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History department chief ousted for OK'ing break
By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Thursday, Nov 29, 2007
The head of Kent State's history department was relieved of his duties for approving a professional leave to the United Arab Emirates for a faculty member who has contributed material to a jihadist Web site.
John Jameson was fired because he didn't follow university protocol in granting the fully paid leave for Julio ''Assad'' Pino, a Muslim convert and associ
ate professor. Jameson remains a tenured professor.
Kent State spokesman Ron Kirksey said the university would have taken the same action with other department chairs in similar situations.
He said Jameson should have approached the interim dean of the college, then the provost's office instead of authorizing the leave on his own for the Nov. 1 conference.
Jameson said the reason for his firing was more subtle.
Some administrators and faculty ''were upset because Assad was going to this area of the world'' and didn't want any more bad publicity about him, Jameson said.
''What I don't understand is, if they don't want this to be publicized, for heaven's sake don't fire the chair.''
Pino said he was eager to take part in the six-week program on Arabic language and culture sponsored by the Zayed House for Islamic Culture in the city of Al Ain. Some American imams are taking part in the program, according to news reports.
Pino said the program was a conduit to his real love, research.
''My speciality is African Muslim slaves in Brazil. Many of the documents they left behind are in Arabic. I have to learn that if I want to read what they wrote,'' he said.
Jameson gave his oral approval for the midsemester trip; Pino found others to cover his classes and made arrangements for students to e-mail their papers.
Jameson viewed the opportunity as prestigious and wanted faculty to include it in the department newsletter. That spurred a faculty member to go over Jameson's head and complain to Jerry Feezel, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, about the trip.
Meanwhile, Jameson e-mailed associate provost Gayle Ormiston about a ''minor crisis'' in the history department. Jameson said he did not contact Feezel because he didn't have a good relationship with him. At around the same time, Pino left for the Mideast.
Feezel referred questions to Kirksey; Ormiston did not return a call seeking comment.
On Nov. 7, Feezel sent an e-mail to Jameson.
''Because of actions you have taken or not taken with regard to the unapproved absence of Dr. Pino from his teaching and other faculty responsibilities, I have no choice but to relieve you from your role as Chair of History immediately,'' Feezel wrote.
Pino said he received a letter from Feezel that he would lose his KSU salary if he stayed in the Mideast. He said he could not afford that and agreed to return immediately.
The university agreed to pay for his $2,000 return plane fare and overnight lodging and did not dock him for the two weeks he spent off campus, said Kirksey, the university spokesman.
Jameson, who has chaired the history department for 11 years, said KSU officials were anxious about getting more bad publicity about Pino.
In March, they were showered with calls and e-mails urging them to fire Pino for contributing material to the Web site http://www.global-war.bloghi.com, which no longer exists under that name. On Wednesday, Pino said he no longer contributes to it.
Last year, Pino wrote a letter to the student-run Daily Kent Stater that also appeared on the Web site under the name ''Lover of Angels.''
''You attack, and continue to attack, us everywhere. The ill done to the Muslim nations must be requited. The Muslim child does not cry alone; the Muslim woman does not cry alone; and the Muslim man is already at your gates.''
In a 2005 letter to the Kent Stater, Pino said that Muslims were burning American flags because, ''You are a nation that permits the production, trading and usage of drugs, gambling, the sex trade, spreads diseases that were unknown to man in the past, such as AIDS, and turns women into commodities for sale.''
In 2002, he wrote a column in the Kent Stater that eulogized an 18-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber. He later said he was trying to explain why suicide bombings occurred in Israel.
Pino joined Kent State in 1992 and a few years ago achieved tenure — in essence, lifetime employment — for his research and writings. He is a specialist in Latin America.
In the wake of Jameson's dismissal as chair, associate professor Mary Ann Heiss has been named interim chair of the department. Starting in January, Jameson will assume a special assignment — full-time research on his specialties, environmental projects on the Texas-Mexico border or the Columbia River.
''If I could do things over, I would dot all the I's and cross all the T's,'' he said.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.
The head of Kent State's history department was relieved of his duties for approving a professional leave to the United Arab Emirates for a faculty member who has contributed material to a jihadist Web site.
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