Why Fixing Mideast Studies is Key to Fixing US Universities

Dear Graduates:

It is now the middle of college graduation season, and we will not be making any commencement addresses.

One of us is a former president of several major universities who will mark the first time in 45 years not presiding over graduation festivities. The other heads an academic association composed of faculty at schools across the country. But if we were speaking to students, their families, and our fellow academics, we would present a sharp contrast to the controversial commencement remarks made earlier this month at the University of Michigan and other campuses, where assorted accusations were leveled at the US, and our ally, Israel. Instead, here is the urgent message we would deliver: it is time to make our colleges and universities fiercely American again.

This is not intended as a slogan.  It is an invitation to re-examine the very purpose of higher education. With a recent survey finding that national trust in academia as an institution has eroded to 35 percent, we need to ask ourselves what our core mission is – especially in the AI age when the value of a diploma is being scrutinized like never before. 

And the answer, if you look at the history of American education, is simple: American universities exist, and have always existed, primarily to raise generation after generation of excellent, dedicated, curious, innovative, and deeply committed citizens.

While we firmly believe that opening the gates of our universities to students and faculty from all over the world has helped turn America’s higher education institutions into the global powerhouses they are today, it has also helped our friends across the world adapt our educational values to their respective local cultures. However, the most noble and desirable thing you can do with the diplomas you are about to receive, and the skills and knowledge you have earned these past four years, is to put them all in the service of this great nation that we love so much. 

How, then, should we begin to restore faith in academia? Here is a bold idea: by first looking to reimagine Middle East studies. Some would say it is a niche, if not volatile, place to start, but this, graduates, is vital for you to remember as you embark on your life journeys. Solving for what is hard will yield the highest returns. 

We are not merely choosing this path because America’s war on Iran has been going on for months. Nor are we writing to jump into the fray and discuss the heated atmosphere on too many American campuses since Hamas’s murderous attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing and heart-wrenching suffering and death of innocent civilians across the Mideast. 

Instead, and what is getting lost in the public discourse, is the connection between Middle East studies and our national security. As the current war shows all too clearly, the region remains of the utmost importance to America’s vital interests. Fluctuations in its oil prices and movements have a very deep impact on our economic well-being. Changes in its political or military alliances impact the tender geopolitical balance between America and global rivals, especially China and Russia. And radical religious ideologies continue to inflame the minds of young men, causing them to target Americans around the world. For these reasons and so many more, having Middle East scholars that supply us with sharp, accurate, insightful, and dispassionate analysis of the region is key.  It certainly does not mean turning a blind eye to America’s shortcomings, but neither should it give license to knee-jerk contempt.

Unfortunately, look to almost every Middle East studies department anywhere in the country and you will find just that. Open and respectful debate, based on empirical data and scholarship, has given way to intolerance and groupthink. As Middle Eastern studies serve as a feeder to vital government and military roles, failures and prejudices continue to fester. Language instruction declined, and cultural explanations for American culpability expanded. Given the disturbing enthusiasm for Hamas currently displayed in academia, including large swaths of support now emerging for the Islamic Republic of Iran, self-examination seems unlikely. If anything, academia shows signs of digging into its "resistance" to President Trump confronting a regime that has been calling for America’s death since 1979. 

If we are to rebuild the public’s trust in higher education and ensure our academic institutions continue being major engines of American growth, reforming Middle East studies programs provides a potential case study for other academic areas in need of reform.  Where to start? 

1.     Open the Books: Universities should be required to publish detailed explanations of their administrative structures, including the rules and organization for faculty hiring, firing, promotion, internal funding, and academic governance. Any institution that receives federal funding must be completely transparent about how it spends those funds and how it operates – along with divulging foreign financial support. 

2.     Eradicate Departmental Divisions: Transcend turf wars between departments and attract a new generation of multi-disciplinary Mideast scholars, with a grounding in US civics and able to connect the dots between geology and history, Farsi and large language models.

3.     Stop Diverting Student Activities Fees: Student governments, a key node in funding Hamas supporters on campus, should be cut off from university-collected funds if the use is blatantly divisive. Student activity fees are too often diverted to fund political activism used to “cancel” other students and professors.

4.     Phase Out Tenure: Tenure should be gradually ended and replaced with fixed-duration contracts that are renewable. Right-size the ratio of faculty to students through retirements and buyouts. Return faculty to their primary teaching and research roles and end the indentured servitude of graduate students and adjunct professors. 

Like America itself, our institutions of higher education contain multitudes. For each affected professor and student making headlines with odious comments, we know a dozen or more who are toiling not only to repair what has been rendered broken but to dream of a brighter future.  

So, congratulations, and you deserve nothing less.