Farewell to Finkelstein

By Alicia Dorr in News on Sep 6, 2007 5:57PM

We told you a while back about the protests from DePaul students and teachers when professor Norman Finkelstein was denied tenure. The outcry continued yesterday as students marched in protest at the school's Lincoln Park Campus until Finkelstein addressed the crowd with news of his resignation.

Students and others who supported Finkelstein throughout the debacle had varied reasons for doing so, ranging from his controversial beliefs regarding Israel to suspicions of shady politics at the school regarding the professor. That's why it came as a surprise to some when Finkelstein explained that he and the school's officials had reached a mutual agreement, and that he was moving on.

In the joint statement DePaul officials praised Finkelstein as "a prolific scholar and an outstanding teacher," despite memos and accounts of what we'd consider mutual, blind, unadulterated hatred continuing to surface. Finkelstein's remarks also had a surprisingly conciliatory tone with regard to the university.

We're disappointed for all of the students who clearly loved Finkelstein but, unfortunately, DePaul just wasn't that into him. We don't know if that makes the school square or Finkelstein hip, but it's not like either party is disappearing. We bet it will be hard for those who fought so hard for Finkelstein to let go, but we think they might be better off chalking the whole thing up to a character clash and moving on.

Copy of "Agreement" by DEL (Dellapizza) via greektravel.com.