Update on Julio Pino Outburst

As we noted yesterday, a Kent State University associate professor of history shouted “death to Israel” at an on-campus event co-sponsored by several recognized student groups and CAMERA.

This outburst of hate speech by Professor Julio Pino, which employs violent language, puts student supporters of Israel, and especially Israeli students enrolled at KSU, in the untenable position of feeling unsafe in the classroom.

Moreover, the professor violated several provisions of the university’s Employee Code of Conduct.

Although the director of university media relations responded dismissively to complaints about the incident, KSU President Lester A. Lefton later released a statement criticizing Pino’s actions. “I find his words deplorable, and his behavior deeply troubling,” he said. Pino’s call “for the destruction of the state from which our guest comes (as do some of our students, faculty and community members) is a grotesque failure” to model university values, Lefton added.

This is a good first step. However, Lefton did not mention the professor’s violations of university policies, including those requiring all employees to

• “maintain a professional demeanor”;
• “exhibit a high degree of maturity and self-respect and foster an appreciation for other cultures, one’s own cultural background, as well as the cultural matrix from which Kent state university exists”;
• “demonstrate respect for all campus and external community members”;
• “respect the differences in people, ideas, and opinions”;
• not “threaten, accost, demean” or use “abusive language”;

A KSU document on “Conduct and Discipline” likewise maintains that “Employees should be aware that the university does not tolerate certain acts and behaviors which are unproductive and detrimental to the university,” including immoral conduct, discourteous treatment of the public, and any other failure of good behavior.

Professor Pino also distributed literature calling for the boycott of the State of Israel, in apparent violation of a university policy restricting such solicitation to “a non-work area.”

KSU has in place disciplinary procedures meant to deter employees from violating university policies. These procedures should be implemented in response to Professor Pino’s grave violation of policies and student rights.

In a statement to Ha’aretz, he asserted: “What I spoke was for the sake of the children of Palestine, and no other reason. The only politics I have are, ‘There is no God but God, and Mohammed is His Messenger.’ Peace be upon you.” The statement seems to express that he stands by his comments unrepentantly, and believes he has a right to disregard university policy, and students’ sense of safety, in favor of his own political beliefs.