I remember hearing about this a while ago, but it’s making another news cycle:

A professor at MIT began a hunger strike yesterday in protest of the university’s decision to deny him tenure. Alleging racism in the workplace, Associate Professor James L. Sherley ’80 has vowed not to eat until MIT offers him tenure and fires Provost L. Rafael Reif.
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“I will either see the Provost resign and my hard-earned tenure granted at MIT, or I will die defiantly right outside his office,” Sherley wrote in an e-mail to the MIT faculty in December.
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Sherley claims that he was unfairly denied lab space and was treated poorly throughout his career at MIT due to his race. Sherley is African-American.

Well, if that’s the way he’s going to behave, maybe MIT made the right decision on tenure.  Since March Madness is right around the corner, let’s have a warmup pool:

1.  Will Sherley starve to death?
2.  What date will he die or eat again?
3.  Will he get tenure at MIT?

I’ll take: 1. No, 2. Wednesday, and 3. No.  He’ll end his strike when MIT publically offers him a new hearing, but they’ll make that offer just so Sherley can live and save face.  He seems to be a talented guy, my guess is that another school will take a gamble and give him a position.

There’s more info in the Globe.