For leaders at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the planned retirement from teaching of former Vietnam War-era radical William Ayers will be a great loss.

Ayers, who has served as an education professor at UIC since 1987, is celebrated on campus for his academic contributions, particularly in the area of school reforms, said UIC education Dean Vicki Chou.

“He’s been really a very good colleague here,” Chou said. “He has hundreds of students who really cherish that they’ve had the experience of being taught by him.”

“(But) over the years, you just roll with it because we know who he really is, and the good far outweighs any negative press,” she said

Read more at the Chicago Tribune