Second-year College student Abdalmuhssin El-Yacoubi, who wrote a letter that helped trigger an FBI investigation against two alleged terrorists, is confirmed to have left the University.
Patricia Lampkin, associate vice president for student affairs, said El-Yacoubi will be gone indefinitely.
El-Yacoubi wrote the letter to his older brother, Mohammed El-Yacoubi, who was traveling with a friend, Mohamed Osman Idris, to Israel.
The letter's references to jihad, or Islamic holy war, placed Mohammed El-Yacoubi and Idris under suspicion of planning a suicide attack.
Lampkin said University faculty are struggling with how to respond to the issue.
"We're on new territory here," Lampkin said.
Faculty members still are considering whether to offer any support to Abdalmuhssin El-Yacoubi.
"We want to be even-handed and fair to all," Lampkin said.
Lampkin could not comment on whether the student left willingly or was forced out by the University.
University spokeswoman Louise Dudley said faculty members will continue to look at how the case should be handled. She also said the matter has been brought to the attention of University President John T. Casteen III.
Dudley said she was reluctant to comment further because of "the highly unusual" nature of the situation.
The threat of student association with terrorists appears to be unprecedented at the University.
Politics Prof. William B. Quandt, who teaches a course in Middle East relations, said El-Yacoubi's possible political beliefs are not reflective of the majority of Muslim students at the University.
"I have never encountered it at the University," Quandt said. "None of the Muslim students I've met supported political extremism."
Quandt said there is "no single cause or no single pattern" causing terrorist tendencies in individuals.
Although only Idris was charged with a crime - that of lying to a grand jury investigating the men's alleged support of Islamic terrorist groups -- the case has been intensified by increased Israeli and Palestinian violence.
Just yesterday, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and at least 15 people who had gathered to celebrate the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover.
In light of such international unrest, as well as disorder on Grounds from last month's series of bomb threats, Lampkin said the University will continue to ensure security.
"The safety and health of our students is always our number one concern," Lampkin said.
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