In December, the University of Utah will observe the 50th anniversary of its nationally recognized Middle East Center.
The center boasts the second largest graduating class in Arabic language in the United States. More than 60 percent of its graduates pursue careers in the U.S. government, mostly in the intelligence sector.
The center has one of the largest Middle East libraries in the nation, amassing more than 200,000 volumes in Middle Eastern languages.
It offers important outreach programs ranging from workshops for junior high and high school teachers to helping Iraqi refugees find work and attend school.
As much as there is to celebrate, the center recently suffered a setback when the U.S. Department of Education did not renew the grant that has sustained it since its inception. The grant funds the center — a designated National Resource Center — and provides Foreign Language Area Studies scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students.
If funding is not restored, scholarships and limited library acquisitions for the Middle East collection at the Marriott Library will be lost. Outreach activities will be reduced and travel support for faculty will be cut.
Although older, established centers have been known to lose their grants during each funding cycle as newer institutions are encouraged to apply for a limited pool of funds, it is also possible to recover their funding.
That would be the ideal scenario for the U.'s center, which provides "critical national security language training for the entire Rocky Mountain region … This is particularly important with the new National Security Administration building coming to the area," Sen. Orrin Hatch wrote in a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, which was signed by the Utah's entire congressional delegation.
If that is not possible in the near future, the center's director, Bahman Baktiari, wants assurances from the federal government that the center can maintain its designation as a National Resource Center, which would assist in private fundraising, enable it to apply for grants and allow it to continue its important work as a scholarly and outreach resource.
Secretary Duncan needs to revisit this issue. At a minimum, the federal government should take steps to fund student scholarships and allow the center to maintain NRC status. Seemingly, national security requirements and the need for a deeper understanding of Middle East culture and history are compelling arguments for the Department of Education to reverse this unfortunate decision altogether.