[Marxism] 'Be careful what you say on campus'

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/167348_academic02.html
Friday, April 2, 2004
Be careful what you say on campus
By BESHARA DOUMANI
PROFESSOR
The most ominous threat to academic freedom in decades looms in a
seemingly innocuous Senate bill expected to come up for vote shortly. A
short but critical clause would rob our society of the open exchange of
ideas on college campuses that is vital to our democracy.
House Resolution 3077 passed last fall. It included a provision to establish
an advisory board to monitor campus international studies centers in order
to ensure that they advance the national interest. While the law would apply
to all federally funded institutes with an international focus, the target is
clearly the nation's 17 centers for Middle East studies. The driving force
behind this provision is the same group of conservative ideologues who have
long promoted the war on Iraq and who support the extreme right-wing
politics of the Sharon government in Israel. Their aim is to defend the
foreign policy of this administration by stifling critical and informed
discussion on U.S. campuses.
The Senate vote comes at a time in which conservative activists walk the
corridors of power in Washington, D.C. They include Education Secretary
Rod Paige, who in a moment of failed but revealing levity, recently
described the National Education Association, with 2.7 million member
teachers, as a terrorist organization.
For professors like me, entrusted with teaching facts as well as critical
thinking and the ability to analyze all sides of an issue, the pending
legislation must be viewed against the backdrop of other recent and chilling
developments.
Be careful what books you buy or check out from the library. You could be
monitored under the terms of the U.S. Patriot Act. A further provision of that
law threatens criminal prosecution of anyone alerting you to government
inspection of your selections.
Be careful what readings you assign. The University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill was sued by the American Family Association Center for Law
and Policy for assigning a book on Islam for incoming freshman students.
The university held firm, and, fortunately, the court of appeals dismissed the
suit.
Be careful what you say in or out of class. Campus Watch and other
hawkish, pro-Israeli right-wing organizations have launched campaigns to
pressure and discredit professors judged to be un-American for questioning
U.S. policy in the Middle East. Some organizations openly recruit students
to inform on their teachers.
Students and faculty connected academically or culturally to Muslim and
Middle Eastern countries have been especially targeted. Some have been
subjected to hate mail blitzes and their institutions pressured to short-
circuit their careers. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn., announced his intent
last April to introduce legislation cutting federal funding to institutions of
higher learning where students or faculty criticize Israel, labeling such
criticism -- regardless of its content or basis in fact -- as anti-Semitic.
All of this will seem like child's play, though, if the attempt to stifle
academic freedom is formalized through Congress.
If the legislation before the Senate passes, an advisory board would monitor
area studies programs that receive money from the U.S. government under
the Title VI program. The Association of American University Professors,
the ACLU and most professional organizations have raised alarms about
this unprecedented government invasion of the classroom. Among their
concerns are the board's sweeping investigative powers, lack of
accountability and makeup, which would be composed in part from two
agencies with national security responsibilities.
Should such a government-appointed board be allowed to police the
classroom by deciding what constitutes a diverse or balanced lecture or if a
teacher's research is in the national interest? Yes, if HR 3077 is passed,
because it will replace the professional standards of the academy with
arbitrary political standards.
These are dangerous times indeed when politicians and private interest
groups are willing to sacrifice academic freedom in order to achieve their
domestic partisan or foreign policy goals. A key supporter of the current
Senate legislation, Campus Watch founder Daniel Pipes, shared his
thoughts with Salon.com. In discussing MIT linguistics Professor Noam
Chomsky -- recipient of numerous honorary degrees and scientific awards --
Pipes said, "I want Noam Chomsky to be taught at universities about as
much as I want Hitler's writing or Stalin's writing. These are wild and
extremist ideas that I believe have no place in a university."
Should academic freedom be effectively shelved in order to pursue a war
against terror without end? Are these dark clouds hanging over U.S.
campuses a passing storm or the harbinger of fundamental changes in the
freedom to teach, learn, question, discuss and debate? How will
universities and colleges respond when they are starved for resources and
more dependent than ever on the funding that would be withdrawn if a
professor were deemed out of line?
At stake is the continuation of the academy as the bastion of informed,
independent and alternative perspectives crucial to a better understanding
of the world we live in. If teachers and students cannot think and speak
freely, who can?
Beshara Doumani is associate professor of history at the University of
California, Berkeley. He organized a national conference, Academic
Freedom After September 11th, which was held at UC Berkeley in February.


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