Profs protest fed. input in curriculum - Yale Dail News (very scary)

[BlueEyedSon]

<snip>
YCIAS Director Gustav Ranis said the bill, if passed, would threaten Yale's academic freedom.

"I think it is a very dangerous precedent to have congressional supervision of what we teach and how we teach it in international affairs," Ranis said.

The bill calls for the creation of a government advisory board to "monitor, apprise and evaluate" curricula at institutions such as YCIAS, with the goal of recommending "improvement" of the program.
</snip>

More: http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=24054

Comments: OK, folks.... our legislature has gone to the dark side. The Govt will monitor international affairs schools to make sure the content is pro-US policy. Enforcement will be via withholding funding. This measure has ALREADY PASSED in the house. Bill is H.R. 3077 a/k/a "The International Studies in Higher Education Act." Be afraid, be very afraid.

[freeforall]

1. WTF?!!!!! eom

.

[pfitz59]

2. International accords?

We don't abide by no stinking treaties!

[Kitsune]

3. swirling down the drain...

I weep for what's left of my country...

[ninkasi]

4. Will somebody please explain to me...

why this isn't seen as something a Fascist government would do? We condemned things like this in Nazis, condemned them in Communists, and allow them here?

We now have a government practicing medicine, telling schools what they can and can't teach, and imposing a right-wing morality...which many of us abhor...on us. And we presume to want to spread democracy to other countries?

[RandomKoolzip]

5. A question:

Does David Horowitz have anything to do with this?

[tom_paine]

6. And the Sovietization of Imperial Amerika continues...

How will they ever find new sources of Cannon Fodder and Nationalized Neighborhood Watchers unless the college curriculums are "fehrundbalinst" (it sounds better in the "original German")

[Kellanved]

10. "gerecht und ausgewogen"

:hi:
Or use the German equivalent: "unabhängig - überparteilich".

[annak110]

11. Puleeze Tom_Paine, the rightwing is FASCIST

If we are forced to argue while being assigned places on the right-left continuum then the only thing the "far right" can be is fascist. There has been a "rightwing" in western culture for at least 1300 years. It came with the development of the corporative lifestyle or organization, like the feudalism or top-down hierarchical or empirical control that followed its development. Everything else, everything that tried in one way or another to break free of this monster is labeled, "liberal", "leftist", "far left", "communism" (an economic system that opposes corporate style hierarchical economics, like, in the religious world the Social Gospel and Liberation Theology tried to do) Take a good look at what is trying to swallow us up and again control western culture and the rest of the world. Can't have a feudal society unless the public schools and the Universities are destroyed. Can't keep an empire in check if you can't conjure up enemies and force women to be baby factories and produce the cannon fodder you speak of. Look at the enemies list. That list was the same in feudal europe as it was in the 30's and it is now, start with women, add people of color, non-believers, jewish and muslim peoples, anybody who opposes the european stock white male hierarchy.

[central scrutinizer]

7. Lynne Cheney and Joe Lieberman's

Thought Police are on the march

[central scrutinizer]

8. here's another link

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/11/06/middle_east/print.html

excerpt:

Nov. 6, 2003 | On Oct. 21, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill that could require university international studies departments to show more support for American foreign policy or risk their federal funding. Its approval followed hearings this summer in which members of Congress listened to testimony about the pernicious influence of the late Edward Said in Middle Eastern studies departments, described as enclaves of debased anti-Americanism. Stanley Kurtz, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a right-wing think tank, testified, "Title VI-funded programs in Middle Eastern Studies (and other area studies) tend to purvey extreme and one-sided criticisms of American foreign policy." Evidently, the House agreed and decided to intervene.

Emboldened by its dominance of Washington, the right is trying to enlist government on its side in the campus culture wars. "Since they are the mainstream in Washington think tanks and the right-wing corridors of Congress, they figure, 'Let's translate that political capital to education,'" says Rashid Khalidi, who was recently appointed to the Edward Said Chair of Arab studies at Columbia University.

end excerpt - I wanted to make the word "unanimously" bold in the first sentence. Either that is a mistake and I tried to find the actual roll call vote on thomas.loc.gov and failed or there are a bunch of Democratic congresspeople that have a lot of 'splaining to do.

[BlueEyedSon]

12. Thanks, and *kick*

[NashVegas]

21. Answer: Forego Federal Funding

.

This will be an interesting bill to bring up next time teh Vouchers arguments creep up, won't it?

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[proud patriot]

13. Everyone Write Your Senators ... Send this to All Contacts

This must Be Stopped .

[Mel]

14. meanwhile The School of Americas

is still open and the congress funds it with our tax dollars.

http://www.counterpunch.org/booker0617.html


Taking on the School of the Americas


Graduates from Ft. Benning partook in Latin America's most corrupt regimes, yet Congress still funds the school

by Rev. Charles Booker-Hirsch

Since the tragedy of 9/11, we have learned some of the ways Osama bin Laden has schooled his al-Qaida organization into a formidable terrorist organization. No major media organization I know of, however, dares today to discuss how for more than five decades - the last two decades on our own soil - our own government systematically has been operating a more substantial terrorist school. </snip>

[DivinBreuvage]

15. It's about time!

Now they need to keep the ball rolling and eliminate the teaching of "Jewish Physics" as well.

Come to think of it, that ridiculous "Stem Cell Research" claptrap from pro-abortion scientists is doubtless "Jewish Medicine". Thank God our President will have nothing to do with such unamerican nonsense.

Do I even need to bring up "Jewish Biology" such as "Evolution" or "Jewish Geology" that claims to "prove" that the earth was created billions of years ago? Billions is a phony number, like "gajillions" and "light years". In the real world you can't have a billion of anything.

And I'm glad to see Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld taking steps to instill the US officer corps with the proper American ethic. Only when "Jewish Tactics" have been purged from the military's way of thinking will we be able to win profit space for American corporations in the East.

(Note: this is sarcasm. "Jewish Physics" was how German scientists who couldn't understand theoretical physics dismissed the work of those who could. Source: http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~moszkows/np30/heisjp.htm).

Françoise

[young_at_heart]

16. I want my country back.........where has it gone?

Surely not ALL Republicans want this type of government!

[KamaAina]

17. Yale '85 here: What part of 'unconstitutional' don't the bozos understand?

the House, that is, not Mother Yale :-)

I'm surprised that the Daily would use such a mild word as "input" to describe Federal control over a university curriculum! Sure hope the righties haven't gotten hold of the Daily: that'd ruin Garry Trudeau's whole day! :-)

Let's follow this one down the slippery slope, shall we? Literature classes must now be more "U.S.-friendly": bye-bye Brecht, Vidal, hell, maybe even Pound (wrong brand of fascism -- not imperialist enough).

Music classes, too, must be U.S.-friendly: composers studied will now include Copland and... and... um... er... you get the idea.

Puh-LEEZE! If corporations have an apparently unfettered right to free speech, then so do universities, or my name isn't Joe Isuzu!

Edit: Calling Dr. Freud: We are indeed "imperiled" by "imperialism" (not "imperilaism").

[jpgray]

18. As proud patriot says, WRITE THOSE SENATORS!

Call the offices, write a letter, send an email. This is a very big deal. I will be contacting Mark Dayton who has his head on mostly straight, and the bumbling spear-carrier Norm Coleman.

[Mandate My Ass]

19. Sheesh, I have to write Santorum and Specter

maybe I should shop for out-of-state Senators to have even the slimmest chance of having my voice heard.

[Rich Hunt]

20. question

What exactly is meant by "federal funding"? What federal funds are threatened? Does this only affect the International Studies departments, or the entire university, or what? How does this work at a private university?

Please note - it's not that I don't find this disturbing - I just need to get a better understanding of this issue before I discuss it with other people.

[reprobate]

22. You knew this was coming, didn't you?..But don't worry, good times ....

...good times are coming. It'll just be a while.

The arrogence of the Reich Wing is what will eventually do them in. For some time now I've had the feeling that we, in this country will have to go thru a really rough period. These acts are just the beginning. Expect to see more and more of the reich wing forcing their fundamentalist ideas on all of us. Patriot Act. "Faith based" initiative. Prayer in school. Pledge of allegiance. Etc.

Most of europe went thru the religon fight over the last few centuries. As americans however, we have no sense of history. We are therefore doomed to repeat their mistakes.

Things WILL change. But it will take time. We will first go thru a terrible time of economic and political termoil, with the forces of repression intent of quashing political and economic discent. This too, will pass. The battle will be won by our side because americans are the most ornery people on earth. Trying to force them down the chute to slaughter will be like herding ferrets. But it will take patience. Eventually we will see a society of the left, by the left and for everyone.

[Fovea]

23. I shudder to imagine

What Hannah Arendt would say about this.
What Barbara Tuchman would say about this.
What Ezra Pound would say about this.
What Albert Camus would say about this.
What scholars from around the world will say.
What the reputation of American schools will
do to our foreign enrollment.

Welcome to neo stalinism.

[MissMarple]

24. I see litigation written all over this.

:evilgrin:

These guys are so arrogant they can't help but trip over their own stupidity.

[nn2004]

25. So forgo the funding and tell them #sand

End of problem. Those with their hand out should beware of selling their soul.

[Skidmore]

26. This absolutely reeks of

Lynn Cheney and Lieberman and that sorry assed foundation they formed.

[BlackFrancis]

27. what are they going to do with post-colonial programs?

Do they just get rid of them or bar any reference to US colonialism?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

28. holy shizit!

[BlueEyedSon]

29. *kick*

everyone should see this