Terrorism--Pathway to an Academic Job

The redoubtable Sharad Karkhanis has provided us with some insight into the academic mind in his latest newsletter, "The Patriot Returns":

>"It's almost unbelievable, but sending e-mails to the Senate Forum was not enough. O'Malley (former head of the CUNY faculty senate) was so obsessed with finding a job for Mohammed Yousry, the convicted co-conspirator of Lynn Stewart in the blind Sheik Abdul Rahman's role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, that she went to the University Faculty Senate's October 24, 2006 Plenary Session...This is what she said:

>"Professor O'Malley - 'Do you think CUNY could hire Mohammed Yousry? What do you think? I have his phone number. I could find out if he wants to be hired and if anyone would like to try to hire him. I'm just throwing it out; I don't know. I know that it's on appeal but it's becoming increasingly clear that he really did just about nothing.'

>"To which Professor Beaky of LaGuardia (Community College) responded 'I don't think I have an answer to that question. Others may. As you may or may not know he's been sentenced to 20 months and that is under appeal at the present time.'

>"Thereupon UFS Chair Philip politely cut-off the discussion by saying, 'Thank you, Lenore, for your very interesting report. The next item on our agenda is...'

>"Yes, yes...she was not going to rest until she got this convicted terrorist a job. We do not know how many people she buttonholed, or telephoned, or e-mailed for him. But we sure do know that she used her position as a former Chair of the UFS to be recognized at the plenary and sneak in this "Job Wanted for the terrorist" ad. She even made sure to notify the delegates that she had his telephone number and could contact him."

>"Our questions are:

>"1) Has Queen O'Malley ever made a "Job Wanted" announcement like this for a non-convicted, non-violent, peace loving American educator for a job in CUNY?...

>"2) During her six year tenure as the Chair of the UFS, did she ever give UFS delegates an opportunity to make announcements of this nature? If not, why not?

>"3) Being on the PSC's Executive Committee, she knew that Yousry, fired from his adjunct position at York in April 2002, was provided with all legal and contractual protection - from "step one", all the way up to arbitration (AAA Case no. 13-390-00960-03.Arbitrator: Alan A. Symonette. Decision date Jan. 16, 2004.), which cost thousands of dollars, money which came from dues paying members...

>"Many of us know peace loving, law abiding, never-even-convicted-for-littering citizens who need work. How many law-abiding adjunct faculty have to worry about getting their two courses in order to hold onto medical benefits!? She does not worry about the "ordinary" adjunct -- but she is worried about convicted terrorists! She will take these precious courses away and give them to terrorists and terrorist sympathizers!"

Indeed- rather than going for a Ph.D., students interested in academic jobs might just as well commit terrorist acts and be handed jobs by sympathetic left-wing academics!