Decision on Al-Arian due today

If USF fires him, he will be among only a handful of tenured professors in the nation dismissed each year.

By ANITA KUMAR, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 21, 2002

TAMPA -- Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian professor under federal investigation for suspected links to terrorists, finds out today whether he will be fired from the University of South Florida.

USF president Judy Genshaft, who threatened to fire him eight months ago, will announce her decision this morning at a news conference at the school. Al-Arian expects to be fired.

The university, already the target of anger from both sides of the Al-Arian debate, will make national headlines whatever the decision and find itself in the midst of more controversy just days before classes begin.

Al-Arian, who is on paid leave and banned from campus, has not been told what Genshaft has decided. His attorney, Robert McKee, doesn't expect to know until Genshaft announces it publicly today.

"I expect it to be termination," McKee said.

If Genshaft fires Al-Arian, she will stick to the contractual issues her lawyers have laid out for her, primarily his alleged disruption of the university, and not his suspected ties to terrorism. She could add new contractual reasons for the firing.

Critics, particularly USF faculty members and professors across the nation, say Al-Arian should be protected by academic freedom given to tenured professors. If fired, he would be one of a handful fired each year nationally.

Al-Arian was under federal investigation in the mid 1990s, when agents suspected a think tank he founded was a front for Middle Eastern terrorists. In February, federal authorities said Al-Arian remained under investigation but would not elaborate. He has not been charged with a crime.

The computer science professor made national headlines after his alleged ties to terrorists were aired on national television a few weeks after Sept. 11.

Genshaft put him on paid leave and announced her intention to fire Al-Arian after the USF board of trustees voted 12-1 in December to recommend he be dismissed. She delayed a final decision.

Dick Beard, chairman of the board of trustees, has been vocal about wanting Al-Arian to be fired. He has publicly called Al-Arian a terrorist and said earlier this week he still wants Al-Arian to leave the university. But he also signaled that Genshaft was still wrestling with a decision.

"If she wanted to (fire him), I'm sure it would have been done a long time ago," he said.

Genshaft does have other options: She could reinstate Al-Arian or keep him on leave with or without pay.

If she reinstates him, she could postpone his return to campus to allow the controversy to die down or allow him to use off-campus computers and closed-circuit TV to teach classes.

If she fires him, Al-Arian has said he will file a grievance against USF, a move that would trigger months of meetings and reviews at the university before a hearing that would be presided over by an arbitrator agreed upon by both sides.

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