Cal State Fullerton’s Middle East Dispute

A Cal State Fullerton graduate is suing the university, alleging that his Middle Eastern studies professor was pro-Arab in her teachings and penalized anyone who didn’t agree with her views.

Mark Webber, 26, said that when he complained to university officials, he was kicked out of class and given a failing grade. He said the academic blot and related disciplinary reports filed against him by the professor later cost him a chance at being hired as an officer by the Los Angeles Police Department.

After a university appeals board denied Webber’s request to erase the grade, he sued this week in Orange County Superior Court.

“He is a good student and he is fighting to correct his academic record,” said Richard Rudolph, one of Webber’s attorneys. “Certainly an increased grade-point average would help him in attaining future enrollment and academic placement. He basically is looking to have the damage rectified.”

The lawsuit stems from Webber’s April 1994 clashes with professor Marlyn A. Madison in the “Politics in the Middle East” class.

Webber, a political science major, accused the instructor of “trying diligently to brainwash the students as she preaches for Islam and the Arabs and she blames the West and Israel for all the problems in the Middle East,” according to the suit.

He submitted written complaints to the chairwoman of the Political Science Department and the associate dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. But the university stood by Madison.

Madison could not be reached for comment Friday and Colleen Bentley-Adler, spokeswoman for the Cal State University system, declined to comment on the lawsuit.

“We have not been served yet,” Bentley-Adler said. “We’ll look into the complaint certainly and make the decision of where to go from there.”

Webber lost a lengthy appeal with the university in December 1995 but contends the process was flawed because the board was short one member when it heard his case. The board deadlocked in a 2-2 vote then issued a statement that Webber had not been able to convince a majority that his allegations of “arbitrary, capricious, or prejudiced treatment” were true. The lawsuit maintains that the board had no right to deny the appeal based on a deadlocked vote.

Webber was graduated in June 1994 with a political science degree. He is suing for a new Academic Appeals Board hearing and wants to have his work in the course reviewed by “a neutral, non-party professor.” He is also seeking legal costs and attorney fees.