A former leftist radical who spent 16 years in prison for possessing explosives has withdrawn from teaching a college seminar after her hiring sparked protests. Susan Rosenberg made her decision because it was getting too expensive for us in the best interest of all parties, Hamilton College officials said Wednesday. In response to her hiring, prospective students withdrew applications and donors rescinded hundreds of thousands of dollars in pledges, school officials said. Rosenberg, who earned a master's degree in creative writing while in prison, was to teach a one-month course in January called "Resistance Memoirs: Writing, Identity and Change." She was hired through an on-campus organization that focuses on social justice issues.
Rosenberg, who began her activism in the 1970s, was indicted in a 1981 armored car robbery carried out by a gang of radicals. A guard and two Nyack police officers were killed in a shootout. Rosenberg denied involvement in the robbery, and the charges eventually were dropped. She was convicted in 1984 of weapons possession. Prosecutors said she had more than 600 pounds of explosives that she and another defendant had planned to use in "non-lethal" bombings. Since Rosenberg's 58-year prison sentence was commuted in 2001 by President Clinton, she has worked as a writer and an activist for human rights, prisoner rights and AIDS. She teaches literature at John Jay School of Criminal Justice in New York. |