding that Mr. Finkelstein, an assistant professor of political science, and Mehrene E. Larudee, an assistant professor of international studies, be tenured.
The protestors then moved to a nearby student center. “We sent out an update to the students to tell them that we’re here and we’ve been here all night,” said Kathryn O. Weber, a junior majoring in history and political science. She said most of the 10 students camped out in the student center at the Lincoln Park campus temporarily left Thursday to take a final with Mr. Finkelstein. “We can consider postponing other finals or coming up with arrangements, but for him we wanted to be there,” Ms. Weber said.
Mr. Finkelstein and Ms. Larudee learned that they had been denied tenure on June 8, and both say they are exploring options to fight the decisions. Whereas Mr. Finkelstein says a longtime opponent’s interference led to his being denied tenure, Ms. Larudee says she believes her defense of Mr. Finkelstein derailed her career.
Alan M. Dershowitz, a law professor at Harvard University, sent a dossier attacking Mr. Finkelstein to members of DePaul’s law and political-science faculties last fall. The child of Holocaust survivors, Mr. Finkelstein has written extensively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, accused some Jews of exploiting the Holocaust for personal gain, and publicly feuded with Mr. Dershowitz, who is a zealous defender of Israel.
While faculty members say they are uncertain as to whether Mr. Finkelstein was treated fairly, the decision to deny tenure to Ms. Larudee has created greater upset.
Mr. Finkelstein received a three-page letter from the president detailing his tenure denial while Ms. Larudee’s much shorter letter included only a couple of sentences that purported to explain the abrupt reversal. Praised as “outstanding” by the dean of her college and recommended unanimously by faculty peers during the tenure process, Ms. Larudee was 19 days away from becoming director of DePaul’s program in international studies when her application for tenure was rejected.
In his letter to Mr. Finkelstein, the president, the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, wrote that his “unprofessional personal attacks” have tarnished the professor’s scholarship and that Mr. Finkelstein lacks respect for standards of collegiality outlined in the faculty handbook and elsewhere.