Renewal by "gut punch"

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin referred to his prostate cancer diagnosis as a "gut punch." While Austin received more attention for not revealing the health challenge earlier and more publicly, it is the gut punch that caught my attention. Diagnosis for any life threatening illness is traumatic and is likely to result in dark nights following long days of exploring prognosis and treatment options.

The moment we realize, perhaps for the first time, that we are vulnerable to something outside our control can also be an opportunity to refocus on the things that matter most. Joy Jones-Carmack revealed the recentering that she experienced as a result of her cancer diagnosis. In fascinating ways, her advice applies not only to traumatizing health events but perhaps to the general well-being of all faculty and staff who are attempting to recenter after the COVID pandemic. The major recommendations include:

• Don't let your career keep you from focusing on your health.
• Take leave if you want to, and make the most of it if you do.
• Be willing to relinquish control.
• Don't be afraid to get personal or be transparent.
• Realize you won't be the same afterward.

As institutions continue to encounter rough waters, especially related to budget cuts, discontinuation of programs, and faculty lay-offs, the expansion of institutional mission will have to be critically examined. The unexamined assumption that academic excellence is all about individual agency and meritocratic achievement may deserve to be challenged. "Can we learn to understand collective problem-solving or institutional reform as accomplishments that are as valuable as publications? Can writing become a practice that helps us thrive in place."

Hmmh... Might each day have more purpose and impact if we took the foot off the gas in ways that reflect this advice? Passion for what we do is a good thing but can also blind us from the limitations of our own humanity. Conviction punctuated by reflection and humility, sometimes stimulated by a shocking moment, may have the potential for greater impact than we could ever have imagined.

Critical studies defined and applied

Some public comment has attacked critical studies and others have advocated it as essential to the future of contemporary learning. Steve Mintz defines what critical studies actually is and takes it another step by suggesting that evolution of critical studies in practice might lead to a reorganization of disciplines. He says, "If colleges and universities were to establish academic departments and disciplines today from scratch, we'd shift away from the traditional departments established in the late 19th and and early 20th centuries. The stand-alone, stand-apart department model would give way to interdisciplinary studies to a greater extent and reflect the complexity of global challenges that do not fit neatly within traditional disciplinary boundaries."

Amen! My view has almost always been that academic departments are dysfunctional and undermine the truly cutting-edge transformation of learning. The departments' insistent on maintaining supremacy tells us a lot - the insularity is sought because it protects enclaves of intellectual independence and thereby fails to see all of the important issues that fall between the cracks. My background in music is probably the origin of my belief in interdisciplinarity but experience being marginalized in student affairs also demonstrates the inadequacies of the department model.

Texas Regents abandon Qatar's Texas A&M partnership

As partisanship and populism continue to surge across the U.S.A. and around the world, internationalization efforts are seeing new vulnerability to the educational objectives of knowledge diplomacy and capacity building through higher education. One apparent casualty of political intervention is the Texas A&M Board of Regents vote to abandon the 20+ year relationship with Qatar Foundation in offering select engineering programs at Education City in Doha, Qatar.

Discerning the background and reasoning of the Texas A&M decision is muddied by Regents' claims versus reactions from Qatar. A decision of this magnitude likely includes multiple tensions and considerations. Former President Bowen of Texas A&M took issue with the way the decision was made and the rationale for abandoning the partnership in a Dallas Morning News Opinion. He called for an independent investigation of the claims that resulted in the Board decision and public announcement of what is found.

Coverage by the Texas Tribune quoted a statement from Qatar Foundation that "It is deeply disappointing that a globally respected academic institution like Texas A&M University has fallen victim to such a campaign and allowed politics to infiltrate its decision-making process." Predictably, the Texas A&M Regents accused Qatar of misunderstanding its decision and claimed that their 7-to-1 vote was based on "regional instability in the Middle East and a desire to focus on the system's stateside campuses."

Coverage from local/regional media such as the Doha News and Middle East Monitor reveal that Texas A&M's relationship with Qatar was called into question when a report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy raised questions about the partnership soon after the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. The report claimed that Qatar had access to knowledge of weapons and nuclear engineering through Texas A&M's presence, which posed a threat to U.S. national security. ISGAP also asserted that the relationship between Qatar and Texas A&M University was troubling because of Qatar's funding of Hamas and links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Jerusalem Post article about ISGAP's accusations indicated that their report not only went to Texas A&M but also to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Governor Abbot of Texas, and Senator Ted Cruse (R-Texas). Considering the recipients of the report and review of the ISGAP website provides insight on their research and influence priorities. Analysis for the ISGAP report Follow the Money: Qatar Funding of Higher Education started in 2012 and led to a presentation to U.S. DOJ officials in 2019 claiming that Qatar was secretly funding U.S. institutions in order to foment anti-Semitism and anti-democratic ideals. Charles Asher Small, founder and director of ISGAP, published Unreported Foreign Donations to Universities Foment Anti-Semitism as an "Opinion" piece in Newsweek in October of 2020. The opinion references U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Education review but there is no record of action on their parts.

The persistence of ISGAP in attacking Qatar coupled with the lack of response from U.S. governmental agencies may indicate that the previous reports were not found credible or that U.S. interests in maintaining positive relations with Qatar counter-balanced ISGAP's assertions. However, critique of relations with Qatar emerged again during the House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing where Northwestern University's President was called to respond to accusations of passivity in response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations on its campus. Having worked for Qatar Foundation and now watching the political dynamics underway in the U.S., my belief is that the attacks of Qatar are more political than rational. What may have happened is that ISGAP's goal to undermine Qatar's role in negotiating toward a conclusion of the 2023-24 Israel v. Hamas war, including advocacy for a 2-state solution, finally fell on the fertile ground of conservativism and isolationism of Texas and in the U.S. House Committee.

Despite the controversies of Texas A&M withdrawing and Northwestern being challenged regarding its education partnerships in Qatar, Arkansas State University has approved three programs that blend remote and in-person learning to serve students in Qatar. The program is offered through the Qatar Global Studies Institute and officials indicate that it is privately funded rather than through the government of Qatar.

International higher education hubs have been a growing trend for over 20 years and scholar Jane Knight outlines their emergence and benefit to all. Many countries around the world have added branch programs as a way to cultivate better trained workers and citizens. Qatar is a particularly notable example for their commitment to building its higher education infrastructure, which is reflected in the 2023 Qatar Ministry of Education update. 

Inside Higher Education raised the ominous potential that U.S. politicization of higher education in the Texas A&M example could result in other higher education partnerships becoming less attractive. The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing on May 23 included accusations about Qatar's ties to Northwestern University; the assertions were quickly refuted by Qatar Foundation. The Journal International Higher Education of Boston University included Long and Danvers' "Retrenchment or Expansion? The Future of US International Campuses" (p. 23), which used the Texas A&M withdrawal from the Qatar partnership as an example of political intervention that compromised the branch program. My reflections in "Qatar Foundation's Education City: Early capacity building for an education hub" in the International Journal of Education Development identify the conditions and strategies that would help secure long-term education partnerships.

Whether the Texas decision was about unsettling times in the Middle East and wanting to focus on U.S. interests or the result of a U.S. partisan group's intervention, a mutually beneficial educational partnership is now lost. Ripples elsewhere could result in undermining one of the best forms of knowledge diplomacy available to the U.S.

Transatlantic Dialogue in Luxembourg - 2024

A good colleague with whom I became acquainted while serving as a Visiting Scholar at Miami University's European center in Differdange, Luxembourg, provides the genius and commitment behind the ongoing Transatlantic Dialogue. I attended two of the TAD conferences and found them to be informative, engaging, and including a unique artistic spirit. Francois Carbon is the mastermind behind the conferences which began in 2008 and continue to the coming conference this May 29 to June 1. TAD includes programming related to educational exchange, the arts, and peace making. The website provides background information, schedule, and registration assistance.

There isn't a better European destination than Luxembourg to enjoy Europe, engage deeply in understanding across national boundaries, and meet new colleagues that you may end up cherishing for a lifetime.