Pompeo speech triggers revolt against university president

In a fiery speech at the American University in Cairo last month, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sided with the autocrats who dominate the Middle East and played down the Arab Spring protests that upended the region in 2011. This week that speech became the trigger for a revolt against the man who hosted it, writes Declan Walsh for The New York Times.

Francis J Ricciardone, the American University’s president and a former American diplomat, who has been the university’s leader since 2016, faces an open challenge from academics at the university, one of the most prestigious in the Middle East, who are angered in part by his decision to give Pompeo an unchallenged platform, and have grievances over contract disputes and have accused him of illegal discrimination.

Last Tuesday, the university senate voted overwhelmingly to declare no confidence in Ricciardone, a former United States ambassador to Egypt, Turkey and the Philippines and Palau. The academics urged the university’s New York-based board of trustees to immediately begin the search for a successor.
Full report on The New York Times site