Dr. Ehsan Rouhi-Gol-Khatami, a full professor in Mechanical Engineering, says that under pressure from the administration of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, he was forced to write a resignation letter and his office at the university was cleared out. Rouhi wrote in a tweet that Ferdowsi University “took my office” and that he has now received an office at UMass Amherst.
According to Dr. Rouhi, he came abroad on a research mission without salary and with the responsibility to secure grants, but Ferdowsi University pressured him “because of his presence in the United States” and did not even grant him unpaid leave.
This university professor stated that the university administration summoned him and other colleagues, monitored faculty group messages, and asked them to delete those messages. He added that over the past three years, some prominent faculty members have been dismissed “under legal pretenses” and replaced by affiliated individuals.
The Iranian professor at UMass also revealed details of administrative pressures: Ferdowsi University officials told him he must return to Iran, and if he did not, they would email his university in the U.S. and claim that he had traveled to the U.S. without permission. According to Rouhi, following this pressure, he “stepped aside” and the university administration accepted his resignation.
Dr. Rouhi further added that after some professors were dismissed, in the faculty recruitment process of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Ferdowsi University, the top-ranked candidate from Sharif University of Technology, with the highest score, was rejected by the hiring committee, and the second candidate was rejected by security screening; ultimately, a third candidate with a lower academic level was admitted to the department.
Dr. Ehsan Rouhi wrote: “Perhaps they were right, I was not there; but they could have kept the last flicker of hope alive, which they did not want to. Today I took possession of my office at UMass Amherst.”
