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Syrian Ties Misguided
ayne State University's new scientific
and cultural agreement with Syria's
Damascus University, though well
meaning, is unsettling.
WSU President Dr. Irvin Reid hopes to tap the
strengths of American democracy "to advance peace
and understanding" with the Middle East university,
a noble goal. But the state-run university is an arm
of a repressive nation that supports Hezbollah,
Hamas and other terrorist groups. A new report
ordered by Congress brands Syria the second biggest
state sponsor of terrorism in the world.
On a purely academic level, a Detroit-Damascus
connection already exists: Syrian alumni are part of
the WSU medical faculty.
But would Jewish students and profes-
sors be welcome and safe in Syria under
WSU's new agreement? What is the State
Department view of academic exchanges with Syria
.
in the wake of 9-11? Beyond Wayne and
Georgetown, how many other U.S. universities have
ties with Damascus University and are they fruitful?
By any measure, Syria is a dictatorship that
oppresses Jews, Chaldeans and Arabs unsympathetic
to the ruling Baath Party. It also allows arms and
money to flow to Iran-sponsored Hezbollah and
provides refuge for its terrorists. Hezbollah was
responsible for the 1983 bombing of the U.S.
Marine barracks in Lebanon, with the loss of nearly
250 American lives.
Syria has a consistent record of hatred for Israel.
Bashar Assad's dreams of Greater Syria do not stop
at the Golan Heights. Last year, Assad told the pope
the Jews "betrayed Jesus Christ."
WSU points to Syria's 1991 support of America
in the Gulf War and its U.N. Security Council vote
urging Baghdad to disarm. But Syria is a weapons
Dry Bones
r
source and oil distributor for Iraq —
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and Iraq wouldn't hesitate to rain Scud
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missiles upon Israel if America attacks
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Baghdad.
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Global outreach is a great way to, as
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Dr. Reid's staff terms it, "spread knowl-
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edge, enlightenment and democratic
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ideals." But we're skeptical of its impact
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on a higher-education campus lacking
START
academic freedom.
Syrian Defense Minister Mustapha
Tlas' book The Matzah of Zion purports
to confirm the blood libel about Jews —
and in the Arab world is a bestseller.
Notably, none of the other
nations WSU has a similar
pact with is an avowed enemy
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of Israel. Even Egypt has a
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peace treaty with the Jewish state.
WSU and Detroit Jewry have strong
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bonds. Over the last century, thousands
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of Jewish immigrants achieved the
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American dream thanks to their studies
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there. Many of their children have risen
to levels of prominence in business and
society as Wayne graduates.
Jews are among the campus's largest
. endowers. Three Jews serve on the board
of governors. The Cohn-Haddow Center
for Judaic Studies is a cultural jewel. The
organized Jewish community, via the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit, is committed to pivotal, lasting
But we're perplexed why Wayne State University
ties with this important urban university.
would formalize a relationship with an arm of a
So Wayne's attitude toward Jews is not what's at issue.
rogue regime like Syria. ❑
We respect Dr. Reid's sincere efforts "to build
bridges across seemingly impossible voids."
•
EDIT ORIAL
.
-
E As-r.
Equal Opportunity, Beyond U-M
he beauty of Martin Luther King Jr. Day
is that it forces America to confront annu-
ally the state of its racial union — and
ponder how close or distant it is from the
vision of equality of opportunity that made Dr.
King such a force for our moral better natures.
On Jan. 20, it was not possible to think
about this matter without focusing on our
system of higher education, particularly in
light of President Bush's intervention in
the U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the affirmative
action admission programs of the University of
Michigan.
The tragedy — and the betrayal of Dr. King's
vision — is that the president is right; the university's
system for granting preference to African American,
Hispanic and Native American applicants for under-
graduate study and for the law school is plainly
unconstitutional. Yet his proposal for a different
approach to achieving diversity is equally wrong.
Neither the university system nor his plan address the
T
root causes of continuing segregation that so disad-
vantages the nation's non-Oriental racial minorities.
Jews have generally supported affirmative action,
i.e. direct steps, rather than a passive waiting for
things to get better.
Now that we are so thoroughly accepted into the
mainstream of American life, it is harder
for many of us to remember that the hard-
ships our grandparents and parents faced
in this country were minor in comparison
to those whose ancestors were slaves.
We could celebrate the advance of African
Americans and Hispanics whose presence on campus-
es now has expanded so dramatically in total num-
bers, and we could cheer the recognition that diversi-
ty is a positive force. But still we mourn the reality
that nearly 40 years after the passage of the civil
rights acts, so many African American youth leave
our public schools unprepared to compete academi-
cally at the nation's top private and public colleges.
Tinkering with admission processes attacks the
EDIT OIIIAL
symptoms 17 years too late for most applicants.
Americans need to address the root causes of black
intellectual underachievement in childhood, rather
than look for "solutions" that distort the teaching
and research missions of colleges and universities.
If President Bush is serious about "affirmative
access" — his plan to guarantee college enrollment
to the top percentage in any high school — he
should budget full financing for pre-elementary
school Head Start programs that have proven their
worth. He should recognize that his "affirmative
access" proposal only promotes diversity so long as
there are segregated schools to assure a flow of top
black and Hispanic students. And, of course, it does
nothing to improve minority enrollment in graduate
and professional schools, such as law.
Being admitted to a top school because it has a
quota to fill does nothing to promote the individual
minority student's sense either of dignity or worth
that Dr. King insisted were necessary before
Americans would truly be measured by the content
of their character rather than the color of their skin.
He correctly sought equal opportunity, not special
favors. ❑
. 411.1
1/24
2003
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