Posted on 09/24/2002 1:19:41 PM PDT by 1bigdictator
Since 9/11 MESA Boycott
The directors of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) have announced a boycott of the National Flagship Language Initiative (NFLI), the U.S. government's plan to establish government-supported academies for critical languages at a few select campuses. The initiative is part of the highly successful National Security Education Program
Why the boycott? As the MESA statement makes clear, the professors oppose teaching Arabic to students who commit themselves to government service. The government will be offering student fellowships for study at NFLI centers, in return for a period of service. The MESAns abhor the idea that they might offer instruction to persons committed to serving the U.S. government, especially in defense and intelligence.
Read about the boycott in the Chronicle of Higher Education . Read the colloquy that accompanied the article, and read this critique of MESA's boycott by Stanley Kurtz of the Hoover Institution. Read the item devoted to the controversy in Martin Kramer's MESA Culpa in the fall issue of the Middle East Quarterly. And read the new reply to the MESA Board submitted by four members of the association, challenging the boycott resolution.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title VI Battle A battle is brewing this coming fall over U.S. government funding for Middle Eastern studies.
Late last year, a Congress stunned by 9/11 authorized a massive increase in funding for area studies generally, and Middle Eastern studies in particular. Millions of additional dollars were appropriated under the rubric of Title VI, a Department of Education program. Joel Beinin, the president of MESA, celebrated the windfall in a spring letter to MESA members: "This is excellent news for MESA and for the future of area studies more generally; and there is good reason to hope that this trend will continue."
Is there? Martin Kramer, in an essay entitled Arabic Panic, questions the wisdom of the new appropriation. "It's difficult to see how this new investment in Middle Eastern studies could produce a return that serves the national interest. Given what goes on in some Middle East centers, perhaps the government should pay them, like farmers, not to produce anything." Stanley Kurtz, in an article subtitled The Scandal of Title VI, writes that "it's high time that the scam being run on the American people via Title VI funding for academic area studies programs was exposed."
David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, has responded with a letter to Congress defending Title VI. (The Council has even issued talking points against Kurtz.) And no wonder: some leaders of Congress have shown interest in the issue.
Now is the time to share your own opinion about Middle Eastern studies and Title VI with members of the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services and Education. And return to this website for new developments. The Title VI battle has commenced.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Middle East Forum has launched a new project, Campus Watch, devoted to monitoring Middle Eastern studies on campus. Read Martin Kramer's comment on the significance of the new project.
I agree with the article that there is a real shortage of classes in Middle Eastern languages.
Unless, this is anther one of those educational union things. The guys who make big bucks today for translations and such don't want a lot of of new, patriotic competitors, so they protest.
Nothing. Read the source, and then check the link giving MESA's actual statement. What they're saying is that Middle Eastern institutions won't want to work with students who will then be obligated to go on to work for American defense and intelligence agencies.
Again, if this is something where the students involved are undergrads that are going to be learning Arabic, etc., from local resources, then I don't think that there should be a problem. But if we are talking about graduate and post-graduate students, who will be working with institutions based in the Middle East, then I can see what their concern is.
The reporting requirements that Middle Eastern governments place foreigners under are one hell of a lot more stringent than those that we place Middle Eastern college students under.
Again, if this is an issue of dealing with undergraduates, then I have no consideration for the thesis here. But, if we are talking about graduate and post-graduate study, it's a different story. Such people don't readily change their field of study at all, there's far fewer of them, and they'll be tracked much more closely by both their host institution and the government that said institution is closely tied to. And such study is much more important to defense and intelligence purposes than a bunch of undergrads trying to make sense of "Dick and Jane" in Arabic.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.