Columbia U. Investigating Bias and Intimidation in Middle East studies

April 16, 2004 – The New York Jewish Week reports today that a “committee appointed by the president of Columbia University for months has been quietly probing allegations of bias and intimidation by faculty, particularly in Middle East studies.”

Vincent Blasi, the Columbia Law School professor who chairs the committee told the weekly, “We want to preserve a healthy atmosphere on campus. We want to make sure that classroom time is not devoted to politics or preaching by professors.”

Columbia Provost Alan Brinkley added that the university is, “of course, concerned about charges of bias and intimidation in the classroom.” The committee was appointed “to consider, among other things, how we might respond to such problems within the framework of our strong commitment to free speech.”

Campus Watch, which has been persistently critiqued Middle East studies at Columbia University, welcomes the news of this committee and congratulates President Lee Bolinger for taking this much-needed step.

This is not the first time President Bolinger has noted problems in this area. In November 2002, when 78 percent of the faculty members in the Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures Department (known as MEALAC) signed a petition comparing Israel to apartheid-era South Africa, he called this comparison “grotesque and offensive.”

Others in the Columbia community, sometimes drawing on Campus Watch research, have also complained about bias in Middle East studies. For example, the well-known composer and a Columbia alumnus John Corigliano publicly berated the anti-Israel bias of MEALAC. He called on the Columbia administration to have the courage “to stand up to demagoguery of this nature.”

Campus Watch hopes that the Blasi committee indicates the presence of such courage and looks forward to its drawing constructive conclusions.

Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum, addresses five problems in Middle East studies: analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students.

Middle East Forum, a 501(c) 3 organization, works to define and promote American interests in the region and to shape the intellectual climate in which U.S. policy is made.

For immediate release
For more information, call Jonathan Calt Harris at 215-546-5406 or email harris@meforum.org