SU prof ‘ignored’ in bomb scare

By Dale Heberlig, Sentinel Reporter, April 26, 2007

Last updated: Thursday, April 26, 2007 10:41 AM EDT

A Shippensburg University English professor says it was he who discarded the box full of poetry manuscripts that triggered a two-hour shutdown of the campus last Thursday.

Campus authorities alerted the state police bomb squad, evacuated buildings and cordoned off the area shortly after 4 p.m. April 19 when after a student reported he saw someone place a box beside a trash can outside Wright Hall.

In a posting on his Web site, http://www.kazimali.com, Kazim Ali says he learned that an ROTC student reported the package was left by a “man of Middle Eastern descent driving a heavily-decaled white (Volkswagen) Beetle with out of state plates and no campus sticker.”

Information from Cumberland County’s 911 dispatch center supports Ali’s contention.

In an interview with The Sentinel Wednesday, Ali said he was “shocked” to learn of the emergency response, which he described as “alarmist and sensationalizing.”

In a press conference following the April 19 alert, SU spokesman Pete Gigliotti declined to identify Ali or acknowledge that the “suspicious” package was filled with poetry. He gave no hint about the identity of the student who reported the incident either.

Gigliotti said this morning he stands by that position.

“We continue to say it was an employee (who left the package). We will not identify the person. It was an honest mistake and we don’t want to draw attention to an innocent person.”

SU President William Ruud was off-campus in an out-of-town conference Wednesday and unavailable for comment.

Calls incident ‘opportunity’

On his Web site, Ali calls the university’s statement “bizarrely minimal” and says the incident could be an opportunity for new SU President William Ruud to take a bolder role.

Ali told The Sentinel, “My suggestion to the president is simple: issue a brief statement in which he acknowledges the current atmosphere of tension, but cautions everyone against alarmist or prejudicial responses and urges a level of serenity.”

Ali contends his appearance — specifically the color of his skin — triggered the response of the ROTC student.

The 36-year-old Ali says he is of Islamic faith, but of Indian descent — not Middle Eastern. He has taught at SU for two years, has a faculty sticker on his VW Beetle and works from an office on the second floor of Wright Hall — the center for campus ROTC activities. He says he has always recycled items in the same fashion in the past.

Ali says he is highly recognizable on campus as the author of two books, organizer of the campus literary reading series and has appeared twice in the campus newspaper, most recently in connection with an appearance on the television quiz show “Jeopardy.”

“I think it would have taken about 5 seconds to identify me,” he said.

In fact, he was contacted by colleagues who recognized him through descriptions of the “suspect” circulating around campus.

‘Something didn’t feel right’

Ali says he notified Gigliotti by e-mail at 5:01 p.m. the evening of the incident and spoke with Ruud “about 10 minutes” later by cell phone, apologizing for his part in the role.

Ali said Wednesday, “I don’t feel unwelcome at all. Most people have found the incident amusing and a demonstration of overreaction. I feel like it didn’t happen to me, but to the campus community as a whole. I am less worried for myself and more for other faculty and students of color on campus, particularly since the university has made it such a priority to diversify the faculty and the student body.”

Gigliotti says there are no regrets about the response.

“We have 6,500 students and 900 employees,” he said. “I don’t know everyone. Remember, this came three days after the worst campus massacre ever at Virginia Tech. The campus is a family and everyone looks out for each other.

“For the individual who reported this, something didn’t feel right,” Gigliotti said. “In hindsight, was it an overreaction to a box of paper? That’s for someone else to say. Was it an overreaction to a suspicious package? No. This is not the way we recycle on campus.”