By Omar Kasrawi

By week six of the spring semester most students at SIPA have settled into their daily routines and begun preparing for their midterm examinations. However, a group of 69 students had up until last Monday night been wondering whether two of their courses would begin because their professor had not yet received his visa to teach in the United States.

The courses in question, “International Politics of the Middle East” and “Culture, Peace and War,” will still be taught by visiting professor Ghassan Salame, who finally received his visa this past Monday and arrived in the U.S the next day. The lengthy delay left many students frustrated by what they perceive as a lack of preparation and communication by the administration at Columbia, especially since Salame arrived a week late last year due to visa processing delays.

Salame, a former Lebanese minister of Culture and advisor to the United Nations’ Secretary General, is a joint professor with Sciences Po (Paris). He won rave reviews from his students last fall and recently signed a three-year contract to teach at Columbia during spring semesters. Students were looking forward to his classes as there was a dearth of available courses offered in the Middle Eastern regional context at SIPA last semester.

Students knew Salame would not be in the country for the first week of classes. Their concerns began January 26th when the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) informed them that due to “regrettable delays” Salame had not yet received his visa from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and would be arriving “any day now.” Classes were canceled each successive week as students were encouraged by OSA to remain in Salame’s class as they anticipated the visa being approved soon.

This continued until Associate Dean for Faculty and Curriculum Affairs Dan McIntrye met with students two weeks ago to allay their concerns. The visa process was initiated in December. McIntyre explained to the students that he was only informed in late January that because Salame is from Lebanon, DHS would require an additional three weeks for an added security clearance.

After this Senior Associate Dean Rob Garris contacted a Columbia alumnus at NY Senator Charles Shumer’s office to see if pressure could be put on DHS to speed up Salame’s case. Pressed by students as to why the process of obtaining the visa was not begun earlier, especially in light of last year’s delay, McIntyre said, “Had I known this would happen, I would’ve never let it get this far.”

McIntyre offered three solutions to the students. The first that Salame shows up within the next two weeks and they hold make up sessions every Friday until the end of the semester . The second was to find a replacement professor to teach the class. However, nothing concrete was finalized at the time of the meeting. The third was to either find students a new class to join or direct them towards an independent study.

Ian Tobman, a first year MIA enrolled in one of Salame’s classes said, “This experience has been extremely frustrating because of the complete lack of communication the administration had with students about the situation.”
Tan Nguyen, program coordinator at SIPA, has been in touch with students via email throughout this ordeal and said that in the future the visa process will be started as soon as technically possible, likely