Ithaca professor may sue over tenure

By JTA Staff · October 10, 2008

A professor threatened to sue Ithaca College, saying it denied her tenure because of claims she is anti-Israel.

Margo Ramlal-Nankoe, an assistant sociology professor at the upstate New York college, hired Lynne Bernabei, a Washington lawyer, the college’s weekly newspaper The Ithacan reported recently.

The lawyer, who represented controversial Israel critic Norman Finkelstein in a similar case against DePaul, wrote the university threatening a “long and protracted legal case” if it did not reverse its decision to deny her tenure.

The university, which says it is reviewing the letter, twice denied her tenure based on her scholarship and “unevenness” in her teaching, The Ithacan said.

Ramlal-Nankoe has taught at Ithaca since 1997 and was eligible for tenure in 2006. She is active in Students for a Just Peace, which advocates for an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. She vehemently denies that she is “anti-Israel.”