PROFESSOR SUSPENDED AFTER DEFENDING ISRAEL

 

Roger L. Simon tipped me to the outrageous story of DePaul University Professor Thomas Klocek, who has been suspended after a verbal altercation with Muslim student groups. The Chicago Jewish News has an account of the confrontation; if this is accurate, professor Klocek is apparently guilty of nothing more than expressing pro-Israel views in the face of extremist Palestinian propaganda, including the ever-present canards about Rachel Corrie: What happened, then, on the afternoon of Sept. 15 has been pieced together from accounts by Klocek, his attorney, John W. Mauck of the law firm Mauck & Baker, accounts from the school and from the DePaulia, the student newspaper, as well as from an e-mail account by Salma Nassar, president of the DePaul group Students for Justice in Palestine and one of the students who was involved in the incident. (Nassar did not respond to requests for an interview from Chicago Jewish News). Here’s what all the parties agree on: The trouble began when Klocek stopped at a booth run by Students for Justice in Palestine and one next to it from UMMA (United Muslims Moving Ahead.) He picked up some literature from the SJP table and read a sheet depicting the death of Rachel Corrie, the American activist who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer when she tried to stop a house demolition in the West Bank town of Rafah. The handout described Corrie as being “murdered by Israeli bulldozer” and went on to state that she “was deliberately ran (sic) over, twice, after a two-hour confrontation between the non-violent international activists and the Israeli armed forces.” Klocek said he turned to the student staffing the SJP booth and said, “You know, there’s more than one perspective on the Middle East conflict. You’re only presenting one side here.” Students at the booth “began to engage me in conversation,” he said. Klocek expressed his belief that “strictly speaking, right now there is no such place as Palestine on the map. The Palestinian people were simply Arabs who lived in the West Bank and Gaza.” One of the women at the table told him that she was a Palestinian, then, according to Klocek, “she got up from the table and said, you know, the Palestinians are being treated by Israelis the same way Hitler treated the Jews.” “I took umbrage,” Klocek said. “I told her that was an absolutely scurrilous statement, an absolute lie. I said that I believe the Israeli armed forces have exercised very careful restraint in their responses to what has been almost daily suicide bombings. There is a big difference between (Israelis) targeting a terrorist and someone strapped with bombs going in to a cafe or a seder and blowing up people.” Then, Klocek said, “the UMMA people began to come over. It was eight against one. A very spirited conversation” ensued.

 

Students for Justice in Palestine involves racism

 

Klocek said that when he felt the discussion was generating more heat than light on both sides, he decided that neither side was going to convince the other and started to leave. When a student asked if he had any connection with the university, he told her who he was and what courses he taught. As he walked away, Klocek said, “students began coming after me, and I thumbed my chin at them. It’s an Italian New Jersey expression meaning, ‘I’m finished,’ ‘I’m out of here.”. “Students for Justice in Palestine,” of course, has a wildly different story; and as usual, it involves “racism:” Nassar, the SJP president, described the event in an Oct. 4 e-mail she sent to a number of campus organizations as “a racist encounter.” She wrote that when students “responded to (Klocek) in a polite and professional manner ... he continued to make derogatory and racist comments,” including making comments about how all terror attacks have been committed by Muslims. (Klocek said that he was quoting Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg, who in turn was quoting Abdel Rahman Al-Rashed, the manager of an Arab news channel, who stated that “It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims.”) Nassar went on to state that “we tried engaging Professor Klocek in conversation but he kept interrupting us and did not allow us to answer any of his questions.” In addition, she wrote, “he continuously referred to Palestinians as ‘those people’ and went on to say that Palestinians “do not exist.” She wrote that when Klocek was leaving, he “made an obscene hand gesture (he flipped us off.)” Nassar wrote that she and other students from SJP and UMMA immediately reported the incident to the dean of students and the dean of the School of New Learning, as well as to the advisors of their groups.

 

“Professor Klocek disrespected the student/professor relationship,” she wrote. “It was completely inappropriate for him to approach students in an aggressive manner, his racist and ignorant comments about Muslims and Palestinians, and the profanity he used completely crossed the line.” (Klocek admits that he “raised his voice” but denies using profanity.) In an interview she gave to the DePaulia, the student newspaper, Nassar added that Klocek “was very aggressive and angry and would go from one topic to another. Every time we tried to address a topic he’d get angry and switch.” She reiterated in the interview that his comments were “inappropriate and offensive.” And that was all it took for Dean Dumbleton to cave in: Nine days after the incident, Klocek was called to the office of Susanne Dumbleton, dean of the School for New Learning. Dumbleton told him that she had received two letters, one each from SJP and UMMA, and that “there were very serious charges against me from the students,” according to Klocek, who never saw the letters. He said Dumbleton told him that she had met with the students and their faculty advisors from the two groups, and that they were “hurt and crushed” by Klocek’s remarks. “They said you used your title as a professor and your power over them to force them to accept your remarks as true. The dean said she agreed with them,” Klocek related. (Dumbleton did not respond to repeated requests for an interview with Chicago Jewish News.) She then told Klocek he was suspended, with pay, for the remainder of the autumn quarter. She also advised him to stay off campus, which he did, and suggested that he not talk to the student newspaper, the DePaulia, Klocek said. (The school denies that the latter suggestion was ever made.)  Kelsey Snell, the News Editor of The Depaulia in an article titled “Loop professor takes heat for conduct”, reported that A DePaul professor has been suspended from his position for the remainder of this quarter and the upcoming winter quarter after an altercation between two student organizations and the professor at the Sept. 15 Loop Campus Involvement Fair. Professor Thomas E. Klocek, a part-time professor in the School of New Learning, was suspended after a public display was created around inappropriate and offensive comments he made to the student organizations Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and United Muslims Moving Ahead (UMMA). Professor Klocek was contacted Thursday afternoon but failed to respond for comment before The DePaulia print deadline.  At approximately 1:30 p.m. on September 15, Klocek approached the informational tables of SJP and UMMA. Klocek allegedly paced in front of the two tables several times before approaching UMMA and signing the e-mail contact list displayed. He then returned to standing at a distance before approaching the tables.

 

DePaul University Professor: “Christians have more of a right to Palestine than Muslims or Jews.”

“He began to engage the people behind the UMMA booth in conversation,” said Salma Nassar, a senior accounting student and president of SJP. “He began by saying he was a professor at DePaul and was speaking about how he had gone to a Catholic university in Jerusalem. He then continued to talk about how Christians have more of a right to Palestine than Muslims or Jews.” The initially calm incident escalated as Klocek asserted that he was well-read on the subject of Palestine and began to quote an article he claimed to have read the previous day in the Chicago Tribune. “He quoted the passage as saying ‘not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims,’” said Nassar.

 

 

 

 

 

 The students attempted to engage Klocek in discussion regarding his statement but were abruptly cut off with further examples from Klocek of terrorist acts by Muslim people. When Nassar began to give examples of terrorist acts that were not perpetrated by Muslim people, Klocek changed the subject before she was able to complete her comments.

 “He was very aggressive and angry and would go from one topic to another. Every time we tried to address a topic he’d get angry and switch,” stated Nassar. Klocek continued by making statements such as, “there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim, you are all fanatics,” and making derogatory comments regarding the validity of the Palestinian nation. “He kept referring to Palestinians as ‘those people.’ He would point at the word [printed on the table]. He wouldn’t say the word Palestine or Palestinians. I asked him what he meant and he said that it’s a made-up word that only came into the modern media in the last 20 years,” said Nassar.  When Nassar explained that she herself was Palestinian, as were her parents and grandparents who had lived in the country more than 20 years ago, Klocek responded by telling Nassar that her statement was questionable. Klocek continued by making comparisons between Palestinians and Native Americans and insinuating that neither had a modern right to their ancestral homes. The students began asking Klocek to leave so that they could proceed with the remainder of the Involvement Fair. When he continued to be aggressive with the two organizations ,other students observing the altercation proceeded to report the events to officials at Student Life. Amalia Lopez of Student Life was the first representative to respond. She asked Klocek to leave his business card in order to continue the conversation in a more appropriate forum. Several students who observed the incident reported that Klocek responded by refusing to share his business cards with the organizations and saying “they can think whatever they want, they can all yes’m themselves to death.”  

 

“Shortly thereafter, the professor returned with our leaflets in his hand and threw the leaflets and information back on our table and walked away,” said SJP member Ben Meyer. As he walked away Klocek turned to the students and made an obscene hand gesture.  “Student Life took immediate action and was there for us,” said Ahmad Zahdan, a senior finance and marketing student and UMMA executive board member.  “They did a really great job and they gave us all the means of getting in touch everyone we needed to contact,” added Nassar.  A group of approximately 12 university faculty and staff members, not including Klocek, met with the students on Thursday, Sept. 23 to discuss the incident. Suzanne Dumbleton, Dean of the School of New Learning, apologized to the students on behalf of the faulty and staff. At the meeting a discourse began regarding further steps being taken towards resolving the issue.  Administrators discussed the situation with Klocek and determined that it was an isolated incident and not typical behavior for the professor, Dumbleton said. She further explained that Klocek has had “an otherwise positive career of 15 years,” and explained that he is a very well read, intelligent instructor who made an error in judgment.  There had been no previous student complaints regarding Klocek’s conduct and he had a positive relationship with the university.  Dumbleton also emphasized the School of New Learning’s dedication to the core values of DePaul and that she was deeply saddened by the situation and the loss of intellectual empowerment the students suffered. “We do not respect the unfair use of faculty power over students,” she said.  As a result, the university made the decision to suspend Klocek’s teaching responsibilities through winter quarter of this year. “We do not support or condone his actions … however, unless the offense is incredibly egregious or a security threat, we believe a person should be educated and made to understand the way they have affected others,” said James Doyle, vice president of Student Affairs.

Kelsey: “Professor Thomas E. Klocek, a part-time professor in the School of New Learning, was suspended after a public display was created around inappropriate and offensive comments he made to student organization.”.

The School of New Learning plans to work directly with Klocek regarding the situation in order to address any extenuating circumstances that may have led to his outburst at the fair. “The person [Klocek] needs to be challenged and must be accountable,” said Doyle. In addition to the suspension, Fr. Dennis Holtschneider sent a letter to all faculty, staff and students on Wednesday to address the situation. The letter addressed two completely separate incidents that each constituted a breach of the university value system. The details of the second, unrelated incident, are unclear at this time. Despite these efforts, both the students involved in the organization and their advisors feel that the university has not effectively dealt with the gravity of the situation. “I appreciated the prompt reaction of the university especially James Doyle and Suzanne Dumbleton. But in the ensuing conversation I was a little bit disappointed by the dean of SNL when it [the conversation] was being shifted towards a defense or excuse of the professor’s behavior. It was not conveyed that this event was an abhorrence, but rather she started to ask the students to legitimize their reaction,” said Khaled Keshk, a professor of religious studies and UMMA advisor. His sentiments were shared by several concerned students who were involved in the situation. “I feel like they didn’t really grasp the gravity of the situation,” said Assia Boundaoui, a sophomore political science student and member of SJP. From the things the dean was saying, it seemed like the person that came up to us was a different professor from the one who teaches and that it was a completely different persona. From what we got it seemed like everything he was saying was rooted in his ideology and this wasn’t coming from nowhere.” “I was completely crushed by the incident because they spend so much time on Vincentian vaules and the mission statement but one of their own professors, someone who could have been my professor, was saying all these things. Not only did he denounce my religion and claim that we were all terrorists he basically said that my ethnicity doesn’t exist, which means that all of my roots don’t exist,” added Nassar. “I would expect this maybe from someone off the street … then I could just blame it on ignorance but he is a professor who is pursuing his Ph.D.” Zahdan also expressed concerns that while the university may assume Klocek's actions were isolated, unreported incidents may have occured in the past. “This man has been teaching for 15 years—how long has this been going on? Finally now it happened in front of the DePaul community and they’ve taken some action. What if he gets re-instated in January? What is the guarantee that he won’t bring these ideas and do this to students again,” said Zahdan. Doyle further defended the university’s actions by saying, “When you are the victim of a situation like this, you don’t want them [the person responsible] in your community, but I don’t want to make that someone else’s problem.” He also added that actions are being taken to ensure that Klocek is aware of the gravity of the effect he had on the students. The university plans to take steps to help UMMA and SJP spread awareness and education on Arab and Muslim issues on campus. “We will be getting back together to discuss the troubling climate,” said Doyle. He also explained that he and other university representatives efforts to support the two organizations in their plans to educate the DePaul population. At this point, the students of SJP and UMMA are planning a benefit concert for Palestine, several guest speakers and other educational work shops. “We hope to promote cultural awareness and let people know that Palestinians and Muslims are people with a strong culture and contributions to society. It is important to have events to demonstrate this to the community,” said Nassar.