University of Iowa officials have fired suspended radiology Professor Malik Juweid on findings of disruptive behavior in the workplace.
UI officials released a panel report Thursday detailing the reasons for Juweid’s firing along with a statement from UI President Sally Mason approving the termination of Juweid’s position.
UI President Sally Mason wrote a decision letter on Tuesday giving her approval to fire Juweid.
UI spokesman Tom Moore told The Daily Iowan he had no additional comments in regards to the report.
“The university feels that the panel’s report speaks for itself,” he wrote in an email.
According to the report, dated July 23, 2012, Juweid had been a tenured member of the Radiology Department since Oct. 15, 2000. Juweid was charged with harassing hospital personnel and with releasing confidential information about a patient.
Juweid rebuked the firing in an email statement, saying his termination will not stand. He said Mason is “disqualified” from making such a decision due to a conflict of interest she has as a defendant in another civil lawsuit. Juweid called the firing a “shame for Iowa and for Democracy in the United States.”
“Be assured, that I will do everything possible to win this case and get Mason fired!” Juweid wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan.
In the 44-page report, filed by a panel of three officials, outlined what exactly Juweid had done and when. The report included copies of the emails Juweid had sent that had been seen as verbal harassment and threatening in nature. The report stated the reasons for the sanctions at the end of the document.
“As these statements make clear, both the university and the UIHC rely upon an atmosphere of collegiality among their faculty in order to function effectively,” the report states. “The policies that we have found Dr. Juweid to have violated are intended to codify minimum behavior to allow that collegiality to exist. Dr. Juweid, by his actions, has shown that he did not work within the bounds of that required collegiality.”
The document concluded with the recommended sanctions from the panel.
“Accordingly, the judicial panel recommends that Dr. Juweid be dismissed from his tenured faculty position in the department of radiology, and that his employment at the University be terminated,” the report said.
According to the report, Juweid sent an email to members of the Faculty Judicial Commission as well as members of the panel on May 24, 2011, stating he felt it was part of the university’s plan to fire him. Juweid also wrote he would “seek to appeal” the decision.