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The American Association of University Professors could censure USF, giving the school a bad name among academics groups.
By GRAHAM BRINK, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 7, 2002
TAMPA -- The American Association of University Professors said Wednesday it will send a team of investigators to the University of South Florida this spring to examine the university's treatment of controversial professor Sami Al-Arian.
The association has concluded that the case "has raised issues of academic freedom, tenure and due process that are of basic concern to the academic community and are incumbent on us to address," associate general secretary Jordan Kurland wrote in a letter to USF president Judy Genshaft.
At stake is a possible censure by the association.
That could harm the university's ability to attract top faculty and research money. Genshaft said in a news release that she welcomed the visit and was pleased to give the association the opportunity "to review our facts and data with such a respected body."
Tentative plans call for a three-person committee made up of professors from other universities to visit USF for two days in early March. The committee members will privately interview USF administrators, the board of trustees, faculty members and others whom the university decides they should meet.
Al-Arian was the focus of a federal investigation in the mid 1990s, when agents suspected that an Islamic think tank he operated at USF was a front for Middle Eastern terrorists.
Al-Arian was never charged with a crime.
Genshaft is considering whether to fire Al-Arian, a tenured computer science professor who came under a firestorm of criticism after his alleged ties to terrorists were aired on national television last fall.
Genshaft has said, among other things, that Al-Arian violated contractual agreements and that his presence on campus jeopardizes the safety of students and faculty. The faculty union strongly opposes dismissing Al-Arian, saying it would violate the tenets of academic freedom and free speech. Al-Arian is currently on paid leave.
Genshaft's decision is expected soon, although Kurland said in his letter that he would like her to hold off until after the association committee has a chance to make a report. A university spokesman said the president would have to take a few days to decide whether to comply with Kurland's request.
Since its inception in 1915, the American Association of University Professors has taken a lead role in developing the principles and standards that govern the relationship between faculty and administration in higher education.
Many academic organizations look to the association to tell them which universities are credible.
If the association were to issue a formal censure, USF would become only the 10th university in the association's 87-year history to have been blacklisted twice.
In 1964, then-USF president John Allen refused to hire D.F. Fleming, a political scientist who had written a book critical of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. That led to four years on the association's censure list.