Controlling Title VI Centers

[Jolanta Davis]

Has anyone else noticed the following article in the last Chronicle of
Higher Education? What will it mean for title VI centers concentrating on
Russia? Or is it all about Middle Eastern Studies?

House Panel Approves Bills on Graduate and Area Studies
By STEPHEN BURD

Washington
A U.S. House of Representatives committee has unanimously approved a bill
that would give the federal government greater oversight over federally
financed international-studies programs at American colleges.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce also approved
legislation that would renew several programs that provide aid for graduate
education.

The international bill (HR 3077), which was passed late last month, would
create a new advisory board that would monitor foreign-language and
area-studies programs, which are supported under Title VI of the Higher
Education Act. The lawmakers took the action after hearing complaints from
conservative scholars that some of the centers supported by these programs
have an "anti-American" bias.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the Michigan Republican who heads the House
subcommittee that drafted the bill, said that creating the advisory board
was necessary "to ensure the appropriate use of taxpayer funds." College
leaders and lobbyists, however, said the allegations of bias were
inaccurate, and they have worried that the new board would be used to
interfere with curricular decisions on their campuses.

The committee's Republican leaders tried to alleviate those concerns by
adding language to the bill restricting the advisory board from "mandating,
directing, or controlling" the curriculums of such college programs.

College lobbyists welcomed the change. "This is a significant improvement,"
said Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president for government and public
affairs at the American Council on Education. "The changes will help ensure
that the advisory committee is in fact an advisory committee, and not a
censorship committee."

College lobbyists were also pleased that the committee's leaders agreed to
pare back the activities that the board could undertake. For example, the
original bill gave the board the authority to "annually monitor, apprise,
and evaluate the activities of grant recipients," including conducting "an
evaluation of the performance of the grantees."

The bill that the committee approved late last month does not include that
language. Instead, it directs the board to "monitor, apprise, and evaluate
a sample of activities" supported by Title VI, with the goal of "providing
recommendations for improvement of the programs."

Despite the language changes, some college officials said they still feared
that the advisory board could be used to intimidate university scholars to
toe an ideological line. "The advisory board could easily be hijacked by
those who have a political ax to grind and become a vehicle for an
inquisition," said Gilbert W. Merkx, vice provost for international affairs
at Duke University.

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