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Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004

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  "If you're going to bring Susan Rosenberg here and say her minimal credentials are sufficient to teach a course on activism, why not bring in David Duke on race or O.J. Simpson on the sociology of sports?" said history professor Robert Paquette.

However, the college said in a statement released Wednesday that Rosenberg "offers a unique perspective as a writer."

"As long as public safety and the rights of others are not compromised, the college does not normally put limits on which voices can be heard and which cannot," the statement read.

Rosenberg was convicted in 1984 of weapons possession and sentenced to 58 years in prison. Prosecutors said she had more than 600 pounds of explosives that she and another defendant had planned to use in "non-lethal" bombings.

Rosenberg also was indicted in a Brink's armored car robbery in 1981 that left a guard and two police officers dead. The charges were eventually dropped.

While in prison, Rosenberg earned a master's degree in creative writing and counseled prisoners who had AIDS. Her sentence was commuted by then-President Bill Clinton in 2001.

Rosenberg, who teaches literature at John Jay School of Criminal Justice in New York, did not immediately return a call Thursday seeking comment.

The professor who brought Rosenberg to Hamilton said she is a model of how people can transform themselves.

"I think she is an exemplar of rehabilitation," said Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, professor of comparative literature. "Her story is about how you can make something productive out of something that was really awful."

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