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Title VI of the Higher
Education Act
Summary by Amy W. Newhall, Executive Director of MESA
Title VI of the Higher Education Act was
instituted by Congress in 1958 (then under the name the National
Defense Education Act.) Its purpose is to build and strengthen
American education in foreign languages and area/international
studies programs in order to insure a supply of experts to
meet national needs. Federal funding through this program
now provides support for 124 National Resource Centers located
in universities and focusing on different regions of the world.
Host universities are selected after a rigorous and highly
competitive peer reviewed application process every three
years (changed to every four years in 2005.) Currently, 17
of these 124 centers are devoted to the study of the Middle
East (roughly Morocco to Afghanistan.) Current authorization
extensions for the programs in the Higher Education Act expire
at the end of December 2006. Before each reauthorization,
Congress amends additional programs, changes the language
and policies of existing programs, or makes other changes.
Overall funding for Title VI has dropped steadily since its
highpoint in 1967 (at least 35% lower than 1967 in constant
dollars.) In this latest round individual centers receive
on average $229, 412 per year for operations and programs
(total for all 17 Middle East programs: approximately $3,900,000.)
On average, each university also will receive about $236,200
in fellowship money which goes directly to support students
of language and area studies.
The current reauthorization process
has been drawn out and contentious. At the heart of the controversy
are claims from groups outside the academy that Middle East
Centers are overly critical of Israel and of U.S. policy in
the Middle East. Individual faculty members have been accused
of being unpatriotic, anti-Semitic, and anti-American. New
authorization language has been proposed that threatens to
nullify statutory provisions in place since 1958 prohibiting
federal direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum,
program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any
educational institution. (Back
to academic freedom)
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