Seven Days in August

At the end of Spring, President Genshaft announced that she would decide whether to fire Al-Arian by August.

In Florida, August is the cruellist month, with temperatures rising to 90, humidity to 100, and the news is dominated with stories of hurricanes past and school years to come. On Aug. 21, five days before the Fall semester began, the USF Administration announced that they indeed intended to fire Al-Arian ... but that they would first submit the proposed Notice of Termination to a court that would rule on its constitutionality. This submission was in the form of a lawsuit, naming Al-Arian as the defendent, but mostly targeting and complaining about the American Association of University Professors.

The result was another news splash like the one in December.

The news of what was supposed to be the long-awaited decision first came from Michael Riech's office on Aug. 20 in the afternoon, announcing that President Genshaft would announce Al-Arian's fate the following morning. By this time, almost everyone publicly and privately expected that Genshaft would fire Al-Arian, and so most observers expected Genshaft to announce on Aug. 21 that she intended to fire him. Indeed, this is where the St. Petersburg Times was come the deadline for putting into type its Aug. 21 story that 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. And technically, that is what happened. But as the Aug. 21 Tampa Tribune explained, Genshaft did both more and less than that: in USF Redefines Al-Arian Case, the Tribune announced that the USF Administration would (1) change its rationale for dismissal by adding the charge that, in BOT Chair Richard Beard's words, ``... this guy is allegedly involved with terrorist activities,'' and (2) instead of firing Al-Arian right away, a new Notice of Dismissal would be presented to a court first, requesting that the court rule on its legality. (See also the Tribune's Aug. 22 article on how Al-Arian History Linked To USF Since 1986.) The story spread rapidly. For example, the White House Bulletin reported that University President To Accuse Professor Of Ties To Terrorists, and quoted BOT Chair Richard Beard saying that, ``It's time we take action and effectively cut this cancer out.'' Then in the small, packed President's Conference room, at 10:05 am, President Genshaft, BOT Chair Richard Beard, Provost David Stamps, and the four external counsels entered and the conference began.

• First, President Genshaft read a statement, expressing her commitment to academic freedom at USF, and continuing to say: In order for us to maintain a climate for academic freedom, we must be able to assure our students, our faculty, our staff and our visitors that USF is a safe place for the pursuit of ideas and free expression. She said she believed that Al-Arian is ``using academic freedom as a shield to cover improper activities,'' and so to protect USF, she is moving to dismiss Al-Arian. However, she will first submit the Notice of Dismissal to a court to have a ruling on its legality; afterwards, it will be sent to Al-Arian, dismissing him from USF. She concluded with the usual statement that as the matter was under litigation, she could make no further statements.
• The lawsuit, filed in the Florida 13th Judicial Circuit Court and naming Al-Arian as the defendent, requests ``declaratory relief'' under Florida Statute Chapter 86, which permits a suit for a court to pass on the legality of certain actions in advance. The suit says that USF would like to fire Al-Arian, but the threat of censure by the AAUP makes a court resolution of ``the actual controversy between the parties'' necessary: the USF Administration has composed a new Notice of Dismissal superseding the one of Dec. 19, 2001, and would like the court to rule on whether it violates Al-Arian's First Amendment rights before it delivers the notice to Al-Arian. Exactly how a court decision would resolve the problem posed by the AAUP was not made clear.
• The new notice is different from the Dec. 19 Notice. The new rationale is that Al-Arian's work in the Islamic Concern Project and the World and Islam Studies Enterprise violated Article 19 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement: Al-Arian's fierce public statements of the late 1980s and early 1990s are cited, together with a complaint that USF's name was used at least once; in addition, the Notice notes that some visitors to the ICP and WISE turned out to be terrorists. In addition, the Notice complains that some of Al-Arian's citizenship application papers were not in order, and that a few days after a 1995 bombing, Al-Arian sent out a fundraising letter to raise funds for more `operations ``such as these''.'
• There followed an extensive Q & A session with the three external counsels, and General Counsel Friedlander, with a few questions to BOT Chair Richard Beard. External Counsel Bruce Rogow said that all this would have been happening if Al-Arian hadn't appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, but he later said that Al-Arian's appearance had been a ``precipitating factor'' and refused to speculate on whether this was a post-Sept. 11 phenomenon: ``what happened, happened.'' Beard confirmed his ``cancer'' quote and said that it was a metaphor; he also said that ``it's my belief that if you associate with terrorists ... then you have ties [to terrorists].'' External Counsel Thomas Gonzalez again dismissed the AAUP as a ``union'' and said that it can do what it wants to do: he did not clarify what the suit was supposed to accomplish with the AAUP (he also said that the suit did not involve the Arab community, and that USF has ``a history of supporting unpopular thought''). Incidentally, Rogow said that ``the university will abide by any court order'' but later said that he meant the ``final'' court order, apparently issued by whatever appeals court makes it.

• Agence France Presse reported on Aug. 21 that *Palestinian teachers in Florida likely to be deported, other could be expelled, and on Aug. 22 that *Palestinian teacher in Florida denies fundraising for terrorists.
• On Aug. 21 and Aug. 22, Associated Press filed a sequence of stories, including one in which Florida Governor Jeb Bush said, ``The guy has ties to people who want to undermine the United States of America,'' and including one carried by the New York Times: University Seeks to Fire Scholar for Reputed Link to Terrorism . See also the Aug. 22 Tampa Tribune's AP story USF President: Al-Arian Has Terrorist Ties, where BOT Chairman Richard Beard says, ``The reality is, this guy's been associated with terrorists for the last 15 years,'' while USF-UFF Chapter Vice President Mark Klisch says, ``They realized they didn't have a case before. They're trying to save face.''
• On Aug. 22, CNN reported that University sues for right to fire Palestinian professor, and quoted Al-Arian saying, ``It's still a case of academic freedom,'' Al-Arian later said at his attorney's office after the lawsuit was filed. ``That hasn't changed. It's just an indication of how politicized the university has become.'' CNN also carried a live segment on Al-Arian and his attorney,
• On Aug. 22, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that **U. of South Florida Accuses Professor of Links to Terrorism and Asks Court to Approve Plan to Fire Him, and reported that many observers were disturbed by the use of the courts in a move that would typically bankrupt a professor. Said USF-UFF Chapter President Roy Weatherford, ``I've been active in defending academic freedom for 28 years, and I've never heard of a university suing a professor for something like this.'' The suit is a new question in the Chronicle's Colloquy: Is the University of South Florida justified in seeking a court order to uphold the legality of firing Sami Al-Arian?.
• On Aug. 22, the Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana) Daily News asks in Our View: Professor faces termination: ``Does anyone remember innocent until proven otherwise?''
• On Aug. 21, FOX News The Big Story carried an *Interview With John Loftus, who says that the Department of Justice was protecting Al-Arian from the FBI.
• On Aug. 22, the Guelph Mercury reported that *Professor accused of terrorist ties; University seeks court permission to dismiss him.
• The Aug. 22 Los Angeles Times reported that University Seeks to Fire Palestinian Professor: Security: Florida school tells court Sami A. Arian has long had terrorism links; But many of his colleagues see academic freedom threatened. The Times quoted USF-UFF Vice President Mark Klisch saying, ``Punishing a man and threatening to fire a man based on rumors, that's just not the American way. All the faculty union has wanted all along is to give this man the due process he deserves.''
• On Aug. 22, the Ohio University (Athens, Ohio) Post editorialized that Accusations alone not grounds for loss of job, saying, ``Intolerance is running rampant in our country, and it is despicable that a university, a cradle of higher education, would contribute to this intolerance and ignorance.''
• The Aug. 22 St. Petersburg Times reported that USF sues for right to fire professor: USF says it can prove that professor Sami Al-Arian has ties to terrorists and asks the court to determine whether firing him would violate his constitutional rights, and quoted external counsel Rogow saying, ``The university has committed itself to the termination of Dr. Al-Arian ... .'' The Times also ran an interview with former federal prosecutor John Fitzgibbons, who called the suit clever but risky, and said that USF could depose Al-Arian and get testimony that could be used against him in subsequent criminal proceedings.
• On Aug. 22, Salon.com asked, Teacher or terrorist? A Florida university is stepping up efforts to sack faculty member Sami Al-Arian, accusing him of terrorist ties. Critics say the charges are specious -- and a threat to academic freedom, and quoted USF English Professor and former Faculty Senate President Nancy Tyson saying, ``This is just another stalling technique to keep him in limbo. They want somebody else to tell them what to do. But eventually it'll end up in Al-Arian's favor. The only question is how long it will drag on.''
• The Aug. 22 Tampa Tribune reported that USF's Dramatic Move Spawns Legal Debate, and covered some of the inside story of how the new strategy came into place. The Tribune also ran Genshaft's full statement.
• The Aug. 22 Washington Post reported that School Seeks Protection In Firing of Fla. Professor.
• The Aug. 22 Washington Times reported that School seeks to fire Palestinian professor, but seemed more interested in John Loftus's suit than USF's.

• The American Association of University Professors reported that AAUP General Secretary Mary Burgan said, ``We are stunned that a university would take one of its own faculty members to court on an academic freedom issue. We certainly recognize the difficulty that President Genshaft has faced in dealing with these issues in the midst of intense political controversy; but that's the very reason that we strongly encourage universities to adhere to nationally recognized standards of academic due process.''
• The Aug. 22 St. Petersburg Times ran an editorial on The Al-Arian factor, writing that `USF's revised case against the professor rightly focuses on his apparent ties to terrorist groups, but turning to the courts only prolongs the controversy.'
• On Aug. 22, St. Petersburg Times columnist Mary Jo Melone wrote that Genshaft's inaction is louder than words, and predicted that this case would drag on for years.

• He said that the new rationale for dismissal was more germane, and he said that bringing the issue to an external forum may calm people, but that the court could not resolve the issue by ruling on whether the Notice of Dismissal violated Al-Arian's First Amendment rights. The issue at the moment is whether said dismissal would violate Al-Arian's contractual rights, and so even if the court ruled in the USF Administration's favor, the issue was still grievable, and would still be resolved by the grievance process.
• In addition commented on a statement by Beard that if Al-Arian was in private industry, Al-Arian would have been fired long ago. Weatherford said that while that would be true in a non-unionized company, in any private company with a union and a collectively bargained contract, the company still could only fire an employee for just cause and follow due process procedures.
• Weatherford said that UFF was concerned for the expense, and not only because as the state with the lowest ranked educational appropriations, Florida could ill afford the cost. The problem was that a lawsuit might be a form of intimidation, since few professors could afford to fight a university (although UFF members have the benefit of the $ 1 million legal defense fund for job related liability). The issue seems unprecedented, and it may be that a lawsuit is a form of discipline, and therefore grievable in itself.
• He concluded by reminding the Board that the time to begin bargaining the next contract is at hand.

• Genshaft electronically broadcast a Letter to the Faculty, which was similar to her Aug. 21 prepared statement, and to the statement that she prepared for the Aug. 26 - Sept. 22 USF Forum.

• CNN host Connie Chung talked with Associate General Secretary of the AAUP Martin Snyder about Professor with Alleged Terrorist Ties Under Fire, where Snyder said, ``What we support is his right to free speech. We may not agree with what he says. I think many of us would violently disagree with him, strenuously disagree with him. But we would certainly respect his right to say ...''
• CNN Talkback Live covered *Professor with Alleged Terrorist Ties Under Fire, a discussion with Hussein Ibish of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Phil Kent of the Southeastern Legal Foundation. Mr. Ibish said, `` I don't think there's a hidden agenda. I think the agenda is overt. I think that ... a lot of charges swirling around created an uncomfortable situation for the university. ... I think ... it's an embarrassment, and ... the easiest thing is just to fire him ...'' Mr. Kent said, ``I am really sad to see the Anti-Discrimination committee, a group I once respected, try to defend this person, this professor. It's not a free speech issue. The man has advocated violence.''
• USF-UFF Chapter President Roy Weatherford appeared on the FOX O'Reilly Factor segment on The Trials and Tribulations of Dr. Sami Al-Arian, where Weatherford said, ``... we are not, of course, defending what Al-Arian said or did. We have no brief for his political agenda at all. We are defending due process, the contractual agreement, and the rights of all faculty under the principles of academic freedom.''
• FOX ran an interview with Al-Arian's attorney Robert McKee on its *Political headlines show, in which McKee said that Al-Arian never raised money for the PIJ, and anyway, that the accusation was that Al-Arian raised money for the PIJ back when doing so was legal.
• CNBC reported that *University of Florida trying to get rid of tenured Professor Sami Al-Arian, accused of having ties with terrorist groups. while NBC reported that *Florida university taking action against pro-Palestinian professor accused of having ties with terrorists.

While all this has been going on, Al-Arian's brother-in-law Mazen Al-Najjar has been in (solitary) detention since November 25, 2001, pending deportation, with an order based on secret evidence Al-Najjar's lawyer has not been permitted to see, pending deportation, although no nation has accepted him. There have been no charges, and the evidence against him is secret, although some of it has evidently been leaked and apparently concerns his activities in WISE and the ICP, where al-Najjar had assisted Al-Arian. The Aug. 19, 2002 St. Petersburg Times reported that Al-Najjar finds a home abroad: An unidentified country will accept the former USF professor after he gains travel documents from the Palestinian Authority Evidently, the FBI is not too keen on keeping Mr Al-Najjar around, despite the ongoing investigation into WISE and ICP.

• This story was picked up immediately by AP, Knight-Ridder, and UPI, and was published in The Tampa Tribune on Aug. 20.
• In an Aug. 20 story on al-Najjar, *US officials order deportation of Palestinian linked to terrorist groups, National Public Radio reports that the Department of Justice is also investigating Al-Arian, but as Al-Arian is a premanent resident, he is ``not deportable.''
• On Aug. 22, CNN reported that Arab professor fights for job as in-law deported. CNN also carried a segment on how *Mazen Al-Najjar Deported to an unnamed nation.
• The Aug. 20 Miami Herald carried the Knight-Ridder story that Ms. Al-Najjar said her husband ``is 45, but he looks 60; he is diabetic and very skinny,'' in *Muslim cleric to be deported; case watched by civil libertarians.

• In its Aug. 23 article US deports Palestinian academic, BBC News quoted a Randall Marshall of the American Civil Liberties Union saying that imprisoning Mr al-Najjar on secret evidence was unconstitutional, and that the ``10 months that he spent in solitary confinement was nothing more than the raw exercise of government power.''
• The Aug. 23 St. Petersburg Times reported that Al-Najjar in limbo as he heads to Bahrain. Ms Al-Arian, Al-Najjar's sister, said, ``We are very very worried about his safety. We are praying he will be safe and join his family.''
• The Aug. 24 St. Petersburg Times reported that Al-Najjar's odyssey a diplomatic debacle, adding ``After Bahrain rejects Mazen Al-Najjar, Italy lets him wait temporarily. Where the stateless Palestinian will go next is unclear.''
• The Aug. 24 Tampa Tribune reported that Bahrain Refuses To Take Al-Najjar.

• The Aug. 24 Associated Press reported that *Deported Palestinian professor lands in Middle East (in which the `second secretary at the Embassy of Bahrain in Washington,' said `that Al-Najjar's deportation by the United States and the publicity his case had generated had influenced Bahrain's decision to turn away the professor'), and that *Deported Palestinian professor lands in Lebanon, plans to move elsewhere soon (in which Al-Arian said, ``He's extremely happy and he said to me he can now resume his intellectual activity.'' By Sunday, the headline was *Deported Palestinian professor lands in Lebanon, plans to move to South Africa.
• The Aug. 25 St. Petersburg Times reported that Al-Najjar had Landed in Lebanon with hopes of resettling in South AFrica, and that he was met by his sister Hala Al-Najjar at the airport. The Times also reported the details of the flight in their story on how a 'Wandering Palestinian's' ordeal ends.
• The Aug. 25 Tampa Tribune reported that Al-Najjar's Fight For Freedom Has Ended, in which Al-Najjar's attorney, Georgetown University Professor David Cole, said, ``... in the name of fighting terrorism, our country locked him up without any criminal charges and without letting him see the evidence used against him for more than four years. That's not a way to fight a war on terrorism.'' The Tribune also reported that Al-Arian: Al-Najjar Accepted In Lebanon.

• On Aug. 26, Agence France Presse reported that *Lebanon criticizes American's deportation of Palestinian professor, reporting that Lebanese Parliament Speaker (and a leader of the Amal militia) Nabih Berri complained ``Has Lebanon become an open land so that an official American plane, hired by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, lands at Beirut's airport and unloads its cargo then takes off as if nothing happened?''
• On Aug. 27, the USF Oracle reported that Lebanon investigates Al-Najjar arrival: Former USF adjunct Mazen Al-Najjar causes Lebanese officials to question U.S. motives, and that Al-Arian said, ``They just sneaked his plane into the airspace there and dumped him off there.''
• On Aug. 28, the Tampa Tribune reported that Controversy Follows Al-Najjar To Lebanon, and quoted Speaker Berri saying ``This operation looks like an infiltration ...''

As far as the collision between UFF and the USF Administration is concerned, this is ultimately a contractual dispute, and thus the status of the contract is a serious issue. (See the page on Florida academics for historical background.) The reorganization of the Florida universities from a single State University System (SUS) to collection of semi-independent institutions, and changing the legal employer of faculty from the State of Florida to various Boards of Trustees, may affect the contract.
Legally, the contract was negotiated between UFF (on behalf of the faculty of the SUS) and the Board of Regents (BOR, on behalf of the State of Florida). UFF's authority arose from the fact that UFF had won two ``certification elections,'' i.e., presented with several options (be represented by UFF, be represented by a competitor, not have a union at all and just accept whatever contracts the BOR writes), a plurality of the faculty voted for UFF. Usually, an employer cannot get rid of a union simply by reorganizing, but we live in strange times, and in Florida, and some of the reorganizers had already said that perhaps UFF needed to be recertified. (To be fair, such statements were often accompanied by assurances that ``union-busting'' was not an intended effect of reorganization.) Thus UFF chose to go to the state agency that overlooks such matters, the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC). On Aug. 22, UFF mailed petitions to ``conform, modify and/or amend certification'' for each of the ten universities and New College to PERC; essentially, UFF was asking to remain the designated bargaining agent for each, including USF.

The Roots of Coincidence

On Aug. 25, the St. Petersburg Times ran an opinion piece by Ted Gup, former reporter for The Washington Post and Time magazine, and now Shirley Wormser Professor of Journalism at Case Western Reserve University. Entitled ``The Danger of Finger-Pointing,'' it had already run as You May or May Not Be a Suspect, But You Will Be All Over the News in the Aug. 18 Washington Post. The piece is about Lousiana State University associate director of the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training Steven Hatfill, who was labelled ``a person of interest'' in the FBI investigation of the anthrax attacks that followed the carnage of Sept. 11 last Fall. In the article, there appears the following paragraph:

You know investigators have a weak hand or no hand at all when they turn to reporters before they make their case. The cycle is all too familiar: There's the initial leak of a name, followed by narrative-driven profiles filled with what might be called the suspect's ``forensic eccentricities,'' behavioral deviations that bolster otherwise anemic cases. There's the nasty, decades-old divorce, or the shelf of X-rated videos, even the midnight walk observed. Any of these can enhance the narrative, while providing ersatz evidence of a sociopath on the loose. We journalists all know how it's done, indeed are inadvertently trained to use the alchemy of reporting to turn irrelevance into insight, coincidence into culpability. Hadn't Richard Jewell a spotty employment record? Wasn't Wen Ho Lee something of a loner -- and foreign-born to boot?

The National Center, an ``Academy of Counter Terrorist Education,'' is closely connected with the US Department of Justice --- Office of Domestic Preparedness. On Sept. 3, 2002, LSU **fired Dr. Hatfill as announced by LSU Chancellor Mark A. Emmert.

• Agence France Presse reported that *US civil liberties activists criticize treatment of Palestinian professors.
• FOX News reported that Florida Professor Denies Terror Ties, and that Al-Arian's attorney, Robert McKee, would seek to move the case to federal court.
• The Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported that *Palestinian professor to fight planned sacking.
• The London Guardian reported that Attempt to sack 'terror link' professor reaches court, and that AAUP General Secretary Mary Burgan said that the move to ``pre-sue'' Al-Arian had ``chilling portents for academic freedom.''
• NBC News reported that *University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian says the accusations of terrorist activity and the push to fire him are unjustified, in which Al-Arian said, `` What's happening today is I'm being punished for things that have been said 10, 12 years ago which are protected First Amendment speeches,'' and that the American people, ``must know that I am a very moderate Muslim person who has strong passion about the Palestinian cause ...''
• New York Post columnist John Podhoretz asked Tenure for Terror?, beginning with the question of the legal standing of academic tenure (``Boring? You have no idea. Important? Absolutely.'') but quickly shifted to Al-Arian, who is ``in a word, despicable,'' but concludes by bashing CUNY professor Leonard Jeffries.
• The Orlando Ledger editorialized about The Real Issue With Al-Arian, concluding with: `` If Al-Arian can be proved to have actively supported terrorists, USF will be well within its rights to dismiss him. If not, he must be given the benefit of the doubt.''
• The St. Petersburg Times reported that Al-Arian vows to fight lawsuit, and that Al-Arian said, ``I'm an Arab, I'm a Palestinian, I'm a Muslim. That's not a popular thing to be these days. Do I have rights or don't I have rights?''
• The Tampa Tribune covered the spectacle: Nation's Eyes On Al-Arian As He Vows To Fight USF, which quoted USF-UFF Chapter President Roy Weatherford saying, ```If nothing else, it makes me glad to live in Florida, where nothing is ever impossible and new things happen every day,'' and Al-Arian saying, ``My case right now is not really about me anymore. It's about the principle, and I think I'd be betraying the principle if I just walked out.'' The Tribune also reported the fees of the three external counsels: $ 350 per hour each for Greg Kehoe and Bruce Rogow, and a mere $ 100 per hour for Thomas Martinez.
• The Washington Times editorialized, Good riddance, but based its argument on the old rationale, expressing outrage at Al-Arian because videos of his old sloganeering were replayed ``just a few days after 3,000 innocent Americans had been killed in the worst terrorist act ever perpetrated on U.S. soil.'' (Of course, it was Mr. O'Reilly who played those tapes ... .)

• The Boston Herald editorialized that Academic freedom has limits, saying that USF's decision to sue Al-Arian was ``terrible public relations'' and that USF should have just fired Al-Arian and let Al-Arian sue, and if the AAUP censured USF, USF should just ``denounce the association as indifferent to terrorism.''
• The Miami Herald reported that Terrorism or free speech? Sami al-Arian's fight with the University of South Florida is becoming the hottest academic debate in the country, and outlined the situation.
• The St. Petersburg Times ran a column by Al-Arian on Fighting for right of dissent and due process, in which he mentions an old civics professor of his (when he was in college) who talked about ``the `2 D's': dissent and due process, cornerstones of American democracy.'' And Associate Editor Martin Dyckman wrote that USF should read and heed former governor's speech, and quoted the late Florida Governor Leroy Collins saying, ``You can't suppress bad speeches without suppressing good ones.''
• Tampa Tribune columnist Daniel Ruth wrote that ``Sami Al-Arian's problems are of his own making - his own actions, the company he chose to keep, the inflammatory rhetoric he used to threaten,'' in his column on An Issue Of Academic Freedom Or Academic Extortion?.
• And the Tampa Tribune editorialized that Facts Leave No Doubt Al-Arian Abetted Terrorism, but in the text watered that down to ``Enough is known about his activities to lend credence to the university's view that he has aided and abetted international terrorism.''

• On Aug. 26, *John Loftus appeared in the FoxNews O'Reilly Factor, where he claimed that, ``... the Israelis had a spy at the headquarters of Islamic Jihad in Syria, and they found out that Sami narrowly lost the vote to become the number one guy in the world in [Islamic Jihad].''
• On Aug. 26, the USF Oracle reported that Genshaft decides not to decide, and that ``Al-Arian is not commenting.'' The Oracle also reported that Al-Najjar to be released and deported: After nine months, Mazen Al-Najjar appears to have found a country.
• The Aug. 26 alternative student newspaper Shanachie reported that a UFF source speculated that Al-Arian may be fired on Jan. 7, 2003, ``the last date of the current collective bargaining agreement.''
• The Aug. 27 Denver Post editorialized on *Academic freedom's limits; overlooking that Al-Arian is the named defendent the Post said, ``The AAUP went on to claim that the university intends to overwhelm the professor with vastly superior legal resources. This, in our view, is nonsense,'' and concluded by saying that the case would have wound up in court anyway.
• The Aug. 27 USF Oracle editorialized that Genshaft dodges decision, saying that ``Genshaft should have made a decision herself Wednesday about what to do with Al-Arian instead of throwing it to a third-party judge.''
• On Aug. 27, USF Oracle editor Ryan Meehan wrote about how USF was On the verge of victory or chaos? on ``Two stories that fall on opposite ends of the spectrum but could potentially alter the shape of USF's future: Sami Al-Arian and Sooner football.''