Notice of a Letter Regarding the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, 48919-48921 [2019-20067]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Extension of the Application Deadline
Date for the Fiscal Year 2019 Statewide
Longitudinal Data Systems Program
Institute of Education Sciences,
Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
The Institute of Education
Sciences extends, for certain
prospective eligible applicants
described elsewhere in this notice, the
deadline date for transmittal of
applications for new awards for fiscal
year (FY) 2019 under the Statewide
Longitudinal Data Systems Program,
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance
(CFDA) number 84.372A. The Institute
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The extension of the application
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Deadline for Transmittal of
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DATES:
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On June
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2019. We are extending the application
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designation 3419), Puerto Rico (FEMA
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incorporates by reference the definition
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your search to documents published by
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Mark Schneider,
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[FR Doc. 2019–20113 Filed 9–16–19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Notice of a Letter Regarding the DukeUNC Consortium for Middle East
Studies
Office of the General Counsel,
Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
The Department publishes a
letter, dated August 29, 2019, notifying
the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill (‘‘UNC’’) of the
Department’s review of the Annual
Project Reports (‘‘APR’’) submitted by
the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle
East Studies (CMES) during the most
recent and prior award periods, and the
2018 National Resource Center
proposal.
SUMMARY:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Patrick Shaheen, U.S. Department of
Education, Office of the General
Counsel, 400 Maryland Ave. SW, room
6E300, Washington, DC 20202.
Telephone: (202) 453–6339. Email:
Patrick.Shaheen@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications
device for the deaf (TDD) or a text
telephone (TTY), call the Federal Relay
Service, toll free, at 1–800–877–8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The
Department publishes this letter, dated
August 29, 2019, notifying the
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
of the Department’s review of the APR
submitted by the Duke-UNC CMES
during the most recent and prior award
periods, and the 2018 National Resource
Center proposal. The letter is in
Appendix A of this notice.
Accessible Format: Individuals with
disabilities can obtain this document in
an accessible format (e.g., braille, large
print, audiotape, or compact disc) on
request to the person listed under FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Electronic Access to This Document:
The official version of this document is
the document published in the Federal
Register. You may access the official
edition of the Federal Register and the
Code of Federal Regulations at
www.govinfo.gov. At this site you can
view this document, as well as all other
documents of this Department
published in the Federal Register, in
text or Portable Document Format
(PDF). To use PDF you must have
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48920
Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 180 / Tuesday, September 17, 2019 / Notices
Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is
available free at the site.
You may also access documents of the
Department published in the Federal
Register by using the article search
feature at www.federalregister.gov.
Specifically, through the advanced
search feature at this site, you can limit
your search to documents published by
the Department.
Reed D. Rubinstein,
Principal Deputy General Counsel, Delegated
the duties and authority of the General
Counsel.
jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with NOTICES
Appendix A—Letter to the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill
August 29, 2019
Terry Magnuson, Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor for Research
The University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill Office of the Vice Chancellor for
Research
312 South Building, Campus Box 4000
Chapel Hill, NC 27599–4000
Dear Dr. Magnuson:
Thank you for your letter of June 20, 2019,
responding to the U.S. Department of
Education’s questions about the Duke-UNC
Consortium for Middle East Studies (‘‘DukeUNC CMES’’).
As you are aware, in Title VI of the Higher
Education Act of 1965, as amended, Congress
authorizes grants to protect the security,
stability, and economic vitality of the United
States by teaching American students the
foreign languages and cultural competencies
required to develop a pool of experts to meet
our national needs. 20 U.S.C. 1021. The
Secretary of Education may make Title VI
grants to institutions of higher education or
consortia of such institutions only for the
purposes of establishing, strengthening, and
operating comprehensive foreign language
and area or international studies centers and
programs, and of establishing, strengthening,
and operating a diverse network of
undergraduate foreign language and area or
international studies centers and programs.
20 U.S.C. 11 22(a)(l)(A). Federal funding is
conditioned on a demonstration that a given
center or program is a ‘‘national resource’’ for
teaching of any modem foreign language; for
instruction in fields needed to provide full
understanding of areas, regions, or countries
in which such language is commonly used;
for research and training in the international
and foreign language aspects of professional
and other fields of study; and for instruction
and research on issues in world affairs that
concern one or more countries. 20 U.S.C.
1122(a)(l)(B).
It is unlawful for institutions of higher
education to use Title VI funds differently.
After reviewing your letter, the Annual
Project Reports (‘‘APR’’) submitted by the
Duke-UNC CMES during the most recent and
prior award periods, and your 2018 National
Resource Center proposal, the Department is
concerned that most of the Duke-UNC CMES
activities supported with Title VI funds are
unauthorized and that Duke-UNC CMES may
not qualify as an eligible National Resource
Center. Among other things:
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• You report that 6,791 students were
enrolled in taxpayer-funded Middle East
studies course but that only 960 students
were enrolled in Middle East language
courses. It is unclear whether this means 960
different people participated in foreign
language instruction or if the total headcount
in foreign language courses was 960, meaning
that some students could have been counted
more than once because most of your
programs require students to complete three
to eight semesters of foreign language.
Similarly, you do not clarify how many of
those students took three or more semesters
of a given language or the level of language
fluency they achieved.
• Your application asserts collaborations
with other academic departments. However,
these departments are not, for the most part,
aligned with the requirement that National
Resource Centers help students in science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics
fields achieve foreign language fluency. See
20 U.S.C. 1122(a)(2)(J).
• Many of the topics and titles listed under
the area studies section of your prior APRs
have little or no relevance to Title VI. For
example, although Iranian art and film may
be of subjects of deep intellectual interest
and may provide insight regarding aspects of
the people and culture of the Middle East,
the sheer volume of such offerings highlights
a fundamental misalignment between your
choices and Title VI’s mandates. Although a
conference focused on ‘‘Love and Desire in
Modem Iran’’ and one focused on Middle
East film criticism may be relevant in
academia, we do not see how these activities
support the development of foreign language
and international expertise for the benefit of
U.S. national security and economic stability.
Similarly, the link between the statutory
goals and the academic papers referenced in
your grant proposal, Amihri Hatun:
Performance, Gender-Bending and
Subversion in the Early Modern Ottoman
Intellectual History, or Radical Love:
Teachings from Islamic Mystical Tradition, is
patently unclear. While the Duke-UNC CMES
may certainly offer programs in Iranian art
and film, these programs should not be
funded or subsidized in any way by
American taxpayers under Title VI unless
you are able to clearly demonstrate that such
programs are secondary to more rigorous
coursework helping American students to
become fluent Farsi speakers and to prepare
for work in areas of national need.
• The Duke-UNC CMES appears to lack
balance as it offers very few, if any, programs
focused on the historic discrimination faced
by, and current circumstances of, religious
minorities in the Middle East, including
Christians, Jews, Baha’is, Yadizis, Kurds,
Druze, and others. Also, in your activities for
elementary and secondary students and
teachers, there is a considerable emphasis
placed on the understanding the positive
aspects of Islam, while there is an absolute
absence of any similar focus on the positive
aspects of Christianity, Judaism, or any other
religion or belief system in the Middle East.
This lack of balance of perspectives is
troubling and strongly suggests that DukeUNC CMES is not meeting legal requirement
that National Resource Centers ’’provide a
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full understanding of the areas, regions, or
countries’’ in which the modern foreign
language taught is commonly used. See 20
U.S.C. 1122(a)(l)(B)(ii) (emphasis added); 34
CFR 656.3(b)(1).
• It appears from your APRs that the DukeUNC CMES offers very little serious
instruction preparing individuals to
understand the geopolitical challenges to
U.S. national security and economic needs
but quite a considerable emphasis on
advancing ideological priorities. For
example, the description of an activity
described as a ‘‘conversation’’ with Dr.
Rosemary Corbett is ‘‘Dr. Corbett traces the
broader history of pressures placed on
religious minorities in the last century to
conform to dominant American frameworks
for race, gender and political economy. These
include the encouraging of community
groups to provide social services to the
dispossessed in compensation for the
government’s lack of welfare provisions in an
aggressively capitalist environment.’’
Another activity called ‘‘Music on the Porch’’
describes an outdoor concert series as an
international program focused on Islam,
music, and social change. The featured artist,
Marco Pave, is described as a ‘‘millennial
Muslim from Memphis,’’ who conducts
workshops around the country on hip-hop
and social justice, and he advocates greater
support for the arts.’’ It is hard to understand
how these things are consistent with a
National Resource Center and lawfully
supported by taxpayer funds to ensure the
‘‘security, stability, and economic vitality of
the United States in a complex global era[.]’’
20 U.S.C. 1121(a)(l).
• The job placement results included in
your grant proposal indicate that the DukeUNC CEMS provides opportunities and
support primarily for individuals to pursue
academic careers rather than in government
or business as Congress directs. That 35
percent of program graduates go to higher
education positions and only 11 percent to
government positions suggests that there are
critical shortcomings and impermissible
biases in the programming.
• The teacher-training activities hosted by
the Duke-UNC CMES lack lawful focus on
language development and instead advance
narrow, particularized views of American
social issues. For example, a teacher training
seminar included in a prior APR is described
as having provided an opportunity for
teachers to explore ‘‘issues of multicultural
education and equity to build a culture and
climate of respect in the classroom.
Educators dove deeper during interactive
break-out sessions focused on unconscious
bias, safe classrooms for all, using film for
global education, why culture matters and
working across cultures, serving LGBTIQ
youth in schools, culture and the media,
diverse books for the classroom and more.’’
There is a startling lack of focus on
geography, geopolitical issues, history, and
language of the area, as Congress required in
Title VI.
The Department believes the Duke-UNC
CMES has failed to carefully distinguish
between activities lawfully funded under
Title VI, and other activities, perhaps
consistent with and protected by general
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Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 180 / Tuesday, September 17, 2019 / Notices
principles of academic freedom, that are
plainly unqualified for taxpayer support.
Furthermore, it seems clear foreign
language instruction and area studies
advancing the security and economic
stability of the United States have taken ‘‘a
back seat’’ to other priorities at the DukeUNC CMES. Notably, most of the instructors
of foreign language courses are nontenure
track lecturers or teaching assistants, whereas
most of the instructors of other courses are
tenured faculty. Given the important role
tenured faculty play in attracting students to
foreign language instruction and majors and
enabling students to overcome the difficulty
of mastering a language, the lack of tenured
foreign languages faculty relative to the
number of tenured culture studies faculty,
may signal a potentially serious
misalignment between Title IV requirements
and the Duke-UNC CMES’s orientation and
activities.
The Department will hold the Duke-UNC
CMES accountable for ensuring all Title VI
funded or subsidized activities directly
reflect express Congressional mandates and
purposes. Therefore, as a condition for future
Title VI funding, the Duke-UNC CMES is
directed to provide a revised schedule of
activities that it plans to support for the
coming year, including a description
demonstrating how each activity promotes
foreign language learning and advances the
national security interests and economic
stability of the United States. For example,
cultural studies providing historical
information about customs and practices in
the Middle East and assisting students to
understand and navigate the culture of
another country, in concert with rigorous
foreign language training, could help develop
a pool of experts needed to protect U.S.
national security and economic stability and
therefore may well be within Title VI’s ambit.
To be clear, activities focusing on American
culture or academic preferences that do not
directly promote foreign language learning
and advance the national security interests
and economic stability of the United States
are not to be funded under Title VI.
Also, the Duke-UNC CMES is required to
demonstrate that it has prioritized foreign
language instruction as required by law.
More equal utilization of comparably
credentialed faculty in foreign language
instruction might prove to be an appropriate
measure in this regard.
The Duke-UNC CMES is further required to
provide the Department with a full list of
courses in Middle East studies, including
academic rank and employment status of
each instructor who teaches each course.
Finally, the Duke-UNC CMES is further
required to develop and implement effective
institutional controls ensuring all future Title
VI-funded activities directly promote foreign
language learning and advance the national
security interests and economic stability of
the United States, thereby meeting statutory
requirements and meriting taxpayer funding.
The Department must obligate the funds to
continue support for the Duke-UNC CMES by
no later than September 30, 2019.
Consequently, it is critically important that
you respond in writing to this letter with a
preliminary plan and timetable for carrying
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out the above-specified compliance activities
on or before September 22, 2019.
Sincerely,
Robert King
Assistant Secretary
Cc: Charles Kurzman, Ph.D., Professor,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Kevin Guskiewicz, Interim Chancellor,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Richard Stevens, Chair, University of North
Carolina Board of Trustees
Vincent E. Price, President, Duke University
Jack 0. Bovender, Jr., Chair, Duke University
Board of Trustees
[FR Doc. 2019–20067 Filed 9–16–19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Environmental Management SiteSpecific Advisory Board, Oak Ridge;
Meeting
Office of Environmental
Management, Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
AGENCY:
This notice announces a
meeting of the Environmental
Management Site-Specific Advisory
Board (EM SSAB), Oak Ridge. The
Federal Advisory Committee Act
requires that public notice of this
meeting be announced in the Federal
Register.
DATES: Wednesday, October 9, 2019;
6:00 p.m.
ADDRESSES: DOE Information Center,
Office of Science and Technical
Information, 1 Science.gov Way, Oak
Ridge, Tennessee 37831.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Melyssa P. Noe, Alternate Deputy
Designated Federal Officer, U.S.
Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Office
of Environmental Management (OREM),
P.O. Box 2001, EM–942, Oak Ridge, TN
37831. Phone (865) 241–3315; Fax (865)
241–6932; email: Melyssa.Noe@
orem.doe.gov. Or visit the website at:
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Purpose of the Board: The purpose of
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SUMMARY:
Tentative Agenda
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Designated Federal Officer (DDFO)
• Comments from the DOE, Tennessee
Department of Environment and
Conservation, and Environmental
Protection Agency Liaisons
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• Presentation: Processing of Uranium
233 Materials
• Public Comment Period
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2019 Meeting Minutes
• Status of Outstanding
Recommendations
• Alternate DDFO Report
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• Adjourn
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open to the public. The EM SSAB, Oak
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Noe at least seven days in advance of
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listed above. Written statements may be
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and reasonable provision will be made
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Individuals wishing to make public
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Minutes: Minutes will be available by
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address and phone number listed above.
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following website: https://energy.gov/
orem/listings/oak-ridge-site-specificadvisory-board-meetings.
Signed in Washington, DC, on September
12, 2019.
LaTanya Butler,
Deputy Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. 2019–20114 Filed 9–16–19; 8:45 am]
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Federal Energy Regulatory
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[Docket No. ID–8770–000]
Merchant, Robert F.; Notice of Filing
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[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 180 (Tuesday, September 17, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48919-48921]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-20067]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Notice of a Letter Regarding the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle
East Studies
AGENCY: Office of the General Counsel, Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Department publishes a letter, dated August 29, 2019,
notifying the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (``UNC'') of
the Department's review of the Annual Project Reports (``APR'')
submitted by the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies (CMES)
during the most recent and prior award periods, and the 2018 National
Resource Center proposal.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Patrick Shaheen, U.S. Department of
Education, Office of the General Counsel, 400 Maryland Ave. SW, room
6E300, Washington, DC 20202. Telephone: (202) 453-6339. Email:
[email protected].
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) or a text
telephone (TTY), call the Federal Relay Service, toll free, at 1-800-
877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department publishes this letter, dated
August 29, 2019, notifying the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
of the Department's review of the APR submitted by the Duke-UNC CMES
during the most recent and prior award periods, and the 2018 National
Resource Center proposal. The letter is in Appendix A of this notice.
Accessible Format: Individuals with disabilities can obtain this
document in an accessible format (e.g., braille, large print,
audiotape, or compact disc) on request to the person listed under FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may
access the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of
Federal Regulations at www.govinfo.gov. At this site you can view this
document, as well as all other documents of this Department published
in the Federal Register, in text or Portable Document Format (PDF). To
use PDF you must have
[[Page 48920]]
Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at the site.
You may also access documents of the Department published in the
Federal Register by using the article search feature at
www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, through the advanced search
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published
by the Department.
Reed D. Rubinstein,
Principal Deputy General Counsel, Delegated the duties and authority of
the General Counsel.
Appendix A--Letter to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
August 29, 2019
Terry Magnuson, Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor for Research
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Office of the Vice
Chancellor for Research
312 South Building, Campus Box 4000 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-4000
Dear Dr. Magnuson:
Thank you for your letter of June 20, 2019, responding to the
U.S. Department of Education's questions about the Duke-UNC
Consortium for Middle East Studies (``Duke-UNC CMES'').
As you are aware, in Title VI of the Higher Education Act of
1965, as amended, Congress authorizes grants to protect the
security, stability, and economic vitality of the United States by
teaching American students the foreign languages and cultural
competencies required to develop a pool of experts to meet our
national needs. 20 U.S.C. 1021. The Secretary of Education may make
Title VI grants to institutions of higher education or consortia of
such institutions only for the purposes of establishing,
strengthening, and operating comprehensive foreign language and area
or international studies centers and programs, and of establishing,
strengthening, and operating a diverse network of undergraduate
foreign language and area or international studies centers and
programs. 20 U.S.C. 11 22(a)(l)(A). Federal funding is conditioned
on a demonstration that a given center or program is a ``national
resource'' for teaching of any modem foreign language; for
instruction in fields needed to provide full understanding of areas,
regions, or countries in which such language is commonly used; for
research and training in the international and foreign language
aspects of professional and other fields of study; and for
instruction and research on issues in world affairs that concern one
or more countries. 20 U.S.C. 1122(a)(l)(B).
It is unlawful for institutions of higher education to use Title
VI funds differently.
After reviewing your letter, the Annual Project Reports
(``APR'') submitted by the Duke-UNC CMES during the most recent and
prior award periods, and your 2018 National Resource Center
proposal, the Department is concerned that most of the Duke-UNC CMES
activities supported with Title VI funds are unauthorized and that
Duke-UNC CMES may not qualify as an eligible National Resource
Center. Among other things:
You report that 6,791 students were enrolled in
taxpayer-funded Middle East studies course but that only 960
students were enrolled in Middle East language courses. It is
unclear whether this means 960 different people participated in
foreign language instruction or if the total headcount in foreign
language courses was 960, meaning that some students could have been
counted more than once because most of your programs require
students to complete three to eight semesters of foreign language.
Similarly, you do not clarify how many of those students took three
or more semesters of a given language or the level of language
fluency they achieved.
Your application asserts collaborations with other
academic departments. However, these departments are not, for the
most part, aligned with the requirement that National Resource
Centers help students in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics fields achieve foreign language fluency. See 20 U.S.C.
1122(a)(2)(J).
Many of the topics and titles listed under the area
studies section of your prior APRs have little or no relevance to
Title VI. For example, although Iranian art and film may be of
subjects of deep intellectual interest and may provide insight
regarding aspects of the people and culture of the Middle East, the
sheer volume of such offerings highlights a fundamental misalignment
between your choices and Title VI's mandates. Although a conference
focused on ``Love and Desire in Modem Iran'' and one focused on
Middle East film criticism may be relevant in academia, we do not
see how these activities support the development of foreign language
and international expertise for the benefit of U.S. national
security and economic stability. Similarly, the link between the
statutory goals and the academic papers referenced in your grant
proposal, Amihri Hatun: Performance, Gender-Bending and Subversion
in the Early Modern Ottoman Intellectual History, or Radical Love:
Teachings from Islamic Mystical Tradition, is patently unclear.
While the Duke-UNC CMES may certainly offer programs in Iranian art
and film, these programs should not be funded or subsidized in any
way by American taxpayers under Title VI unless you are able to
clearly demonstrate that such programs are secondary to more
rigorous coursework helping American students to become fluent Farsi
speakers and to prepare for work in areas of national need.
The Duke-UNC CMES appears to lack balance as it offers
very few, if any, programs focused on the historic discrimination
faced by, and current circumstances of, religious minorities in the
Middle East, including Christians, Jews, Baha'is, Yadizis, Kurds,
Druze, and others. Also, in your activities for elementary and
secondary students and teachers, there is a considerable emphasis
placed on the understanding the positive aspects of Islam, while
there is an absolute absence of any similar focus on the positive
aspects of Christianity, Judaism, or any other religion or belief
system in the Middle East. This lack of balance of perspectives is
troubling and strongly suggests that Duke-UNC CMES is not meeting
legal requirement that National Resource Centers ''provide a full
understanding of the areas, regions, or countries'' in which the
modern foreign language taught is commonly used. See 20 U.S.C.
1122(a)(l)(B)(ii) (emphasis added); 34 CFR 656.3(b)(1).
It appears from your APRs that the Duke-UNC CMES offers
very little serious instruction preparing individuals to understand
the geopolitical challenges to U.S. national security and economic
needs but quite a considerable emphasis on advancing ideological
priorities. For example, the description of an activity described as
a ``conversation'' with Dr. Rosemary Corbett is ``Dr. Corbett traces
the broader history of pressures placed on religious minorities in
the last century to conform to dominant American frameworks for
race, gender and political economy. These include the encouraging of
community groups to provide social services to the dispossessed in
compensation for the government's lack of welfare provisions in an
aggressively capitalist environment.'' Another activity called
``Music on the Porch'' describes an outdoor concert series as an
international program focused on Islam, music, and social change.
The featured artist, Marco Pave, is described as a ``millennial
Muslim from Memphis,'' who conducts workshops around the country on
hip-hop and social justice, and he advocates greater support for the
arts.'' It is hard to understand how these things are consistent
with a National Resource Center and lawfully supported by taxpayer
funds to ensure the ``security, stability, and economic vitality of
the United States in a complex global era[.]'' 20 U.S.C. 1121(a)(l).
The job placement results included in your grant
proposal indicate that the Duke-UNC CEMS provides opportunities and
support primarily for individuals to pursue academic careers rather
than in government or business as Congress directs. That 35 percent
of program graduates go to higher education positions and only 11
percent to government positions suggests that there are critical
shortcomings and impermissible biases in the programming.
The teacher-training activities hosted by the Duke-UNC
CMES lack lawful focus on language development and instead advance
narrow, particularized views of American social issues. For example,
a teacher training seminar included in a prior APR is described as
having provided an opportunity for teachers to explore ``issues of
multicultural education and equity to build a culture and climate of
respect in the classroom. Educators dove deeper during interactive
break-out sessions focused on unconscious bias, safe classrooms for
all, using film for global education, why culture matters and
working across cultures, serving LGBTIQ youth in schools, culture
and the media, diverse books for the classroom and more.'' There is
a startling lack of focus on geography, geopolitical issues,
history, and language of the area, as Congress required in Title VI.
The Department believes the Duke-UNC CMES has failed to
carefully distinguish between activities lawfully funded under Title
VI, and other activities, perhaps consistent with and protected by
general
[[Page 48921]]
principles of academic freedom, that are plainly unqualified for
taxpayer support.
Furthermore, it seems clear foreign language instruction and
area studies advancing the security and economic stability of the
United States have taken ``a back seat'' to other priorities at the
Duke-UNC CMES. Notably, most of the instructors of foreign language
courses are nontenure track lecturers or teaching assistants,
whereas most of the instructors of other courses are tenured
faculty. Given the important role tenured faculty play in attracting
students to foreign language instruction and majors and enabling
students to overcome the difficulty of mastering a language, the
lack of tenured foreign languages faculty relative to the number of
tenured culture studies faculty, may signal a potentially serious
misalignment between Title IV requirements and the Duke-UNC CMES's
orientation and activities.
The Department will hold the Duke-UNC CMES accountable for
ensuring all Title VI funded or subsidized activities directly
reflect express Congressional mandates and purposes. Therefore, as a
condition for future Title VI funding, the Duke-UNC CMES is directed
to provide a revised schedule of activities that it plans to support
for the coming year, including a description demonstrating how each
activity promotes foreign language learning and advances the
national security interests and economic stability of the United
States. For example, cultural studies providing historical
information about customs and practices in the Middle East and
assisting students to understand and navigate the culture of another
country, in concert with rigorous foreign language training, could
help develop a pool of experts needed to protect U.S. national
security and economic stability and therefore may well be within
Title VI's ambit. To be clear, activities focusing on American
culture or academic preferences that do not directly promote foreign
language learning and advance the national security interests and
economic stability of the United States are not to be funded under
Title VI.
Also, the Duke-UNC CMES is required to demonstrate that it has
prioritized foreign language instruction as required by law. More
equal utilization of comparably credentialed faculty in foreign
language instruction might prove to be an appropriate measure in
this regard.
The Duke-UNC CMES is further required to provide the Department
with a full list of courses in Middle East studies, including
academic rank and employment status of each instructor who teaches
each course.
Finally, the Duke-UNC CMES is further required to develop and
implement effective institutional controls ensuring all future Title
VI-funded activities directly promote foreign language learning and
advance the national security interests and economic stability of
the United States, thereby meeting statutory requirements and
meriting taxpayer funding.
The Department must obligate the funds to continue support for
the Duke-UNC CMES by no later than September 30, 2019. Consequently,
it is critically important that you respond in writing to this
letter with a preliminary plan and timetable for carrying out the
above-specified compliance activities on or before September 22,
2019.
Sincerely,
Robert King
Assistant Secretary
Cc: Charles Kurzman, Ph.D., Professor, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
Kevin Guskiewicz, Interim Chancellor, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
Richard Stevens, Chair, University of North Carolina Board of
Trustees
Vincent E. Price, President, Duke University
Jack 0. Bovender, Jr., Chair, Duke University Board of Trustees
[FR Doc. 2019-20067 Filed 9-16-19; 8:45 am]
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