Department of Education threatens to withhold funding for Middle East studies program

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) threatened to withhold federal funding from the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies over a perceived lack of perspectives in its coursework. The ED has directed the consortium to restructure its curriculum and more clearly demonstrate its willingness to teach in a manner that purportedly promotes the interests of U.S. national security and economic stability. 

Key Players

The Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies is a joint program focused on language, culture, and policy studies pertaining to the Middle East region. Founded and run by Duke University and the University of North Carolina, the consortium receives federal funding under Title VI of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which “authorizes grants to protect the security, stability, and economic vitality of the United States by teaching American students the foreign languages and cultural competencies required to develop a pool of experts to meet our national needs.”

Rep. George Holding (R-N.C.) represents a congressional district neighboring the two universities. Less than a month after the Duke-UNC Consortium held a conference titled “Conflict Over Gaza: People, Politics, and Possibilities,” Holding wrote a letter to the ED asking for an investigation into the consortium’s alleged use of taxpayer-provided federal funding to promote on-campus anti-Semitism. 

Robert King is the assistant secretary for postsecondary education at the ED. Following Holding’s letter, King submitted a warning of his own to the consortium, listing its failure to cultivate a diverse learning environment within the curriculum, CNN reports. In the letter, King threatened to withhold federal funding and asserted the existence of “a considerable emphasis placed on the positive aspects of Islam” within the program.  

Further Details

Title VI mandates that applicants for federal funding provide “an explanation of how the activities funded by the grant will reflect diverse perspectives and a wide range of views and generate debate on world regions and international affairs.” 

King’s letter to the Duke-UNC Consortium suggests a “lack of balance in perspectives” within the program and a failure to address the “historic [and current] discrimination” faced by Christians, Jews, and others in the Middle East. King also expressed concern that the curriculum is failing to educate students adequately on “the geopolitical challenges to U.S. national security and economic needs,” and he has asked that the consortium restructure its materials to comply with funding requirements.

Others have expressed similar views, including a coalition of pro-Israel groups that, in an appendix to a 2014 report, contended that Middle East studies centers, such as the Duke-UNC Consortium, were not being held accountable under Title VI. 

Outcome

Members of academia condemn ED’s directive to change consortium program

David M. Perry, a journalist and senior academic adviser to the history department at the University of Minnesota, wrote in a September 2019 CNN op-ed that when a federal agency seeks to scrutinize curricula “down to the syllabi,” such attempts “should send shivers down the spines of everyone who cares about education or government overreach.” Perry further asserted that the ED, under the leadership of Secretary Betsy DeVos, fundamentally aims to marginalize Muslim perspectives in U.S. society. 

Henry Reichman, chair of the American Association of University Professors’ Committee  on Academic Freedom and Tenure, described the ED’s inquiry as “a chillingly inappropriate political intrusion into curricular decisions best made by faculty,” according to Inside Higher Ed.