Title VI Funding Renewal Poses Dangers to Academic Inquiry, Integrity and Security
Dear Fellow American Citizen:
We are writing to alert you to proposed legislation, HR 3077, which
poses a potential threat to academic freedom. Professor Rashid
Khalidi has noted that this legislation creates "an ideological
litmus test for academics" which could limit freedom of expression
in the classroom as well as in scholarship. We urgently request your
assistance in halting this legislation and preventing narrow
political strictures from being imposed on our scholarly community,
on our students, and on the wider public that looks to academe for
guidance on serious and complex issues, such as those that now
confront the United States in the Middle East.
Please take a few minutes to read this email, and if you share our
sense of its urgency, please follow up with action: Pass this
information on to all your contacts, and then call, write to, or meet
with your senators as soon as possible (HR 3077 has already passed in
the House of Representatives). If you have further questions or
comments, please email us at MEAnthro@yahoo.com.
Thank you,
The Task Force on Middle East Anthropology
THIS ALERT CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS:
- Summary of the legislation regarding Title VI funding renewal
(and the provisions that are of concern to scholars)
More on the Legislation (HR 3077)
Concise set of talking points about the legislation
Links to information about the legislation
Contact information for relevant senators
1: SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION
*Title VI refers to Title VI of the 1965
Higher Education Act, which provides funding for area studies centers
and programs at universities in the U.S. Title VI funding
affects teaching, study and research in modern languages, area
studies, and international studies, as well as fields related to
area studies such as anthropology. Programs such as Fulbright and
FLAS also fall under Title VI.
Title VI funding has come up for renewal. As part of this process, HR
3077, which is the International Studies in Higher Education Act, has
been proposed in Congress. While HR 3077 proposes to renew Title VI
funding for another five years, the legislation also contains a
number of provisions that many scholars, especially those affiliated
with area studies programs, find disturbing and even un-American.
These provisions include the establishment of an "International
Higher Education Advisory Board," directing the Secretary of
Education to study "foreign language heritage communities" within the
U.S. for national security purposes, and requiring Title VI
institutions to provide federal recruiter access to students.
(Details below).
In early 2004, the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
(HELP) Committee will be drafting a version of the legislation for
the full Senate to consider. If the Senate version is confirmed, the
House and Senate will set up another committee to merge the two
bills. At that point, discussion of these bills will take place
behind closed doors, with no input whatsoever by the academic
community or the general public. It is therefore imperative that
scholars clearly voice their concerns about this legislation NOW,
since this is virtually the last stage in the legislative process in
which citizens can have an impact on HR 3077.
At the end of this email, you will find the phone numbers of the
members of the Senate HELP Committee. Phone calls are always more
effective than emails. Better still are meetings with senators, many
of whom will be in their home states in December before the Senate
reconvenes in January 2004. Please take the time to make a phone
call, set up a meeting with a senator, and discuss this pending
legislation with your colleagues.
2: MORE ON THE LEGISLATION
To access the full text of HR 3077, type the following into your
browser: http://thomas.loc.gov/ then do a search by Bill Number for
HR 3077.
Sections of 3077 you should pay particularly close attention to are:
Section 6 Details the independent International Higher Education
Advisory Board, which will include two members of national security
agencies. The tasks of this advisory board include making
recommendations "to improve the programs under [Title VI] to better
reflect the national needs related to the homeland security,
international education, international affairs, and foreign language
training."
Section 7 - Details requirements for Title VI institutions
to provide Federal Government agency recruiter access to students and
student recruiting information.
Section 8 Directs the Secretary of Education, along with
the International Advisory Board, to study "foreign language heritage
communities" within the United States, "particularly such communities
that include speakers of languages that are critical to the national
security of the United States."
3: TALKING POINTS
A) ADVISORY BOARD IS NOT THE BEST WAY TO ADDRESS NATIONAL SECURITY
CONCERNS:
When approaching senators, express appreciation that HR
3077 extends the Title VI programs. Then note that this new advisory
board is not the best way to address national security and political
concerns, and listen to those concerns as well. An alternate
suggestion might be to propose a non-legislated working group
comprised of academics and other area specialists from a wide-range
of perspectives that would cooperatively and consensually devise the
best interdisciplinary strategies to address Congressional concerns
about international education. This would make much more sense than
the proposed legislative changes, as these changes were instigated by
the testimony of one person, Stanley Kurtz, an ideologue and partisan
who represents a narrow constituency of the neoconservative right-
wing, and works with the Hoover Institute and The National Review.
B) NOTION OF LACK OF DIVERSITY/BIAS IN AREA STUDIES IS FALSE:
The
language in the legislation that suggests that the advisory board is
necessary to promote "diverse perspectives" in Title VI international
educated programs stems from testimony before the Education
Subcommittee presented by Stanley Kurtz (see link below). This
testimony included false assertions regarding bias in international
and foreign language studies. This is related to an argument that
those in support of U.S. foreign policy are being suppressed
institutionally. One need only examine the membership of the Middle
East Studies Association and other academic associations to realize
that the full spectrum of political, ideological, and theoretical
perspectives are represented, reflecting the wide range of views that
are in fact offered to students in U.S. research institutions.
Furthermore, the rhetoric characteristic of Kurtz and his supporters
is rooted in the logical fallacy that any criticism of U.S. policy is
tantamount to sedition or a lack of patriotism. Critical debate and
consideration of multiple perspectives is crucial to the academic
process, and would serve the national interest far better than blind
support for the foreign policy of a given administration. Critical
debate constitutes the essence of American values.
C) GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE INFLUENCE OVER SCHOLARSHIP:
This
legislation suggests that the government will have influence over
what kinds of research and ideas are produced in Title VI
institutions. It is in the best interest of scholarship and
intellectual inquiry for institutions of higher learning to be
independent from government policy. Governments can encourage the
free exchange of ideas and the development of stellar scholarship
through financial support, but they should not have any measure of
control over these ideas or scholarship in a democratic society.
Tying government funding to particular political perspectives poses a
threat to freedom of academic inquiry, thereby endangering the larger
principles of freedom that the U.S. professes to uphold.
D) REPERCUSSIONS FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT COMPLY REMAIN UNCLEAR:
The
jurisdiction of the advisory board remains unclear, leaving open
questions about repercussions for those who do not follow the board's
recommendations, and questions about who will not receive funding
under the new legislation.
E) HR 3077 WILL LEAD TO PRIVATIZATION AND ELITISM:
The new
legislation may have the negative consequences of further privatizing
research and removing it from the public domain, because centers and
programs at private institutions, which may be less dependent on
Title VI funding than those at public institutions, might choose to
refuse the funding under the new legislation. This could result in
students in public universities having less access to knowledge about
the outside world.
F) POTENTIAL FOR STUDENT COERCION:
The mandate of the board to make
recommendations on how grant recipient programs should encourage
their students to serve national security needs is a form of coercion
that constitutes an attack on basic American freedoms.
G) SURVEILLANCE IS UNETHICAL AND WILL IMPEDE SCHOLARSHIP:
The
legislation's directive for the Secretary of Education to
study "language heritage communities" within the United States is
tantamount to surveillance. Surveillance of communities in the U.S.
should not be tied to education or to research in any way. Such
surveillance will impede scholarship by damaging researcher
relationships with those communities. It also has the serious
potential to damage the relationships these communities have
with others in the U.S., relationships which make them an integral
part of U.S. society.
H) DANGER POSED TO RESEARCHERS AND INFORMANTS:
Both the advisory
board and the "language heritage communities" research may increase
the perception abroad and at homeamong academic colleagues,
government officials, in the media, or in public opinionthat U.S.
researchers and students are an arm of the intelligence community.
This is problematic on an ethical level, and could put both U.S.
researchers, and their informants, in danger.
I) NEO-CONSERVATIVE AGENDA:
In addition to Kurtz (see talking points
A and B), this legislation is being pushed by a number of other neo-
conservative personalities, including Martin Kramer and Daniel
Pipes. Several members of the Senate HELP Committee, including
Senators Kennedy (D-MA), Dodd (D-CT) and Harkin (D-IA), recently
opposed Pipes' nomination to the US Institute of Peace board,
describing him as a "provocative" and "highly controversial"
candidate whose "decidedly one-sided" views would be in "direct
contradiction" to USIP goals. These conservative radicals are not
supporters of ideological, ethnic, and political diversity; instead
they promote (especially anti-Muslim, anti-Arab) prejudice, which
should raise questions about the legislation they are pushing.
4: LINKS TO FURTHER INFORMATION:
http://www.aaup.org/govrel/hea/2003/9-23alert.htm (AAUP Legislative
Alert on HR 3077)
http://hnn.us/articles/1218.html (article by Juan Cole)
http://internationalstudies.uchicago.edu/titleVI.shtml (contains
history, background, links)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/la_nuit/41009.html?mode=reply
For more on Kurtz' testimony and the roots of the legislation, see:
http://www.senate.gov/~labor/bills/031_bill.html
http://www.nationalreview.com/kurtz/kurtz200310140905.asp
5: SENATE COMMITTEE (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) CONTACT
INFO
** If your senators are not on this list, it is still important to
contact them, especially in the event that the legislation is
confirmed by the HELP committee and goes to the entire Senate.
Contact information for senators is available at: www.senate.gov
Committee Chairman:
Judd Gregg (R-NH) -- (202) 224-3324 or (603) 225-7115
Democrat Members:
Senator Edward Kennedy (MA) -- (202) 224-4543 or (617) 565-3170
Senator Christopher Dodd (CT) -- (202) 224-2823 or (860) 258-6940
Senator Tom Harkin (IA) -- (202) 224-3254 or (515) 284-4574
Senator Barbara Mikulski (MD) -- (202) 224-4654 or (410) 962-4510
Senator James Jeffords (I) (VT) -- (202) 224-5141 or (802) 223-5273
Senator Jeff Bingaman (NM) -- (202) 224-5521 or (505) 988-6647
Senator Patty Murray (WA) -- (202) 224-2621 or (206) 553-5545
Senator Jack Reed (RI) -- (202) 224-4642 or (401) 943-3100
Senator John Edwards (NC) -- (202) 224-3154 or (919) 856-4245
Senator Hillary Clinton (NY) -- (202) 224-4451 or (212) 688-6262
Republican Members:
Senator Bill Frist (TN) -- (202) 224-3344 or (615) 352-9411
Senator Mike Enzi (WY) -- (202) 224-3424 or (307) 682-6268
Senator Mike DeWine (OH) -- (202) 224-2315 or (614) 469-5186
Senator Christopher Bond (MO) -- (202) 224-5721 or (573) 634-2488
Senator Lamar Alexander (TN) -- (202) 224-4944 or (615) 736-5129
Senator John Ensign (NV) -- (202) 224-6244 or (702) 388-6605
Senator Jeff Sessions (AL) -- (202) 224-4124 or (334) 244-7017
Senator Pat Roberts (KS) -- (202) 224-4774 or (913) 451-9343
Senator Lindsey Graham (SC) -- (202) 224-5972 or (864) 250-1417
Senator John Warner (VA) -- (202) 224-2023 or (804) 771-2579 |