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AAUP Questions University on Status of Al-Arian
By Jordan E. Kurland
The University of South Florida administration dismissed professor Sami Al-Arian in February 2003. Its action followed his indictment and incarceration on criminal charges involving activities in behalf of the Palestinian cause a decade earlier that allegedly provided aid to terrorism. The AAUP, which investigated the dismissal and found severe violations of due process, has retained the case on its agenda pending the outcome of criminal proceedings and a resulting ability to contest the dismissal through academic proceedings.
In May 2005, after Al-Arian had been held in solitary confinement for more than two years, his case finally came to trial on seventeen counts against him by the government. In December, after the government spent nearly seven months presenting its case, the jury acquitted Al-Arian on eight major counts relating to terrorism while not reaching a verdict on the remaining nine counts. Although Al-Arian has not been found guilty of anything, he has now begun his fourth year in detention, with the government prosecutors as of this writing yet to determine whether they will move for a new trial on the undecided counts. Assuming a new trial, the judge has scheduled it for April. (Even if the outstanding criminal charges were to be dropped or Al-Arian were to prevail in a new trial, his being set free in this country is by no means assured. He is a “permanent resident” rather than a citizen, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have indicated that upon conclusion of the criminal case they are prepared to take custody of him and commence deportation proceedings.)
The public reaction of the University of South Florida administration to the results of the Al-Arian trial was confined to a two-sentence statement from the office of media relations. It said that USF was “watching” the legal occurrences and that the university “ended Sami Al-Arian’s employment nearly three years ago and we do not expect anything to change that.”
The AAUP found the brief USF statement at best misleading. Associate general secretary Jordan Kurland wrote to USF president Judy Genshaft in January, conveying the AAUP’s concern over the implication that the Al-Arian appointment had “ended” and no change in the matter was expected. He recounted her published comments on the AAUP investigating committee’s report (May–June 2003 issue of Academe), in which she stated that “it seems both prudent and fair to await the outcome of the criminal process before further decisions are made. Dr. Al-Arian cannot testify in university arbitration proceedings without jeopardizing his criminal defense and it is anticipated that he will ask the university to await the outcome of the criminal case before he proceeds with a grievance directed to the university’s actions. . . . Once a jury returns a verdict, Dr. Al-Arian may be in a position to participate in our process,” at which time one “can better assess” dismissing him “in light of the evidence of his activities.” The associate general secretary requested the president’s assurance that the USF administration’s position on the status of Al-Arian’s case at the university remains as she described it to the AAUP in 2003.
USF general counsel Steven Prevaux, responding on behalf of Genshaft, offered assurance “that whenever the criminal process is completed the University of South Florida remains committed to following all applicable rules and procedures.” The associate general secretary replied that the assurance is welcome. He stated that the AAUP expects “all applicable rules and procedures” to include not only the grievance and arbitration processes to which the president referred but also a provision for faculty peer evaluation of an intent to dismiss that had been adopted at USF following the AAUP’s criticism of the Al-Arian dismissal. Answering, the USF general counsel wrote that, to his best knowledge, “nothing has changed the statements, to which you refer, made by President Genshaft to the AAUP.”
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