When we think about elite academic institutions, we come up with images of people that have been blessed with the ability to dedicate a part of their life to dealing with complex ideas, esoteric ideas, and most important of all, uncomfortable ideas. Universities have served societies throughout history by tackling ideas that governments would ordinarily not want to see mishandled in the general public. Furthermore, ordinary men are not always capable of properly digesting any kind of concept.
Or are they? Are academic institutions any better than myopic profit oriented corporations? Are elite academic institutions any better?
At the Johns Hopkins Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies(SAIS), it seems that examining unpopular ideas is not a popular way of learning. A discussion forum does exist, with the stated intent of entertaining political ideas. By definition, any thing with the label of political is certain to encounter a difficult reception.
We have a tough time imagining the blissful history of SAIS. We have a tough time imagining how they managed to go on for years, seldom entertaining the validity of Palestinian concerns. We have a tough time imagining how a group of graduate students at one of the country’s top foreign policy school could dismiss a commentary on Israeli police brutality as propaganda when this precise story was published in every major newspaper on the European and Asian continents. We have a tough time imagining this same group of students responding with statements that cannot be considered anything more than childish.
To top it all off, we cannot imagine why the administration of an elite university would move to shut down an entire, very functional listserv, simply because a distinctly foreign policy-related matter made its way into the email traffic, but was deemed an undesirable topic at a foreign policy institution.
Actually, we can imagine stupid administration tactics. We’re just surprised that this kind of game would happen at this kind of school.
Today, the Information Technology Services Director of SAIS, Mark Golding, moved to shut down the schoolwide email listserv. In his letter, he cited complaints “[O]f the last few weeks”, “housing requests” and “abuse” as justification. He points to an “infinite” number of ways that students can discuss political ideas, including the school paper and the school’s online forum.
The issue at hand is the alleged “misuse” of the school’s listserv, where Cyberista writer Mohammed Ali Karim’s article, “Questions of Palestine and the consequences of deception” started the problem. According to the administration, the listserv was never slated as a
“political discussion board.” Nevertheless, whether
intended as medium to exchange ideas on matters of presssing international concern, or not, the simple fact of the matter is
that graduate students refused to engage with Mr. Karim’s article, regardless of the listserv’s stated purpose.
Mr. Karim’s article was first published on March 31st. In the span of five days, the article spread worldwide like wildfire. One of the destinations was SAIS where it was clearly not welcome. Instead of offering counter arguments, the students of SAIS complained about his article while dismissing it out of hand as hateful propaganda.
Mr. Golding’s excuses are contrived. Nobody shuts down a mail server because of housing issues. Beyond that, the school paper is a failed operation. Their last issue was in September 2001. The school discussion forum has only 8 registered users and 48 postings since November 2001.
For a school of 500 future world leaders, that’s an obscene failure.
In very real terms, SAIS students are discouraged from critical thinking on important world affairs. The responses to the article were univerally inane, immature and myopic. As grad students of an “elite” institution, their behavior was boorish and inexcusable. The administration, instead of offering guidance or genuine alternatives, chose to abolish the listserv and direct students to defunct substitutes. At the very end of this matter, the administration is correct in their position that the listserv was never intended for politics. Unfortunately, it appears that nothing at that school was intended for politics.
Instead of abandoning their responsibility for creating an environment that encouragess political dialogue, the SAIS administration should create a listserv for the sole purpose of political discussion. It was only a matter of time before the lines between administrative purposes and discussion purposes blurred or disappeared. It does not help anyone when the administration responds to inquiries on the matter with hostility and allows a dysfunctional school paper and a cumbersome discussion forum to suffocate critical thinking.
Indeed, if SAIS claims to create the world leaders of tomorrow then it is, in fact, hurting the world that they claim to serve.
