FW: protest fed. input in curriculum

[Raquel Sanchez]

Check this out...

------ Forwarded Message
From: Evelyn Alsultany <alsultany at stanford.edu>
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 21:26:57 -0800
To: interdisc_pedagogy at lists.Stanford.EDU
Subject: Fwd:  protest fed. input in curriculum

>
>
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>"By teaching Edward Said, for instance, people are turned off by the idea
>of the United States as a savior, or that it's good to work for the U.S.
>government," Marcus said.
>
>---
>http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=24054
>
>Published Tuesday, November 11, 2003
>Profs protest fed. input in curriculum
>
>BY PHILIP RUCKER
>
>A bipartisan bill proposing to give the federal government expanded
>oversight over the nation's federally-financed international studies
>programs has drawn sharp criticism from Yale professors. If the bill,
>which is working its way through Congress, passes, one of the institutions
>it will affect is the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, or
>YCIAS.
>
>The International Studies in Higher Education Act would create a
>government advisory board to monitor curricula in federally-funded foreign
>language and area studies programs. The legislation, which was drafted by
>Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., passed in the House of Representatives on
>Oct. 21. The bill has moved to the Senate, which is expected to consider
>the legislation later this year and in early 2004.
>
>Associate Vice President for Federal Relations Richard Jacobs said Yale
>has started lobbying key senators -- including Sen. Christopher Dodd,
>D-Conn.-- against parts of the proposed legislation. He said the
>University is concerned with Congress' perception that some campus
>programs have an anti-American "bias."
>
>YCIAS Director Gustav Ranis said the bill, if passed, would threaten
>Yale's academic freedom.
>
>"I think it is a very dangerous precedent to have congressional
>supervision of what we teach and how we teach it in international
>affairs," Ranis said.
>
>The bill calls for the creation of a government advisory board to
>"monitor, apprise and evaluate" curricula at institutions such as YCIAS,
>with the goal of recommending "improvement" of the program.
>
>Political science professor Richard Marcus said the bill ushers in
>"McCarthyism for the new millennium."
>
>"It's more than just a violation of academic freedom," Marcus said. "Even
>an academic governing board would be problematic in telling other
>academics what to do, but people from outside the academic world -- people
>from the intelligence community -- telling what can go on in a classroom,
>that's where it gets scary."
>
>But Hoekstra said in a press release that the bill would "strengthen and
>improve" the state of American higher education.
>
>"[The bill] updates the programs under [the 1965 Higher Education Act] to
>reflect our national security needs in the post-Sept. 11 era, as well as
>in the current international climate," Hoekstra said in the press release.
>"Such programs not only foster knowledge of the world, but importantly,
>these programs train experts prepared to meet America's national security
>needs."
>
>But Marcus said few students who participated in federally-funded
>international studies programs decide to work for the government upon
>graduation.
>
>"The bill is saying, 'Why are we paying for all of these area studies
>[programs] if we're not benefiting from it in Washington? We don't have
>people who speak Arabic, we don't have people who know enough about the
>Middle East, we don't have that sort of intellectual capital coming out of
>academia,'" Marcus said.
>
>In a June 19 Congressional testimony, Stanford University researcher
>Stanley Kurtz said some federally-funded area studies centers need to
>balance their curricula. Kurtz cited the late Edward Said, a former
>Columbia University professor and Palestinian activist.
>
>"My concern is that [federally] funded centers too seldom balance readings
>from Edward Said and his like-minded colleagues with readings from authors
>who support American foreign policy," Kurtz said.
>
>Marcus said some scholars, like Said, promote "anti-American" world views.
>He said he thinks these views anger the government.
>
>"By teaching Edward Said, for instance, people are turned off by the idea
>of the United States as a savior, or that it's good to work for the U.S.
>government," Marcus said. "Whereas if you read something that is more
>mainstream -- [it would represent] the role of the United States as a
>builder of democracy, and that's what [Congress] wants to see at
>colleges."
>
>The government partially funds international and area studies programs at
>colleges and universities around the country, including YCIAS, which
>receives more than $5 million in federal funding each year.
>
>Copyright © 1995-2003 Yale Daily News Publishing Company, Inc. All rights
>reserved.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------

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