January 25, 2006, my university, Cal Poly-Pomona invited Norm Finkelstein to
participate in an ongoing campus lecture series known as the Campus Forum. I
alerted my local support system and formed a strategy to challenge his
campus presentation. Calling upon SPME members, you offered invaluable
information that enabled us to dampen Finkelstein’s lecture impact. Prior
to his visit, I studied many of his lectures, papers, read his latest book
and visited multiple internet sites presenting his work. His arrogance is
only exceeded by his lack of integrity with the truth and thus he has online
video of some previous “debatesâ€. By observing him in action I was able to
understand his presentation tactics. With this information in place,
together with several other colleagues on and off my campus we decided on a
course of action. We were ready for his visit; little did we know that
nonsense was afoot.

Our Campus Forum is sponsored in large part by public monies, specifically
dollars from my own college. It has a Director and theoretically an advisory
board. Historically, they held their meetings for one hour, at noon, a
couple of times each month. Curiously, for Finkelstein’s lecture no time was
announced prior to the week of his arrival, only the day and some general
information was provided. Two days before the event the Forum announced the
time and a different location. Instead of one hour, he was given two hours.
This caused some necessary phone calls to the individuals I had requested be
in the audience with prepared questions-they needed to know the “new timeâ€
and the “new†location. With the help of some kind colleagues, we were able
to get the directions out in a timely manner. Remember, this is Los
Angeles, the rush hour is in full charge beginning around 4:30 pm and
continues until 7:30 pm. Thus, the time move caused many, many headaches for
my off campus people driving out of Los Angeles proper to my university-and
evening parking on my campus, another nightmare. Nonetheless, almost allof
my support group found their way to the lecture hall.

Upon arrival at the building housing the lecture one last surprise-they
moved the lecture room and did not post it. I guess they knew we were going
to be in attendance. One of our allies in Los Angeles is the organization of
Stand With Us. Their director, Roz Rothstein, was a pillar of support. Her
staff prepared a two-page flyer that demonstrated Finkelstein’s questionable
research integrity-the flyer was given to every member of the audience prior
to the start of the lecture. As you know, at a university lecture when a
handout is provided, faculty and students cheerfully accept the paper-of
course once they read the pages a tone was set for the room. As the lecture
began, the Campus Forum director indicated that a Q&A would follow his
lecture-this was repeated by Finkelstein as he began his standard rant
against Israel and selected individuals. Mr. Finkelstein knew we were in the
room and actually delayed his start by 10 minutes, little did we know what
was in store for us later that evening.

You can view his lecture by going to: www.csupomona.edu, click on Streaming
Video, in the new window click on Campus Forum
(http://video.csupomona.edu/streaming)-this takes you to the streamed video
of January 25. We all expected that the lecture would last until about 9:15,
you will notice that the lecture continues until nearly 10 pm. The last
nonsense was about to be launched: the Forum Director indicated that he had
“just been told†that everyone had to leave the building in 10 minutes, thus
there would be no time for questions. He further explained that he had no
idea the building closed at 10 pm and he was sorry for the lack of a Q&A
session. Mind you the building’s operational hours are posted on their
website, on the entry doors and this man has been on our campus for a number
of years-still, he was surprised!

Our strategy was to ask a series of unrelated questions to the evening’s
topic-we had no intention of challenging him on one word of his truth
deficient lecture. Rather, members not identified as “one of us†had been
carefully planted about the hall. They had prepared questions that addressed
his academic and research integrity. Obviously, we never were allowed to ask
our questions. Our group stormed to the podium area and demanded an
explanation from the Campus Forum Director. The next thing we knew we were
surrounded by the local Muslim Student Group. You can imagine some of the
exchanges. As we were ushered out of the building, their group videotaped
each one of us-so much for academic freedom and spirit of collegiality.

Anticipating an evening of disappointment, I had prepared several days
before a list of my university administrator’s names, phone and fax numbers
and email addresses. I had even prepared a general template for a letter of
concern to be “written†and delivered the next day. We met after the lecture
in small groups and created a campaign of alerting the Cal Poly
administration to “out of academic integrity behavior†on the parts of not
only the student group but also the Campus Forum Director and the evening’s
keynote speaker.

I am pleased to say that within 45 minutes of my letter reaching the
administrators I received a personal response indicating they would
immediately launch an inquiry. The Dean of my own College wrote very soon
thereafter indicating she had been appraised of the situation, was less than
happy and would respond soon to my request. Yes, in my letter I requested
that I be allowed to have another university sponsored event with a speaker
or speakers of my own choosing and I requested the same two hours that was
given Mr. Finkelstein. A series of emails electronically raced back and
forth between myself and the forum director. This is unto itself another
story that most in academia would not believe-if asked I will share this in
another writing. I will give you a tease: he proudly announced in his first
email to me that he was not only politically left wing, he was far left wing
and this he used as a justification for bringing in Finkelstein. His
pronouncement had absolutely nothing to do with my email asking for
clarification of the Campus Forum policies. “Out of the blue†he felt a need
to share with me his political leaning-I realized then that we may have a
difficult time communicating.

Many individuals communicated with the university administration their
concerns and did so in a most civil manner and tone. It did help to have
communiqués on their respected office letterheads such as law offices,
medical offices, business offices and advocacy groups such as Stand With Us.
After a relatively short amount of time, my Dean made an offer we accepted.
Her office would pay honorarium and travel expenses for the two speakers
ultimately proposed to her and her office would provide all of the necessary
publicity and security for our event. With the collegial help and assistance
of Stand With Us I am pleased to share that April 25, 2006 our event took
place-a mere three months after Mr. Finkelstein stood in front of my faculty
and presented a revisionist history lesson, incorrect “facts†and slanderous
personal attacks on several good human beings. Now you think the story is
over? No, the next battle has begun.

The speakers were outstanding, Roz Rothstein hosted the event and served as
moderator-I have been in Israel for the last three weeks and obviously could
not be present. She served under duress and she served with style, dignity
and poise. You see, the Muslim Student Group appeared en masse prepared to
disrupt the event-we knew of this ahead of time. Precautions were taken,
including under cover police and the event was successfully completed. The
story is not over because a few hours ago I launched a formal complaint
against the Muslim Student group’s behavior. Again, I am pleased to share
that the Dean of Students and the VP in charge of Student Affairs have
indicated they had heard about the disturbance and were beginning an
investigation. As they say in Hollywood, stay tuned, the best is yet to
come*.

* Special thanks to SPME, Stand With Us and the College of Letters and
Social Sciences and Jonnie Owens, Miriam Cope