Two years ago, the University's East Asia Center celebrated the news that it was chosen as a recipient of federal funding that is appropriated according to Title VI of the Higher Education Act. Title VI distributes money to institutions of higher education for the purpose of supporting instruction in certain languages and cultures that relate to geopolitically important regions of the world.
The financial award given to the center totaled $2 million through 2014 and signaled that students might be able to take advantage of additional research and cross-cultural learning opportunities. Earlier this year, however, Congress reneged on its commitment to fund academic programs dealing with specialized and strategically significant languages and cultures when it enacted a 47 percent across-the-board cut to Title VI grants as part of the fiscal year 2011 budget.
This move could decimate foreign language and cultural studies programs at a number of universities, and it raises the disturbing possibility that Title VI grants could be among the items targeted by even deeper budget cuts that were included in the August debt ceiling deal. If that turns out to be the case, not only will it stifle students' intellectual curiosity and breed parochialism among the next generation of Americans, but also it will cripple the nation's ability to respond to future international security and economic developments that take place in parts of the globe that traditionally have not been studied closely.
Politicians have little to gain by slashing Title VI funding since it is only an infinitesimal part of the multi-trillion dollar federal budget. In fiscal year 2011, for example, the Department of Education's initial funding request for International Education and Foreign Language Studies - which includes Title VI grants - was a mere $125 million. Moreover, the government enjoys a tremendous return on this relatively small investment. The center, for example, has been able to hire tutors, bolster its library and provide financial assistance to both graduate and undergraduate students who pursue research fellowships.
The center's upgrades have done more than benefit those students enrolled in East Asian studies and language programs, however. They also have allowed the center to host seminars, guest lecturers and a special teach-in event responding to the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan earlier this year. These events have been open to all within the University community, allowing those from outside the center's main disciplines to gain diverse insight into contemporary affairs.
It is essential that the U.S. government promote learning experiences along these lines if it hopes to operate effectively in an increasingly interconnected world. The nation has spent the decade since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks attempting to make up for its relative lack of knowledge about regions such as the Middle East and Central Asia, from which many security concerns originate. Given that much of the world's future economic growth - and attendant turmoil - is likely to emerge from similarly understudied parts of the world, it would be unwise to deprive funding to institutions such as the center that prepare students for professional careers in which they will be expected to engage with leaders from those areas.
Although the cuts to Title VI grants were extensive, they did spare the funding the University receives through the Foreign Language and Area Studies initiative. This has enabled the center to continue providing tuition assistance and stipends to several graduate and undergraduate students concentrating on East Asian studies. Even funding for FLAS could be at risk, however, as Congress attempts to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal budget through a debt reduction "supercommittee."
The center's leadership has acknowledged this reality and is preparing for the worst. "There are no promises over the next two years, as current federal budget bickering suggests that we are in for hard times with respect to restoring and maintaining the $125 million funding level before the cut," Rich Cohen, the center's managing director, said in an email. "Essentially, the federal budget cutting measures have displayed either an inability or a lack of interest in trying to find the 'devil in the details,' i.e., which federal programs are being adversely affected that directly impact the nation's economic or security interests." Policymakers should heed Cohen's words and avoid haphazardly cutting from programs such as Title VI grants whose academic and political value cannot be measured simply according to the dollar sign next to their appropriation levels.
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