Madeleine Albright and Chuck Hagel react to congressional cuts to Title VI funding

In May 2011, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and 126 other National Resource Centers across the US learned that Title VI funding for international education and foreign language studies would be slashed by close to 50% for the federal Fiscal Year 2011.1 The cuts came as a surprise even to those closely watching Congressional budget discussions. That these cuts coincide with the greatest political and social change in the last 60 years in the Arab Middle East is particularly frustrating to those charged with preparing the next generation of specialists. Events of recent months have heightened the urgency of studying current developments in the Arab World, yet CMES has been forced to make deep cuts in faculty research workshops, library acquisitions, and Outreach programming in order to protect direct support of language and area studies instruction. The cuts will hamper our ability to host visiting lecturers from the region to talk with faculty and students and also to collect critical documents helpful in understanding the unfolding revolutions.

In a recent op-ed in USA Today, Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Senator Chuck Hagel describe these cuts as “a grievous last-minute mistake” that “not only threatens the nation's diplomatic, intelligence, and national security capacities, but also our ability to maximize our competitiveness in global markets.” In underlining the importance of funding for foreign language and area studies, Albright and Hagel point to documented shortfalls in foreign language skills in the US Army, the State Department, the Foreign Commercial Service of the Department of Commerce, and the FBI, particularly in the less commonly taught languages of the Middle East and Asia, and the adverse effect on operations attributed to these shortfalls by agency officials. Arguing for reinstatement of Title VI funding, Albright and Hagel write:

In order to work effectively with the world's fastest-growing economies, as well as the countries with the highest populations of young people and those that present the greatest security challenges to the US today, we must ensure that we expand the numbers of Americans who understand these regions and speak their languages.

Through our support for research, teaching, and language instruction, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies helps to create this critical expertise. Directors of Harvard’s Title VI centers have been working with the university’s federal relations staff as well as colleagues from other affected institutions to develop an advocacy strategy to ensure that these cuts are not long term. We encourage CMES alumni to contact their congressional representatives to add their voices to those who share concerns about the future of Title VI funding.

1Overall, the line item for "International education and foreign language studies – Domestic programs (HEA VI-A and B)" was cut 38.4% from FY 2010 levels. Because funding for some programs in this category, such as Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships, had already been committed for FY 2011, other programs such as National Resources Centers received deeper cuts. [Footnote added 8/16/11]