NAS Blog

Sharad Karkhanis writes a satirical newsletter, Patriot Returns, that he e-mails to 13,000 faculty and staff of the City University of New York.  His sarcasm can be biting. Susan O’Malley, until her recent retirement one of CUNY’s left-wing faculty leaders, sued Karkhanis.  He referred to her with the appellation “Queen of Released Time” because of her non-existent teaching load due to exemptions for bureaucratic assignments.

In addition, O’Malley had publicly protested CUNY’s firing of Mohamed Yousry, who was convicted of abetting terrorism associated with the “Blind Sheik” trial in New York. Karkhanis wrote that O’Malley was planning on setting up an al Qaeda training camp.

O’Malley was a union officer and president of the faculty senate, roles which conflict. For instance, when Professor KC Johnson was engaged in a tenure battle with the departmental chairs of Brooklyn College, as a union officer O’Malley had a fiduciary duty to take Johnson’s side. But as president of the faculty senate she made public statements attacking Johnson and siding with the departmental chairs.  This was acceptable to New York State’s Public Employee Relations Board even though the state’s labor law, known as the Taylor Law, prohibits management-dominated unions.

Inside Higher Education covers the settlement of O’Malley v. Karkhanis here.   As well, I wrote a post about it on my blog here.