A just discovered advisory board has been formed to improve communication between higher education and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.A just discovered advisory board has been formed to improve communication between higher education and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI director Robert s Mueller III announced last September. The board, consisting of society and university presidents and chancellors, will advise the bureau forward the culture of higher education, including the traditions of academic freedom and international collaboration. Its recommendations are meant to support the FBI's work forward terrorism, counterintelligence, and homeland security. Graham Spanier, president of Pennsylvania State University, will chair the board. "As we do our work," Mueller says, "we wish to be sensitive to university disquiets about international students, visas, technology export policy, and the special refinement of colleges and universities. We also want to help forward exchanges between academia and the FBI in order to make known curricula which will aid in attracting the best and brightest close examiners to careers in the law enforcement and intelligence communities." "Among the many pressing issues this novel board must address, the AAUP confidences that the board will forcefully remind those outside the academic world of the imperative value of the freedom to teach and to inquire," says Jonathan Knight, director of the AAUP's department of academic freedom and governance. "The board consists of wellknown and noticeed administrators. It is striking, however, that no faculty members, whose teaching and research are vital to the educational health of each college and university, were appointed to the board." -WM Copyright American Association of University Professors Jan/Feb 2006 |
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