Looming Clouds

While Al-Arian continued to give speeches, and partisans on all sides waited for the federal court to decide if it would hear the case, the campaign to save the contract that protects all faculty got into high gear.

On campus, there was a growing recognition that the contract between USF Faculty and (the agent of) the State of Florida was set to expire on Jan. 7, 2003. Contracts are an ancient component of law, and it is generally understood that a substantial commitment, like buying a house or holding a job, requires a contract. Even renting an apartment requires a lease. One might think that businessmen would recognize this; certainly, no respectable employer hires employees without a contract. But the USF Board of Trustees, which is supposed to be made up largely of businessmen, made preparations to go boldly forth, without a contract. Since a major part of Al-Arian's case is based on the contract, this would affect him.

But it also would affect everyone else ...

• The USF Oracle is getting uppity. On Sept. 26, the Oracle ran a ``Popcorn Central: Serving Sami: The Al-Arian Debate,'' on possible casting for a movie based on the dispute (Jason Alexander for Al-Arian, Robert Duvall as Richard Beard, Sean Connery as Roy Weatherford, etc.). Alas, this column was not posted on-line, but there was an on-line survey: ``Are you sick of Sami Al-Arian yet?''
• Meanwhile, Campus Watch, the webpage maintained by the Middle East Forum, which tracks suspicious activities at institutions like the University of South Florida, has attracted the attention of the New York Times, which on Sept. 27 reported that Web Site Fuels Debate on Campus Anti-Semitism. Eight professors (including former USF Professor John Esposito) were listed, and in a show of solidarity, 100 scholars have asked to be listed (the gentle webmaster has asked that Campus-Watch add a link to this site). Middle East Forum Director Daniel Pipes, who has long been concerned about politicized Islam, said that ``We're engaged in a battle over ideas,'' and that ``We weren't trying to rile people.'' But Queens College Hebrew professor Ammiel Alcalay said, ``it's that whole mode of terror by association, with the cold war language of dossiers, and we're watching you.'' Although there were (at the time) only 14 institutions listed, and USF was one of them, the Times did not mention USF.
• On Oct. 6, Al-Arian spoke at an anti-war rally at New York Central Park, as reported in the Oct. 7 Columbia University Columbia Daily Spectator story Rumor of Vote on Iraq Draws Protesters to NYC: An anti-war rally was staged in Central Park Sunday, fueled by the possibility of a Congressional vote for war. The Spectator reported that there were 20,000 people at the rally. .
• Meanwhile, Professor & Ms. Al-Arian are taking Ms. Al-Arian's brother's case to the public. An Arabic-language newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported that eleven Arab nations had denied Al-Najjar entrance when Lebanon deported him, and also reported that Al-Najjar was under house arrest (Al-Arian said Al-Najjar was ``under some restrictive conditions'').
  • The Oct. 8 USF Oracle reported on a forum on A new racism? Panelists at a civil liberties forum said immigrants have become the target of racial profiling since the Sept. 11 attacks. One of the speakers was Ms. Al-Arian, who said of her brother, ``I thank God he is still alive, but he is still not here.''
  • The Oct. 8 USF Oracle also reported that Al-Arian takes Al-Najjar's cause to the masses: Sami Al-Arian goes on a show broadcast throughout the Arab world to plead for Al-Najjar. The Arabic-language show, ``The Issues of the Hour,'' carried what Al-Arian called an appeal to the leadership of the Arab world.
• On Oct. 8, World Net Daily columnist Joseph Farah wrote in Baghdad Bonior that Michigan Congressman David Bonior, in going to Iraq to investigate conditions there, and in assisting Al-Arian and Al-Najjar, and in having Al-Arian's son as an intern, is an example of how ``the Democrats – far too many of them – are evil, pure and simple. ... They are outright traitors themselves or apologists ... They are enemies of the American people and the American way of life.'' Incidentally, although Farah was using Bonior as an example of why Americans should vote against Democrats, Bonior himself was not running for election, having already lost the Democratic primary for governor.
• Meanwhile, Al-Arian's motion to move the USF suit against Al-Arian to federal court is before U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew. The USF Board of Trustees countered with a petition to the federal court to refrain from dismissing the suit, and to leave the suit in state court.
  • The Oct. 9 St. Petersburg Times reported that Judge sorts the issues in Al-Arian struggle.
  • The Oct. 9 Tampa Tribune reported that USF Says Al-Arian Suit Belongs In State Court.
  • The Oct. 10 USF Oracle reported that BOT files Al-Arian counter argument.

Al-Arian is a speaker at a controversial conference at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) held its Second National Student Conference on the Palestine Solidarity Movement on Oct. 10 - 12, and one of its speakers is Al-Arian, who is to speak on "Academic Freedom in Political Advocacy." Two students filed a suit to prevent some of the speakers, especially Al-Arian, from speaking: the defendents are the University of Michigan Board of Regents, and University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman. Their lawyer was the celebrity lawyer-journalist Debbie Schlussel.

• The Oct. 8 Associated Press reported that *Students sue University of Michigan over pro-Palestinian conference, and quoted the plaintiffs denouncing divestiture.
• The Oct. 9 University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Daily Michigan reported that Conference lawsuit may go to judge, and quoted one of the plaintiff's saying, ``If conference organizers would agree to dis-invite the speakers listed in the complaint, we would drop the lawsuit immediately.''
• The Oct. 10 Associated Press reported that *Lawyer wants judge to halt U. of Michigan conference, and quoted University of Michigan General Counsel Marvin Krislov saying, ``An attempt to impose a gag order violates the most fundamental precepts of the First Amendment.''
• The Oct. 10 Detroit Free Press reported that Lawyer tries to block U-M disinvestment conference: Session about dumping Israeli stocks a concern, in which the plaintiff's attorney warned that the conference may incite violence.
• On Oct. 10, CNN's Talk Back Live talked to some of the combatants: New Information on Tarot Card Found Near Sniper Scene; Pro- Palestinian Conference on Michigan Campus Provokes Protests, Lawsuit.

• The Oct. 11 Detroit Free Press reported that Student group battles U-M conference: Pro-Israel rally opposes bid for disinvestment; lawsuit filed.
• The Oct. 11 USF Oracle reported that Group tries to stop Al-Arian speech: Two students filed suit against the University of Michigan to halt visits by Sami Al-Arian and others. A judge refused to hear the case. Some interesting quotes:
  • From the plaintiffs' lawyer: ``We think his audience is very receptive to violence.''
  • From one of the conference organizers: ``Anybody that's opposed to their views, (they) want to try and stifle them.''
  • From one of the plaintiffs: ``The university is going to suffer. They're going to lose a lot of alumni dollars.''
  • From an unrelated Oct. 11 USF Oracle story on a USF administrator accused of sexual harassment, his superior said: ``Our policy is that I can't confirm or deny anything in regards to personnel issues.''
• The Oct. 11 Michigan Daily ran five interesting stories:
  • First, the Judge denies hearing in suit brought against conference.
  • At a Hillel rally urges campus to take stance, one of the speakers said, ``When a group of propagandists hijacks the University of Michigan and uses its good name to promote anti-Semitism, we are under attack.'' But a student was paraphrased saying, ``student groups on this campus only represent two extreme views of the conflict, and there is no group that brings the two together.''
  • And in Speakers discuss infringed civil liberties, government, Al-Arian said, ``Since Sept. 11, our nation has been at war - not just with the ugly face of terrorism - but with the ugly face of intolerance ... as if Sept. 11 has given a green light to trample on other people's rights.''
  • In ``Divestment is an excellent strategy for educating students on economic ties and it's the most effective way that students in the U.S. can participate in the movement to end the oppression of the Palestinians'', interviewees speak out on the divestment movement.
  • And all this is being fought over the web: At the University of California at Berkeley, people on both sides of the debate launched websites supporting their cause. These websites in turn have led other universities to do the same. The only website this webmaster could find was the website for The UC Justice Campaign.
• The Oct. 11 Jerusalem Post reported that *US students protest anti-Israel conference, and quoted a plaintiff saying, ``We believe that this conference, based on its guiding principles and the speakers, is supportive of terrorism ... .''
• The Oct. 12 St. Petersburg Times reported that USF professor gets caught in new cross-fire: University of Michigan students try to stop a conference where Sami Al-Arian is speaking. The article quoted UM President Mary Sue Coleman saying that the school had the ``right to explore and debate the widest possible range of ideas, even if those ideas are offensive and repugnant to some members of the community.''
• The Oct. 13 Detroit Free Press reported in their story that Protests continue at U-M disinvestment conference, that people were protesting verbally. And for once, there is a story on this episode that did not mention Al-Arian.
• The Oct. 14 Jerusalem Post reported that *Anti-Israel conference divides Jewish students reported that U-M Hillel recommended that members simply avoid the conference, and quoted Deborah Schlussel complaining that ``Hillel is struggling to keep Jewish students on the left wing side of Israeli politics,''
• On Oct. 14, the Chronicle of Higher Education posted an overview: Hundreds of Students Nationwide Gather at U. of Michigan to Plan Campus Strategy for Pro-Palestinian Movement, which said that 400 students attended the conference, and that the primary topic was the movement to divest from Israel.
• Meanwhile, the Oct. 14 Detroit Free Press reported that Mideast tensions square off at U-M: Pro-Israeli group counters Palestinian conference that opponents of the conference had an ``anti-conference'' featuring John Loftus with a video.
• Meanwhile, the Oct. 14 USF Oracle reported in Loftus, Al-Arian speak in Michigan: Pro-Israeli and Pro-Palestinian conferences at the University of Michigan draw protests that one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to block the conference claimed that two `pro-Palestinians' were in some kind of altercation resulting in an arrest (a U-M security spokesman knew of no such action) and that Al-Arian was personally confronted (Al-Arian said he wasn't).
• On Oct. 15, the University of Michigan Michigan Daily published a column by Adli Neuman, dated Oct. 10, on Viewpoint: Terrorism, anti-Semitism and the conference, which sharply criticized the conference organizers for inviting Al-Arian.
• The Oct. 16 Michigan Daily covered the conference, reporting that Conference fuels discussion on Middle East. In the midst of many quotes on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were several closer to home. For example:
  • Each conference session began with the statement: We will protect the right of individuals to speak or perform, and the rights of those members of the University community who wish to hear and communicate with the invited speaker or artist ... Protesters also have a right to express their opposition to a speaker in appropriate ways ... however, protesters must not interfere unduly with communication between a speaker or artist and members of the audience.
  • Al-Arian said: We have an atmosphere of intimidation that reaches the highest powers of the government, (which is) partly ideological and partly political ... Today, the nation is being challenged. The Constitution and Bill of Rights are being challenged (by the Patriot Act.)
  • One of Al-Arian's critics said: We support peace, this conference supports terrorism and suicide bombing. Sami Al-Arian is a member of Islamic Jihad, and Islamic Jihad supports suicide bombing.
• The Oct. 16 USF Oracle ran an analysis on how Al-Arian, Loftus a microcosm of world troubles; Rob Brannon, the Oracle reporter covering the story, wrote that the ``weekend's real issue was the debate between Israeli and Palestinian supporters,'' and that ``Both sides blamed the other for being violent. Both said the other was misinformed.''

On Oct. 8, UFF ran a 4/5-page ad in the USF Oracle containing a open letter from USF/UFF President Roy Weatherford on the contract. Weatherford wrote that no one knows what will happen when the contract expires on Jan. 7, but that as statements from the USF Administration were inconsistent and ambiguous, UFF was taking the precaution of initiating a campaign to collect petitions (``Collective Bargaining Authorization'' cards) to assure that should the USF Administration refuse to recognize UFF as the designated collective bargaining agent for the faculty, there would be a ``certification election'' to decide that point.
Coincidentally, the USF Administration also sent an open letter out to faculty that week, via e-mail. Although an Oct. 5 St. Petersburg Times story had reported that the letter would be from USF President Genshaft, on Oct. 11, USF Provost David Stamps sent out a letter to the faculty on the USF Board of Trustees (BOT), UFF, and the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The letter lists 21 questions and answers, most of which are factual, but includes four interesting points:

• The letter states that the CBA expires on Jan. 7, 2003. This is interesting because UFF contends that Jan. 7 is the date of expiration, while the FBOE insists that the date is Jan. 6. (The Board of Trustees becomes the employer of USF faculty on Jan. 7, so if the contract is still in force then --- if only for a few hours --- then the contract is the status quo for the Board.)
• The letter states that (in the legal opinion of the USF Administration) the Board of Trustees does not have the power to recognize UFF as the designated bargaining agent for USF. It does not address whether the BOT could or should make a binding or non-binding statement of its intentions.
• The letter states that the BOT will not oppose a petition by UFF to PERC unless called on to do so.
• The letter states that when the contract expires, ``the terms and conditions for employment of USF faculty members will be governed by Florida Statutes, FBOE rules (formerly SUS rules), USF rules, and the policies contained in the USF Faculty Handbook. This presumes that (a) no external authority will require the contract to remain in force in an interim between expiration of the current contract and ratification of a new one, and (b) the handbook (which states that it ``is neither an employment contract nor does is bestow any additional rights on faculty regarding the terms and conditions of employment beyond those rights'' enumerated elsewhere, and is subject to change ``with or without notice'' is an enforceable legal instrument.

Q & A at the Faculty Senate

The USF Faculty Senate met on Oct. 16, and the meeting consisted mostly of presentations.

• USF President Genshaft said, among other things, that the USF Administration was planning for a 5 % cut in funding after the election.
• USF Senator Susan Greenbaum asked Provost David Stamps about the statement in his letter that the USF Board of Trustees could not bargain with UFF until January 7, when the Board assumed its full powers. Professor Greenbaum asked if that applied to all university contracts, e.g., the contract with the food vendor. Provost Stamps said that his letter reflected the legal opinion of USF's counsel, and he did not know about other contracts.

There were two particularly relevant items. One was the usual presentation by USF/UFF Chapter President Roy Weatherford, who spoke about the certification campaign now underway. Professor Weatherford said that under labor law, if a contract expires during bargaining, the contract remains in force until a new contract is ratified. Since the USF Administration was refusing to bargain, UFF decided to protect the contract by launching a campaign to ask faculty to petition for a ``certification election'':

• If UFF wins such an election, USF would have to bargain.
• Moreover, once sufficiently many petitions were turned in, working conditions cannot legally be changed.

Thus the certification effort should prevent the contract from being unilaterally abrogated.
The other interesting item was a presentation by David Kerr, Professor of Mathematics at Eckerd College, and President of the Florida Conference of the

• Out of thousands of institutions of higher learning in the ] USA, 53 are currently censured. The effect of being censured varies: some schools work hard to get off the list; others have been on for up to four decades. What happens is this: the General Secretary (currently Mary Burgan) authorizes an Investigation, which leads to an investigative team going to the school (as the team came to USF last March). This team may write a report to Committee A (the committee on academic freedom and tenure). There are several drafts, and both sides of the dispute are given drafts, and opportunities to comment. The AAUP will also encourage resolution of the dispute. However, if it gets that far, a final version of the report is published in the flagship journal of the AAUP, Academe. Then at the annual June Meeting of the AAUP, if the dispute is still not resolved, Committee A can bring the issue before the Meeting, which may choose to ``censure'' the institution. Then the institution stays censured until lifted at a subsequent Meeting. Lifting censureship usual entails reforms, redress to injured faculty, and a commitment to academic freedom and tenure.
• There were several questions and statements, including:
  • Q: USF is going to be reviewed soon by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Might censureship affect accreditation?
    A: SACS is concerned about academic freedom and tenure, so quite possibly, yes.
  • Q: Will the lawsuit affect the decision?
    A: AAUP is not governed by the outcome of the lawsuit.
  • Q: How might censure affect faculty recruitment, student recruitment, grant funding, etc?
    A: Effects of censure are often indirect, so it is hard to say.
  • Senator Sang-Hie Lee said that ``this is about un-measurable campus climate and culture ... that's what is at stake.
  Incidentally, Stamps and Genshaft left before Kerr's speech.

• From Weatherford: ``This is a period fraught with peril. [The administration] has already taken a position that the contract will expire. They refuse to take any positive steps to try to stop that.''
• From Genshaft: I'm sorry that (Weatherford) is fearful ... [But] we plan to operate in a regular fashion. We don't have any other motives.''

• One resolution passed called for ``the United Faculty of Florida and its affiliates to take all legal means neceessary to protect the collective-bargaining rights of faculty at the University of South Florida.''
• Another resolution enumerated some issues for bargaining. One should be familiar to Al-Arian junkies: ``the definition of just cause for firing a tenured faculty member through a concrete, exclusive list and the explicit prohibition against firing a faculty member for `disruption' that is the responsibility of a third party.''
• There were some concerns expressed about the recent draft of the 2002 - 2007 Strategic Plan, to be presented to the Board of Trustees on November 21.
• There was a presentation by UFF (state-wide) President Tom Auxter, who observed that the State of Florida faces a $ 4 billion deficit, which will lead to massive cuts during this academic year. He said that the contract is the best protection for faculty in such a time, and warned that if the contract was allowed to expire, it would be very difficult to pick up the pieces and get an at least comparable contract back in place.

• Al-Arian spoke at Ohio State University on Oct. 16, as reported in the Oct. 17 Columbus Dispatch story Educator Laments 'Attacks' on Muslims. Al-Arian is quoted saying: ``These kinds of attacks have been taking place for years, especially since 1995, but liberties have only been threatened since Sept. 11 because America feels hysteria.''
• On Oct. 20, the Sarasota post of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States voted to support the dismissal of Al-Arian; this was reported in the Oct. 23 Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
• On Oct. 27, the Chapel Hill Herald reported that in a panel discussion on academic freedom, *Professor questions academic freedom: Penn scholar calls colleges inconsistent on issues of liberty, Pennsylvania State historian Alan Kors claimed that universities have been violating academic freedom of conservatives for some time now; there was some kind of interchange between him and Duke Law Professor William van Alstyne (chairman of the AAUP team that visited USF last March) on Al-Arian.
• Patrick Swygert, President of Howard University, the only academic on the USF Board of Trustees, and the only trustee to vote against the recommendation to dismiss Al-Arian, resigned Oct. 22. His resignation was announced in an Oct. 28 e-mail from USF spokesman Michael Reich's office, which said that Swygert resigned to spend more time on other extracurricular duties (he's on a number of boards and things. See the Oct. 29 USF Oracle article Swygert steps down from BOT, the Oct. 29 St. Petersburg Times article Howard University leader resigns from USF board, and the Oct. 29 Tampa Tribune article Appointments Force Swygert To Quit USF Trustees Board.
• On Oct. 30, American University Mathematics & Statistics Professor Mary Gray published a column in Newsday on how Free Speech Protects Even the Least Popular. She wrote: ``The ability freely to express our views is what distinguishes the United States from many countries, including those from which the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists came.''
• On Nov. 1, Debbie Schlussel published a column in The Jerusalem Post on Who funded the Michigan hate-fest? Ms Schlussel had represented two students who tried to prevent Al-Arian from speaking at the Second Annual Palestinian Students Divestment Conference at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, on Oct. 10 - 12. She identifies three funding sources, which she claims are anti-Semitic and associated with terrorists: the Islamic Association for Palestine, the Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor, and the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services.
• On Nov. 3, Al-Arian spoke at an anti-war protest at MacDill Air Force Base.
  • The Nov. 3 Associated Press reported in *Anti-war protest held outside MacDill Air Force base that Al-Arian said, ``Iraq does not represent a threat to the United States ... Iraq is not harboring al-Qaida; the real threat is the terrorists.''
  • The Nov. 4 USF Oracle reported in Al-Arian leads anti-war protest that there were about 500 protesters at the rally, which was sponsored by several civil rights groups, including the NAACP, the American Muslim Alliance and the American Indian Movement.
  • The Nov. 4 St. Petersburg Times reported that MacDill is venue for war protest: Anti-war protesters gather at the air force base's Dale Mabry entrance to object to a possible war with Iraq, and quoted Al-Arian saying, ``We must not confuse patriotism with hatred ... To be patriotic is to be able to question the government.''