An RPI professor was verbally harassed by Professor Emeritus Donald Harris, last Wednesday at 6:30 pm on the second floor of the DCC,allegedly because of his ethnicity.
While according to Public Safety Assistant Director Mark Del Vecchio the incident did not rise to the level of a criminal act, "insensitive and thoughtless comments were made."
The professor, who filed a complaint taken by Officer Leslie Norton at Public Safety, asked that his name be not used in this article for fear of reprisal.
Provost Bud Peterson described the situation as "an unfortunate incident that resulted from a misunderstanding between two faculty—some inappropriate statements were made. I worked with them and it has been resolved. We are moving forward in a positive way." Peterson said the incident was a personnel matter and it was closed.
The confrontation between Harris and the victim began when Harris was informed that another class was scheduled in DCC 232 at 6:30.
The professor, in a letter written to Peterson obtained by The Poly states, "The instructor [Harris] denied me and my students our class time by stating that his secretary had reserved the room from 4 to 7 pm and that was that."
The letter goes on to say the professor went to tell Harris that this was unacceptable and refused to leave the classroom. After being ignored and dismissed, the verbal harassment began.
"All in all, on September 12, 2001, I (a naturalized U.S. citizen of Turkish origin) was asked by an RPI faculty member directly, in a mean spirit and point blank, several times whether I was a Muslim because I did not want to give up my students’ rightful class time. And I learned that ‘my accent sounded Muslim’ which is funny because I have always thought that my accent was colored by the fact that I had learned German first and English second," said the professor.
On Thursday, after speaking to Peterson, the victim wrote a letter to mechanical, aerospace and nuclear engineering department Chair John Tichy stating that he did not want to continue teaching at RPI and "I do not ever want to set foot on the RPI campus ever again."
Near the end of the letter to Tichy he stated, "And nobody can expect me to be on campus and to look over my shoulder every 10 seconds and try to guess if that man/woman standing and staring at me is a vigilante à la Mr. Harris who is trying to figure out whether I look Muslim or not; whether I sound Muslim or not."
On Monday the professor decided to continue teaching at RPI and not to leave the United States. "The incident was serious. The only change in my position is that running away from it is senseless," he said in an interview.
The professor is a non-practicing Muslim, considers himself an atheist, and received two degrees from RPI.
Harris, professor emeritus of the mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering department, has been teaching at RPI for 26 years. When contacted, Harris stated that he had written up a statement that he sent to Dean of Engineering William A. Baeslack III and to Provost Bud Peterson; he refused to comment any further.
Currently the incident is being handled through Rensselaer’s Human Resources department headed by Vice President Curtis Powell.
