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Al-Arian Indicted, Arrested, and Dismissed
On February 26, University of South Florida president Judy Genshaft notified professor Sami Al-Arian of his immediate dismissal. She based her action on proposed grounds for termination, issued last August after Al-Arian had been kept on paid leave for nearly a year, that accused him of using his academic position to support terrorists.
The dismissal occurred six days after Al-Arian was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) following the return of a fifty-count grand jury indictment. The indictment charges that Al-Arian was a key official in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. It charges him with having managed money for the organization, helped develop its policy, maintained contact with its leaders abroad, and claimed responsibility for bombings in Israel. Genshaft stated that she dismissed Al-Arian because he had used USF "for improper, noneducational purposes" rather than because of the criminal charges, but also said that the activities specified in the indictment "confirm" the administration's position that dismissal is justified.
In a previous development, a federal district court judge in December dismissed the university board's request for a declaratory judgment on whether it could discharge Al-Arian without violating his constitutional rights. The administration stated that it needed this judgment partly to avoid AAUP censure. The court called the claim to be an inappropriate use of judicial resources and stated that a court ruling on the professor's First Amendment rights "would have no binding effect on the AAUP and would serve only as an advisory opinion that the AAUP could ignore in its totality."
Joan Wallach Scott, chair of the AAUP's Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, points out that the FBI's charges against Al-Arian, while manifestly very serious, remain to be proven in a court of law. She decries his dismissal before he had any opportunity to defend himself against the administration's charges. It is especially unfortunate, she says, when the adage of "innocent until proven guilty" is disregarded at an institution of higher learning. Publication of the investigating committee's report is expected in the May-June issue of Academe.
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