IU professor Abdulkader Sinno planned to spend the 2024-2025 school year on a sabbatical, focused on his research on Muslim minorities in politics in the West and conflicts in Afghanistan. Instead, he found himself spending much of the year in a fight with the university.
“My research has suffered,” he said. “Because I was spending my time writing 25-page grievances and learning about laws and policies instead of actually focusing on writing books and articles.”
The grievances were in protest of the real reason it's been over a full year since Sinno taught a class: his suspension from IU. In December 2023, the university suspended Sinno from teaching and advising for actions taken as club adviser of the Palestine Solidarity Committee. He immediately engaged in the grievance process against the university, but it didn’t change the fact that he was barred from doing what he loves most.
“It was a terrible experience for me,” Sinno said. “And the reason is because this was a very important time for my students and the student organizations I advised.”
The suspension cost him the ability to do everything he found most important, he said. Typically, he would have held events to help explain and contextualize the conflict for students and community members. But his suspension left him sidelined.
“Being with my students and supporting students defines what I do and who I am,” he said. “That’s why I became a professor. It was a big part of the meaning of my life to be with my students and to help them and teach them. They took that away from me.”
Sinno’s suspension
In November 2023, Sinno submitted an online form to reserve a room in Woodburn Hall for an event co-sponsored by the Palestine Solidarity Committee, a student group that he advised. When Sinno submitted the form, he was told that listing the Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures Department as his department gave the impression that the event was university-sponsored.
Sinno canceled the reservation and told the PSC to reserve the space via a student form instead. However, the PSC’s request was denied due to short notice and security concerns, according to emails shared with the IDS. The PSC believed that the denial was due to the speaker’s pro-Palestinian views, and they decided to hold the event anyway. On the day of the event, Sinno received an email notifying him of a “conduct violation.”
On Dec. 15, 2023, Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Carrie Docherty suspended Sinno for both the spring and summer terms and prevented him from advising student organizations for one full year.
Many faculty members denounced the actions taken by Docherty and IU.
Fellow professor Jeffrey Isaac organized a faculty open letter in support of Sinno and published pieces defending him in local and national media.
“I defended him because he is my colleague and my friend,” Isaac said in an email to the IDS. “But also because his suspension was wrong, and the administration’s handling of everything related to pro-Palestinian activism on campus was very wrong.”
Ultimately, Bloomington faculty overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in IU President Pamela Whitten, Provost Rahul Shrivastav and Docherty in April 2024. While there were many reasons for the no confidence vote, many cited how their colleague Sinno had been treated.
There were other concerns about the university's reaction to pro-Palestinian speech. Just five days after Sinno’s suspension, IU canceled a planned art show by Palestinian artist Samia Halaby. Halaby had been outspoken on social media about her pro-Palestinian beliefs. Her show was cancelled due to “concerns about guaranteeing the integrity of the exhibit,” according to IU spokesman Mark Bode.
The Faculty Board of Review later found that Docherty violated IU policy by suspending Sinno without first referring him to the Faculty Misconduct Review Committee, where he would have had the chance to defend himself in front of a board of his colleagues.
‘They chose to silence me on purpose’
Sinno feels he was targeted for suspension because of his support of the PSC and desire to help students engage with the conflict on campus.
“President Whitten and all the people she brought with her were chosen in a way that was completely disquieting by the Board of Trustees,” Sinno said. “And she understands that she has a mandate from them to control this community and not allow speech that the conservatives in Indiana don’t approve of.”
What happened to him, Sinno said, was a warning to his colleagues.
“If academic protections and academic freedom are withheld from one person or one faculty member,” he said, “It is withheld from all of them.”
Sinno has been an associate professor of Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies at IU since 2010 and has written many books and articles on Muslim representation in politics and war in Afghanistan, making him well-versed on conflicts in the Middle East.
“IU was hungry to understand the conflict in the Middle East, which is my specialty,” he said. “They chose to silence me on purpose because they don’t want people to learn about that.”
Students missed out on more than just Sinno’s teaching. Many students he advised and taught looked up to him as a mentor.
“He did his best to make me feel like I belonged at IU,” Miram Ali, a recent graduate who took Sinno’s “Politics in the Middle East” class, said.
Sinno also served as her adviser for her master’s thesis; after his suspension, Ali was left to rearrange her schedule and try to find a new adviser in her final semester on campus.
It was “devastating,” Ali said. She described Sinno as someone who was there for her when she came to IU knowing no one. In class, he was a motivator who pushed his students without being overbearing.
“He would try to bring the best out of you,” she said.
Return to teaching
This semester, Sinno received even more disappointing news. His complaints in the grievance process against IU have been rejected. His fight with the university is over.
“The rogue administrators insist on keeping their letters of sanctions in my personal file,” he told the IDS in an email, “to retaliate against me and to use as leverage to silence me.”
Sinno has no other recourse in which to protest his suspension, he said.
Despite what Sinno sees as a disappointing end to the grievance process, he’s not ready to give up. He remains outspoken against the university, highlighting his opposition to the IU Expressive Activity Policy and current IU administration.
He will be back to teaching and advising in the fall and remains grateful for the support he has found from students, faculty and staff.
“Since the administration began their outrageous behavior, I felt for the first time a new sense of community at IU with support from my colleagues, from my students and from staff and from community members,” Sinno said. “It was heartwarming. Without them and their support, I may not have had the strength to keep fighting.”
