Photo by: The News-Gazette

Protesters chant for Chancellor Phyllis Wise to go, in front of the Swanlund Administration Building in Champaign on Tuesday August 26, 2014. Wise chose not to pass on Professor Steven Salaita's appointment to the university's board of trustees.

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URBANA The Steven Salaita saga has landed the University of Illinois on a list it probably would rather not make.

The UI is included in the fourth annual "10 worst colleges for free speech" list published by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

The foundation criticized the UI for revoking a job offer to Salaita after he posted inflammatory tweets about Israel last summer. The decision sparked a nationwide debate over free speech and "civility" on college campuses and prompted boycotts by prominent academic groups.

But campus spokeswoman Robin Kaler argued that the vigorous debate about the decision proved that free speech is alive and well on campus.

"Over the past several months, members of the campus community have expressed a wide array of opinions on a hiring decision. This is the kind of free discussion that is the bedrock of our institution and all of higher education," the UI's statement said.

"Anyone who has witnessed the vigorous and passionate debates that have taken place and are still taking place on our campus would appreciate that there is plenty of space for freedom of expression and opinion."

Salaita had left a tenured position at Virginia Tech to accept a job with the UI's American Indian Studies program when the job was withdrawn by campus administrators. Chancellor Phyllis Wise later issued a statement explaining that the campus would not tolerate "personal and disrespectful words or actions that demean and abuse either viewpoints themselves or those who express them." That prompted critics to charge administrators were imposing a "speech code" on faculty. Wise has repeatedly said that was not her intent.

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Updated: Group puts UI in top 10 'worst colleges for free speech'