Brian Raines
Dean of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences
The University of Arkansas
[email protected]
Dean of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences
The University of Arkansas
[email protected]
Dear President Silveria, Chancellor Robinson, and Dean Raines:
We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern regarding the University of Arkansas’s decision to dismiss tenured Professor Shirin Saeidi. We are particularly troubled that this decision was made despite the unanimous recommendation of the Faculty Hearing Committee that Professor Saeidi not be fired.
MESA was founded in 1966 to promote scholarship and teaching on the Middle East and North Africa. The preeminent organization in the field, the Association publishes the prestigious International Journal of Middle East Studies and has nearly 2,800 members worldwide. MESA is committed to ensuring academic freedom and freedom of expression, both within the region and in connection with the study of the region in North America and outside of North America.
On 16 December 2025 Dean Brian Raines recommended Professor Saeidi’s dismissal on six grounds, pursuant to Board Policy 405.1.The following day, Chancellor Robinson concurred and notified Professor Saeidi of her right to request a hearing before the university’s Faculty Hearing Committee. Professor Saeidi exercised that right on 6 January 2026 and the hearing was held on 23 February 2026. According to university policy, the Faculty Hearing Committee is required to review the alleged grounds for dismissal and the individual’s written response to them, conduct a hearing at which both sides can present evidence, question witnesses and make a recommendation with findings.
After conducting a thorough review addressing each of the six stated grounds for dismissal, the Faculty Hearing Committee unanimously recommended against dismissal on all counts and called for Professor Saeidi’s reinstatement to her teaching, research and service responsibilities as a tenured associate professor. Nonetheless, President Silveria chose to disregard the Faculty Hearing Committee’s decision, and on 26 March 2026 he informed Professor Saeidi that he was endorsing Chancellor Robinson’s recommendation to dismiss her for cause under Board of Trustees Policies 405.1 and 405.4. We regard President Silveria’s action as an egregious violation of accepted norms of faculty governance and a serious breach of the right to free speech and unencumbered academic expression.
Our letter to the University of Arkansas dated 16 December 2025 regarding Professor Saeidi’s removal from her position as Director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies expressed concern that that decision was politically motivated and based primarily on her protected speech, in violation of the principles of academic freedom and her First Amendment rights as well as of university policy. We call your attention to the fact that Board Policy 405.1 explicitly affirms that “mere expressions of opinions related to the faculty member’s scholarship or teaching, however controversial, shall not constitute cause for dismissal.” President Silveria’s decision to terminate Professor Saeidi is equally inconsistent with this policy and suggests that the university has capitulated to external political pressure, given that she has been subjected to a sustained campaign of doxing and defamation. We note that the Faculty Hearing Committee found no complaints or negative evaluations from students or colleagues about Professor Saeidi, heightening our concern about the role played by external actors in the decision to terminate Professor Saeidi.
We are also concerned that President Silveria’s dismissal letter cites the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. CAF has written extensively about the problematic use of this definition and its accompanying examples, which conflate criticism of Zionism and of Israel with antisemitism. We are also troubled by President Silveria’s acknowledgment that his decision was influenced, at least in part, by concerns over potential reductions to, or even elimination of, state funding under Ark. Code Ann. § 6-16-2004 if the university’s response to antisemitism were deemed inadequate. Professor Saeidi has been the target of sustained pressure from state officials and other external actors, and the university’s apparent surrender to that pressure sets a deeply troubling precedent.
Free expression is essential to any democratic society, and institutions of higher education must remain spaces where even controversial or unpopular views can be expressed, debated, and challenged. No faculty member should lose their position for expressive or associational activity protected by the First Amendment and the principles of academic freedom. At moments of heightened political tension, university leaders bear a particular responsibility to uphold academic freedom and protect members of their communities. In dismissing Professor Saeidi, the University of Arkansas appears to have fallen far short of these obligations, undermining its avowed commitment to academic freedom and institutional integrity.
We therefore call on the University of Arkansas to uphold its stated commitment to freedom of speech, the principles of academic freedom, its own policies and the recommendations of the Faculty Hearing Committee by immediately rescinding the decision to terminate Professor Saeidi and by reinstating her as Director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies. We further urge you to publicly denounce the campaign of defamation directed against Professor Saeidi and to refrain from any future actions that censor or penalize the protected speech of faculty and students at the University of Arkansas.
We look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Ussama Makdisi
MESA President
Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Judith E. Tucker
Chair, Committee on Academic Freedom
Professor Emerita, Georgetown University
Chair, Committee on Academic Freedom
Professor Emerita, Georgetown University
cc:
Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas
The Arkansas Traveler
Farida Shaheed
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education
Documents & Links
- US20260417
pdf 1 MB