Education Department says it will fund Middle East studies program after all – The Washington Post
The Education Department said Thursday it will continue funding a Middle East studies program that it accused of advancing an ideological agenda. But in the face of critics, the agency sent a warning that it would not back off its oversight of similar programs.
In August, the department ordered the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies to revise its offerings or risk losing a $235,000 federal grant. It accused the program of promoting a positive view of Islam while virtually ignoring Judaism, Christianity and other religions.
Conservatives have long accused universities of harboring anti-Semitic bias and have called for investigations into course offerings. The agency’s August letter was seen as a move to put other universities on notice that such alleged bias would not be tolerated.
Critics in higher education accused the administration of politicizing colleges and universities and violating academic freedom. Among them was the Middle Eastern Studies Association, which charged that the Education Department’s inquiry constituted “an unprecedented and counterproductive intervention into academic curricula and programming that threatens the integrity and autonomy of our country’s institutions of higher learning.”