Responding to charges a professor engaged in Mideast politics on the taxpayer dime, San Francisco State University officials offered bland reassurances that the school investigates “any allegations that a member of the University community misused state funds.”

According to a California Public Records Act inquiry requested by the nonprofit group AMCHA Initiative, “Professor Rabab Abdulhadi received more than $7,000 from SFSU to fly to Jordan, the West Bank and Israel to meet with members of known terrorist organizations.

Abdulhadi did not respond to email and telephone requests for comments. In a recording, she said the trip was aimed at “collaborating with academic institutions, especially with academic institutions in Palestine.”

Abdulhadi was scheduled to present a paper at a Jan. 11 – 14 Conference of the Center for American Studies and Research at the American University in Lebanon.

After receiving university approval to attend at the school’s expense, Abdulhadi sent an email to the SFSU Risk Management Office advising that her “name was dropped from the Beirut conference.