Campus Watch's Mission Was Mischaracterized

Campus Watch’s Mission Was Mischaracterized

To the Editor:

An otherwise balanced article, “Middle East Studies Association Fights a Rising Tide of Critics” mischaracterizes Campus Watch’s mission (The Chronicle, November 21).

Describing a panel convened at the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) to discuss the controversy surrounding Steven Salaita, who was denied a position at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign following the revelation of his vitriolic, anti-Semitic tweets, The Chronicle writes:

Campus Watch, which was established by the Middle East Forum, a conservative think tank, and monitors Middle East programs for speech it deems hostile to Israel, last month denounced the planned panel as stacked with critics of that nation.

In fact, Campus Watch critiques Middle East studies programs for hostility not to Israel, but to the principle of rigorous, unbiased scholarship and teaching—a principle the MESA panel failed utterly to meet. Such critiques cover myriad topics across the discipline without regard to any mention of Israel.

Winfield Myers
Director of Academic Affairs and Director, Campus Watch
Middle East Forum
Philadelphia

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Winfield Myers

Winfield Myers is managing editor of the Middle East Forum and director of its Campus Watch project, which reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North American universities. He has taught world history and other topics at the University of Michigan, the University of Georgia, Tulane, and Xavier University of Louisiana. He was previously managing editor of The American Enterprise magazine and CEO of Democracy Project, Inc., which he co-founded. Mr. Myers has served as senior editor and communications director at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and is principal author and editor of a college guide, Choosing the Right College (1998, 2001). He was educated at the University of Georgia, Tulane, and the University of Michigan.