[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]


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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.

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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

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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]
 BILLING CODE 4000-01-P