Big Brother Lurks in Higher Education Bill
Tempest
by J. Shawn Landres
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=12010
In recent weeks, a number of major Jewish organizations — the American
Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress (AJCongress) American
Israel Public Affairs Committee and others — have announced their
support for congressional passage of H.R. 3077, the International
Studies in Higher Education Act of 2003, which would amend Title VI of
the Higher Education Act of 1965 to enhance international education
programs.
The purpose of the bill is to restore some semblance of ideological
balance to Middle East studies centers on university campuses, and it
is for this reason that many Jewish organizations support it.
Leaving aside the question of whether it is the government's role to
ensure ideological balance in academic settings, the bill
unquestionably is a well-intentioned response to a serious problem.
However, Section (6) of this proposal, which is now before the Senate,
would establish an international higher education advisory board.
These government-appointed overseers not only would "monitor, apprise,
and evaluate" academic programs but also would have the power to
"assure that their relative authorized activities reflect diverse
perspectives and the full range of views on world regions, foreign
languages, and international affairs."
In other words, the U.S. government would have the power to decide
whose views are heard.
With all due respect to my elders and betters who support this
legislation (with the proud exception of Alan Dershowitz, whose
opposition rightly prevented the Jewish Council for Public Affairs
from endorsing it), this proposal is wrong for America, wrong for
academia, wrong for American Jewry and wrong for Judaism.
Section (6) is wrong for America. This proposal is Big Brother at its
worst and runs counter to cherished principles of freedom of
expression in open and public debates. The marketplace of ideas is the
vital place where scholars and citizens — not the government — decide
which views are considered mainstream options and which views are
consigned to the margins of the extreme. Read the text of the bill
carefully — it's online at
thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:h.r.03077:.
As written, this bill could force our universities to provide, at
taxpayer expense, a forum for white supremacists, Kach-Kahane Chai and
al Qaeda, because, after all, Western democracy, liberalism, Zionism
and even post-colonialism and post-modernism don't cover "the full
range of views." Applied to an international science program, it could
require that U.S. taxpayers subsidize the teaching of creationism.
It is wrong for academia. H.R. 3077's provisions that create a
government committee with investigatory powers and oversight over
university teaching and research are unacceptable. They would
institute an atmosphere of coercion on campuses and would have a
chilling effect on academic innovation and creativity.
It is wrong for American Jewry. Support for this bill has brought out
the worst isolationist, defensive instincts in our communal
leadership. Last week, The Forward reported that Lois Waldman of the
AJCongress commented, "It is very hard to change attitudes within the
Middle East centers ....Professors there, most of them, are people who
come from the area and have certain sympathies created by their own
ethnicity and their own family background." Such a blatant appeal to
prejudice is both illogical and unethical. It is racial and ethnic
profiling at its most divisive, and it is wrong, no matter who does
it.
Finally, Section (6) is wrong for Judaism. Teaching and learning are
treasured Jewish values, and ones for which Judaism as a faith and
civilization is respected the world over. We Jews are not victims
anymore, and we do no one any favors — least of all ourselves — by
attempting to control the discourse or by perpetuating the perception
that we control the U.S. government and institutions of higher
learning.
Indeed, our sages caution us to "love work; hate domination, and seek
not undue intimacy with the government" (Pirkei Avot 1:10). Jewish
community leaders who endorse the Big Brother provision of H.R. 3077
have not thought through the full implications of their support for
this bill.
So, what is the solution to the overwhelmingly negative situation on
American campuses today? First, we need to be honest with ourselves: a
great deal of the animosity will go away when there is a settlement
with the Palestinians. For now, many regard Israel as an occupying
power, and it is an easy target, especially for college students
looking for an establishment — any establishment — to oppose.
There is a practical alternative to government intervention, one that
directly addresses the origins of these attacks on Israel and Judaism.
Within the vast world of Jewish philanthropy, it is a relatively cheap
investment to endow Israel studies professorships: $2 million to a
public university buys a named chair; $5-10 million to a private
university does the same. That is the best way to fight back.
Instead of depending on a government committee to do our work for us,
every federation and Jewish Community Relations Council with a major
university in its back yard should make the creation of such an
endowed chair a top priority.
Surely, $2-10 million per chair is within reach for the top 20 to 30
Jewish communities in the United States — and we don't need the
government to do it for us.