Middle East Center struggles to stay afloat

Decreases in funding have forced center officials to revise program offerings. Speakers venturing to campus this semester for the Middle East Center's lecture series are advised to bring bagged lunches. The center is currently engaged in a struggle for survival, amidst mounting financial burdens coupled with minimal support from the deficit-ridden School of Arts and Sciences. And the fallout has been widespread. "We can't even treat our speakers to lunch anymore," Middle East Center Assistant Director Mary Martin said. The center, which coordinates lectures, courses and study abroad for dozens of departments, has received federal Title VI subsidies since its creation in 1965. But last spring, the U.S. Department of Education denied the center a Title VI grant of approximately $160,000, amounting to 50 percent of the center's income. The government also eliminated the funding for all foreign language graduate fellowships, which may deter prospective graduate students from studying in the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Department, Martin said. Although SAS pledged to contribute additional money to make up 5 percent of the lost Title VI grant, Martin said insufficient funding has forced the center to reduce staff and abort a number of workshops and conferences scheduled for this semester. She added that although the center is in the process of organizing a trip to Lebanon, student participants may be asked to contribute some of their own funds this year. Center Director and Arabic and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Professor Everett Rowson said he must "prioritize on a day-to-day basis." "We retained our lecture series because of its high visibility," he said, adding that the center will enlist local professors to avoid paying honoraria. Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Professor and center affiliate Roger Allen called the government's decision "shortsighted," adding that while the Education Department ranked the center as the best Middle East department in the early 1980s, it plummeted sharply last year. Allen, who studies Arabic, attributed the center's decline to the dwindling number of Middle East specialists at the University. He added that many state universities offer a more broad-based approach to Middle Eastern studies, integrating politics, economics, business and law into their curriculums. The Education Department awards grants to a limited number of centers every three years, evaluating faculty, outreach programs and university commitment. But Allen suspects that raw data tell only half the story. "People in Washington want to spread the wealth around and give fresh programs a chance," he said. Following the initial shock of losing funding, various faculty members met with Interim SAS Dean Walter Wales in an attempt to salvage the center. Wales assured faculty that SAS would maintain the center as an "entity with an office" under a "residual budget," which would permit operations at a minimal level, Allen said. In response to the center's financial difficulties, Wales appointed a task force last month to review the center's programs and University priorities. Additional funds will not be allocated until after the Task Force releases its recommendations. Allen, a member of the Task Force, said he hopes the group will complete its list of recommendations by early next year. He added that the center will not apply for Education Department funding in the year 2000 unless the University shifts its priorities. "It's time for the University to take a fresh look at what Middle Eastern studies means to Penn," he said. While SAS is busy "beefing up" programs in the Centers of African Studies and East Asian Studies, the Middle East Center in a "holding pattern" and has temporarily been placed in limbo, Allen said. But he said he is looking to the future, hoping to create more interdisciplinary courses in Middle Eastern Studies and eventually a master's program in Middle Eastern Environmental Studies. "The Middle East can't be cancelled," he said.