A Rebut to Debra Saunders

The San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders decided to comment on Freedom of Speech issues at SF State. As Editor-in-Chief of The Golden Gate [X]press I thought it was important for her and our community to know the whole story.

 

The Faces Behind the Ellis Act

This is an indepth report into San Francisco’s Ellis Act, which is a law that allows property owners to evict long-term tenants.Published in the SF State Urban Studies Department’s 2007 Urban Action Journal.

 

Covering New Orleans after Katrina

On my second trip to post-Katrina New Orleans I covered how the city still struggled to pick up the pieces, in terms infrastructure, education and culture. Read my in-depth report from April 2007 assignment and watch our multimedia piece photographed by Gena Lyndsay with production by Logan Triglia and Bernadette Blanco.

And this is my first piece relating to New Orleans after Katrina.

 

Viewin’ and Spewin’

Ian Thomas reviews Richard Linklater and Eric Schlosser’s film Fast Food Nation.

 

S.F. State Arabic professor’s visa granted after 90-day wait

Oakland Tribune,  Sep 14, 2006  by Ian Thomas, CORRESPONDENT

The U.S. State Department told a San Francisco State University Arabic assistant language professor Wednesday he could finally come home after waiting almost 90 days in limbo for a security clearance.

“It’s like one of those moments when you wake up in the morning and you just don’t believe it,” said Mohammad Ramadan Salama, 38, who was stranded in Canada since June 20 when his visa was abruptly canceled.

Salama, an Egyptian citizen, said no one at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto or with the State Department explained why his visa took so long.

He said it’s possible his security clearance finally matured, or that media coverage played a part. He mentioned that officials at the State Department seemed to speak more respectfully to him once his story was published.

“It is a completely shattering atrocity, as if I was in a shell for 90 days, like I was in jail. I was separated from my children, my wife and from my career,” Salama said in a telephone interview hours after he got word of his visa.

Salama said he plans to travel to the U.S. Consulate in Toronto from London, Canada, today to pick up his O-1 Visa. He then plans to visit his children in Wisconsin for one day before returning to his classes at San Francisco State.

An O-1 visa is for non-immigrant citizens of foreign countries who demonstrate extraordinary abilities or achievements in the arts, sciences, athletics, motion picture industry, education or business. O-1 applications require substantial documentation on the applicant’s past.

Salama, whose wife and two children are U.S. citizens, has a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin and was to begin his second year teaching Arabic language and literature at San Francisco State.

“You’d think that when someone who has responsibilities to a university and benefits our national security by teaching Arabic language and culture, it wouldn’t take so long,” Paul Sherwin, dean of the San Francisco State’s humanities department, said after hearing of Salama’s clearance.

Sherwin said he thinks Salama’s wait is an obvious result of the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

San Francisco State hired Salama last fall in response to a growing demand for Arabic language classes since 9-11.

c2006 ANG Newspapers.

 

Arabic professor hung up on border

Oakland Tribune, Sep 8, 2006 by Ian Thomas – CORRESPONDENT

San Francisco State University’s first Arabic language professor is stuck at the U.S./Canadian border indefinitely because of visa problems, leaving his students in the dark about what will happen to their classes.

On June 20, Dr. Mohammad Salama, who is Egyptian but has lived in the United States with his wife and children for nearly a decade, traveled to the U.S. Embassy in Toronto to upgrade his visa status. When he reached Canada, he was informed he could not re-enter the United States until a security clearance is granted by the U.S. State Department.

Salama says he planned on just a three-day trip to Toronto. But it has now turned into a more than 70-day ordeal, with no end in sight. He says he misses his wife and two children, U.S. citizens, who live in Wisconsin. His family was planning to move with him to San Francisco. Salama said an immigration officer told him there was nothing he could do but wait.

“I already had my return ticket for the next day, so I asked inquisitively, ‘Could I still return to the U.S. on my original visa?,’ to which she answered, ‘No, we have canceled all your previous visas to the U.S., so you can’t go back,’” Salama said in a telephone interview from London, Ontario, Canada.

San Francisco State College of Humanities Dean Paul Sherwin sent a letter to encourage the vice consul of the American Consulate General in Toronto to expedite a swift clearance for Salama.

“I’ve made calls, but I can’t influence this process. No one knows what’s going on. We are all very distressed that he’s not here,” Sherwin said.

 

Salama, has a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin and has lived in the United States for seven years.

“His scholarship has nothing inflammatory. He is a literary scholar. I think very highly of him. He doesn’t have a political agenda,” said Sherwin, who personally researched Salama’s previous work and interviewed him for the tenure-track position.

Salama moved to Madison, Wisc., to pursue his Ph.D. in 1999 on a student visa. He earlier taught English literature in Cairo at the College of Languages at Ain Shams University from 1992-1999.

While in Madison, Salama was a teacher’s assistant for three years in the department of comparative literature, where he taught modern and contemporary literature and film. He was later hired as a lecturer, Salama said.

During his time at the University of Wisconsin he taught Arabic language and culture to Wisconsin Army National Guard officers and soldiers preparing for Middle East deployment, according to his immigration attorney, Clark Trevor with Duane Morris LLP.

“This is the kind of academic person the U.S. really needs to bridge the gap with the Arabic and Muslim world,” Trevor said.

“I have no passion for people who support terrorist organizations,” Salama said. “I respect all religions, ethnicities and cultures. There is nothing in my history to suggest militancy or extremism.”

Without a qualified full-time Arabic instructor, more than 50 students were at risk of losing three to five units just weeks after the start of the semester. This sent Midori McKeon, chair of the foreign languages and literatures department, into a frenzied scramble to fill Salama’s position — at least temporarily.

A request by San Francisco to the State Department for specific procedural details of an O-1 visa security clearance, or of Salama’s case, was denied. The information cannot be provided because of legal purposes, according to the department.

The State Department receives 7.5 million nonimmigrant applicants a year, and out of those 2.5 percent must go through additional screening, said Laura Tischler, a spokeswoman of consular affairs at the U.S. State Department.

“Additional processing usually takes a few weeks,” she said. Tischler did not specify whether Salama is one of those 2.5 percent.

Salama says the U.S. Department of Homeland Security approved his request to change his visa from a student visa to the more prestigious O-1 visa.

An O-1 visa is for nonimmigrant citizens of foreign countries, who demonstrate extraordinary abilities or achievements in the arts, sciences, athletics, motion picture industry, education or business. O-1 applications require a rigorous set of documentation on the applicant’s past.

Trevor, Salama’s attorney, said Rep. Tom Lantos’ (D-San Mateo) office made an inquiry with the State Department on Salama’s behalf, to no avail.

Salama said, “I have no problem with security, but I think this has gone past the reasonable limit.”

Two weeks — I could understand if someone has a similar name as me,” Salama said. “It has gone too far for everyone.”

c2006 ANG Newspapers.

 

Group raises awareness of African crisis

Oakland Tribune,  May 2, 2006  by Ian Thomas – CORRESPONDENT

SAN FRANCISCO – Wake up to the war in Uganda – where pre- adolescents are forced to fight as soldiers. Wake up to the genocide in Sudan – where more than 180,000 have died at the hands of starvation and violence since 2003.

This was the message of about 4500 people who protested in San Francisco last weekend to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis occurring in Africa.

The first rally was Saturday night. About 600 people camped in Crissy Field near the Golden Gate Bridge as part of a 130-city campaign, dubbed the Global Night Commute.

Snuggled into their sleeping bags and using lanterns for light, they made art projects and wrote letters to urge President Bush and other lawmakers to pressure the Ugandan government to stop child abductions and rapes in that country.

Three recent University of Southern California film students documented a group of Ugandan children who walk miles each night to avoid abduction by rebel group, the Lords Resistance Army (LRA).

Their film (and the name of their organization), the Invisible Children, was the beckoning call for the Global Night Commute, which boasted more than 50,000 international participants, according to organizers.

“Most Americans don’t know a thing about what is happening in Northern Uganda,” said Kara Klinge, an organizer with Invisible Children ( www.invisiblechildren.com ).

Campers, students and professionals talked into the night and reflected on why they were there.

“If these three random kids can just go (to Uganda) with no experience and inspire us to be here, just think what our whole country can do to help,” said Josselyn Gaulke, 20, a nursing student at the University of San Francisco.

“Change has to start somewhere and we must transition from idealism to the hard facts,” said Harriet Wilcox, 54, a piano teacher from San Diego who said she heard about the rally less than a month ago and found out she could participate while on vacation. Her husband said he would be sleeping at a motel.

The group posed for a photograph at sunrise that they say will be shown to the children in Uganda.

While it is impossible to determine the exact death toll from the conflict in area of Darfur and eastern Chad, the number shown above was provided by a “fact sheet” released by the U.S. Department of State in 2005. Numbers from the U.S. State Department for 2006 were not available.

Visit www.invisiblechildren.com or www.state.gov for more information and how you can help.

c2006 ANG Newspapers.

 

Professor speaks publicly for the first time after charges dropped

Oakland Tribune,  Mar 24, 2006  by Ian Thomas – CORRESPONDENT

SAN FRANCISCO – More than 200 supporters demanded an apology Wednesday in the wake of criminal charges being dropped against an Ethnic Studies professor and urged the San Francisco State University administration to reconsider how it investigates complaints of police action.

The rally was held outside the Ethnic Studies building where Professor Antwi Akom was arrested in October and charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a campus security officer. While Wednesday’s event was primarily a celebration, it also was a protest of alleged racial profiling by police involved in last fall’s incident.

“I’m very happy. This is an amazing show of support. This has always been about healing and not further harming. There’s a long way to go,” said Akom in a rare interview with the press after the event.

He and his attorneys expressed outrage over a report issued by former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and former San Francisco City Attorney Louise Renne, who investigated the Oct. 25 incident when Akom was arrested.

The professor had gone to the campus late at night, leaving his two small children in his car while he ran to his office to get a book.

After a security officer stopped and asked him for identification, an altercation ensued and Akom was arrested while his children remained in the car. Akom and his supporters contended the professor had been the victim of racial profiling and that he had been charged by an officer.

However, Brown and Renne’s report concluded that Akom had been the aggressor in the incident and the officers had not engaged in racial profiling.

That report was released last week to the campus community by SF State President Robert A. Corrigan. The charges against Akom were dropped earlier this week.

Matt Gonzalez, a former San Francisco mayoral candidate and one of Akom’s attorneys, said he would “gladly debate you, President Corrigan, on the validity of your report. If you think it can be defended, name the time and place and I’ll be there.”

Gonzalez added, “I seriously question Corrigan’s suitability to lead this university.”

He questioned the timing of the release of the report followed so quickly by the charges being dropped by San Francisco District Attorney Kamala D. Harris.

Brown and Renne released their report without interviewing Akom, who had been advised by his attorneys not to talk to them until the charges had been resolved.

Corrigan was not available for comment.

“We call on the university to expose exactly how Brown and Renne participated in this ridiculous investigation,” said Catriona Rueda Esquibel, an assistant professor of Ethnic Studies who was one of six faculty members who spoke at the event. “We should not allow the police to determine what the 21st century university looks like.”

“How much longer must we have gatherings like this? This is 2006 not 1896, San Francisco, not South Africa. This is a university, not a plantation,” said Linda Ellis, president of the California Faculty Association for the San Francisco State chapter.

Though Akom did not directly address the crowd, he said “speak the truth” as others addressed the crowd. Asked after the rally why he had left his children in the car, Akom expressed frustration, suggesting the question was inappropriate after all he had been through.

To view the entire report on the Akom incident, visit

c2006 ANG Newspapers.

 

Charges against professor dropped, SFSU still tense

Oakland Tribune, Mar 22, 2006 by Ian Thomas, CORRESPONDENT

 

Days after a report commissioned by his employer deemed him the aggressor in a skirmish involving campus police, San Francisco State University professor Antwi Akom can breath a sigh of relief.

The charges of battery of a university police officer and resisting arrest stemming from an altercation he had last year have been dropped by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, according to an e-mail sent Friday by San Francisco State President Robert Corrigan to faculty and staff.

“I briefly spoke with Dr. Akom … I can say one word for his and my response — relief,” said Dr. Dorothy Tsuruta, chairman of the school’s Africana studies department, where Akom teaches.

Neither Akom nor San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris was available for comment Tuesday.

Akom’s attorney, John Keker, said he continues to believe the professor was a victim of racial profiling and police physically “charged” him, leading to a scuffle while his two children waited in his car.

In his most recent letter to faculty and staff about the incident, Corrigan said the district attorney “believes that the interests of justice can be best served not in the criminal courts, but within the university community, relying upon our extensive procedures for responding to incidents involving faculty.”

“I think she (the district attorney) is right,” Keker said. “There ought to be ramifications within the university to make sure that things like this do not happen again.”

Akom was arrested on campus Oct. 25 and charged with assaulting an officer and resisting arrest. Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and former San Francisco City Attorney Louise Renne were hired by the university to look into allegations that the professor had been singled out by police for interrogation when he went on campus late at night to retrieve a book he needed for his class the next morning.

In their report released earlier this month, Brown and Renne concluded that Akom had been the aggressor, and arresting police officers were not guilty of racial profiling.

Brown and Renne released the report without interviewing Akom, who had been advised by his attorney not to speak until criminal charges against him had been mitigated. Those charges were dropped just days after the Renne-Brown report.

The Renne-Brown report recommended S.F. State develop appropriate policies to address future allegations of racial profiling. In the recent letter, Corrigan said he would address the recommendations at the Academic Senate meeting Tuesday.

Akom’s supporters have called for a class walkout at noon today in response to the incident and ongoing discontent over the independent investigation report. Those participating in the walkout will gather in front of the Ethnic Studies and Psychology building.

Akom and former San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez will speak at a news conference following the walkout, according to a statement released by protest organizers.

“Though charges have been dropped, campus and community supporters remain outraged at the university’s lack of support for Dr. Akom and the perceived indifference to racial profiling at San Francisco State,” the statement read.

“Specifically, we are dismayed at President Corrigan’s complete and uncritical acceptance of a deeply flawed investigation that failed to even consider Professor Akom’s version of events, to say nothing of the report’s reliance on false evidence and incorrect information as ‘fact.’”

To view the entire report on the Akom incident, visit http:// www.sfsu.edu and click on the “Renne-Brown report released” hyperlink.

c2006 ANG Newspapers.

 

Probe clears S.F. State officers

Oakland Tribune, Mar 15, 2006 by Ian Thomas, CORRESPONDENT

 

SAN FRANCISCO — An independent investigation into last years on campus incident that led to the arrest of a black San Francisco State University professor concluded the police officers were not guilty of racial profiling and that the professor was the aggressor.

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and Louise Renne, former San Francisco city attorney, conducted the investigation following the Oct. 25 arrest of Dr. Antwi Akom, a professor of Ethnic Studies by campus police.

 Akom was unavailable for comment Tuesday, but his attorney, John Keker, called the report neither fair nor independent.

I am surprised the ex-mayor and the ex-city attorney are letting themselves be used like this, Keker said, adding that Akom could not give an interview until the conclusion of the criminal case. Trial date has been set for April 14 in the criminal case.

Akom arrived on campus around 11 p.m. to retrieve a book from his office, leaving his two young daughters in his car. He was stopped by a security guard and asked for identification. A scuffle ensued and Akom was arrested. He was taken to police headquarters and charged with assaulting an officer. A colleague was called to get his two children.

But Akoms attorneys suggested he was the victim of racial profiling and that police pushed him, leading to a physical confrontation.

The incident prompted several demonstrations and discussions on campus, with some students and faculty saying the incident involved racial profiling.

However, in their report, Brown and Renne said the security guard and a campus police officer who made the arrest were following campus protocol, which requires IDs from anyone entering locked buildings after 11 p.m.

Additionally, Brown and Renne concluded, of the seven eyewitnesses, a majority (four) strongly support Officer (Brandon) Rodgers version of events: Dr. Akom confronted Officer Rodgers in a physically and verbally intimidating manner.

Nor did the investigators find evidence the officers, both of whom are African American, engaged in any racial profiling.

Brown and Renne wrote in their report that Akom declined several opportunities to be interviewed, based on the advice of his attorney.

San Francisco State President Robert Corrigan released the 102- page report to the campus community Monday.

In an accompanying letter, he wrote, While we have a report that makes clear that no racial profiling took place, we cannot simply put the matter behind us.

I cannot say too strongly how real and devastating a phenomenon racial profiling is in our society, having observed first hand the pain and anger that it can cause. This university cannot and will not tolerate such behavior, which flies in the face of our historic commitment to equity and social justice.

In his letter, Corrigan said, I have been urged by a number of people to petition the district attorney to drop all charges against Dr. Akom. However, it has been our impression that he wishes this matter to be handled in the courts, a desire that the university is prepared to honor.

Keker disputed Corrigans conclusions that Akom was the aggressor, saying it was in no way supported by the report, especially since Akom had not been interviewed.

Corrigan has another agenda. I dont know what it is, but its not pretty, Keker said. I am outraged that Corrigan has made these public conclusions without speaking to Akom himself.

He added he sent a letter to Brown and Renne to explain his client was anxious to cooperate with any independent investigation into the incident, but would be unable to do so until the criminal case was finished.

Ive spoke to Brown too, and he knows this, he used to be a defense attorney, Keker said.

c2006 ANG Newspapers.