Feds cite Islam focus in review of Duke-UNC language grant

The Trump administration is threatening to cut funding for a Middle East studies program run by the University of North Carolina and Duke University, arguing it's misusing a federal grant to advance "ideological priorities" and unfairly promote "the positive aspects of Islam" but not Christianity or Judaism.

An Aug. 29 letter from the U.S. Education Department orders the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies to revise its offerings by Sept. 22 or risk losing future funding from a federal grant awarded to dozens of universities to support foreign language instruction. The consortium received $235,000 from the grant last year, according to Education Department data.

Officials at Duke and at UNC-Chapel Hill, which houses the consortium, declined to comment. The Education Department declined to say if it's examining similar programs at other schools.

Academic freedom advocates say the government could be setting a dangerous precedent if it injects politics into funding decisions. Some said they had never heard of the Education Department asserting control over such minute details of a program's offerings.

"Is the government now going to judge funding programs based on the opinions of instructors or the approach of each course?" said Henry Reichman, chairman of a committee on academic freedom for the American Association of University Professors. "The odor of right-wing political correctness that comes through this definitely could have a chilling effect."

More than a dozen universities receive National Resource Center grants for their Middle East programs, including Columbia, Georgetown, Yale and the University of Texas. The Duke-UNC consortium was founded in 2005 and first received the grant nearly a decade ago.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos ordered an investigation into the program in June after North Carolina Rep. George Holding, a Republican, complained it hosted a taxpayer-funded conference with "severe anti-Israeli bias and anti-Semitic rhetoric." In a response to Holding, DeVos said she was "troubled" by his letter and would take a closer look at the consortium.

The department's findings did not directly address any bias against Israel but instead evaluated whether the consortium's proposed activities met the goals of the National Resource Center program, which was created in 1965 to support language and culture initiatives preparing students for careers in diplomacy and national security.

Investigators concluded the consortium intended to use federal money on offerings "plainly unqualified for taxpayer support," adding foreign language and national security instruction have "taken a back seat to other priorities." The department cited several courses, conferences and academic papers it said have "little or no relevance" to the grant's goals.