January 10, 2005

Emergency Coalition to Defend Educational Travel (ECDET)  

Report to Members

There have been a number of  advances and innovations since our first announcement and report went out on December 15 of 2004. First of all, we have new members, though not as many as we’d hoped to have at this point.  That’s not surprising, however. This has taken place over the holidays. Many of you were doubtless disengaged and did not get around to urging colleagues to join.  Our goal is to get up to a thousand members across the nation by mid-March.  So, to repeat our request from the first report, would each of  you please contact three or four of your academic colleagues, preferably at other colleges and universities, ideally even in other states, and urge them to join us. They can do so by contacting Ti, our stalwart administrative assistant, at tiana@ciponline.org,  and providing their names, affiliations and contact information.  If you don’t know that many colleagues at other institutions, then by all means go after those at your own! We need members! The more compelling our credentials as a nationwide organization with hundreds of members in colleges and universities across the land, the more likely we are to be listened to by the key leaders on the Hill.

            Second, as suggested in the first report, we’ve reorganized. ECDET will now be an organization comprising members from accredited colleges and universities and academic associations, such as the American Association of University Professors.  This was necessary for legal reasons as we move toward a court challenge on grounds of violations of academic freedoms.  To put it in its crudest form, you have to be a bona fide academic to claim before the courts that your academic freedoms have been violated.

            Travel providers and various others who do not represent colleges and universities can be carried as “cooperating associates.” The Latin American Working Group (LAWG), the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), and the Center for International Policy (CIP), for example, will all be “cooperating associates.” Wayne Smith will continue as co-chair, but under his Johns Hopkins University hat rather than that of CIP.

            A number of those who do not represent accredited colleges and universities will doubtless opt to form a parallel organization. That will be fine. We can continue to work together, coordinate our activities, and aim toward the same goal, i.e., getting rid of these outrageous restrictions, but under two different hats.

            This is all still being worked out, but to help clarify matters, a list of members and “cooperating associates” is attached. Bear with us. If some have been put on the wrong  list or left off altogether, advise us. We’ll get it all worked out eventually. And to advise that if some of you responded to Wayne Smith rather than to Ti about getting on the list, check to make certain you are there. There were some problems with Wayne’s computer over the holidays and some messages never came through.

            Chairs, Coordinators and Steering Committee.  For the time being, Wayne Smith of Johns Hopkins and Les McCabe of Semester at Sea ( University of Pittsburgh) will continue to serve as co-chairs. Wayne  will also be the principal coordinator for outreach to the academic community. Phil Brenner of American University will coordinate contacts with the administration – principally with the Department of State. Bob Muse, in effect, our lawyer, will be coordinator to develop a legal challenge to the restrictions on academic travel.  In a change from last month, Cynthia McClintock, Professor of Political Science at George Washington University and the former President of LASA, will be coordinator for congressional strategy – though she will be ably assisted by Mavis Anderson and various others.

            So far, the Steering Committee includes:  John Coatsworth, Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at the Harvard University; Carmen-Diana Deere, Director of Latin American Studies at the University of Florida; Michael Erisman of Indiana State; Jonathan Knight of the American Association of University Professors; Bill Leogrande, Dean of the School of Public Affairs, American University; Sheryl Lutjens, Northern Arizona University; John Nichols, Pennsylvania State University; Lisandro Perez, Florida International University; Reid Reading, LASA; and Nelson Valdes, University of New Mexico. 

            Legal Challenge. Bob Muse is working up a legal challenge to the new regulations, which violate academic freedoms in a number of ways. This will be shared with you as we move along, and there will be a panel at our March 14 meeting to discuss this whole issue.

            Congressional initiative.  We are coordinating closely with allies on the Hill and with other organizations here in Washington in hopes of seeing legislation move forward this spring – legislation that will not only rescind the new regulations but take us back to a general license for academics, i.e., so that anyone associated with an academic institution can travel to Cuba for educational purposes without the need to apply for a specific license.

            As stated in our earlier report, it will be important at a given point to bombard the congress with letters demanding that such legislation be drafted and pushed forward. We will be providing you with suggested letters and lists of key congressmen and senators to target. And, again, one of our most effective tools is likely to be letters from university and college presidents and provosts to key senators demanding an end to these regulations. We’ll be in touch shortly about that initiative also.

            A copy of a letter Wayne Smith has just sent to his congressman is attached, not as a model but because it contains information which could be useful to others as they begin drafting their own letters.

            AIEA Meeting February 18-19.  Most of you have already been informed that ECDET will have a panel at the annual conference of  the Association of International Education Administrators to be held at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Our panel will be on the 18^th from 2-3:15 p.m.  We’d much appreciate it if those ECDET members planning to be here for the event would advise Ti at the address given above. Perhaps we  could get together after the panel.

            Cuba Day.  Cuba Advocacy Day is now set for March 15. The idea is to bring hundreds of people together, academics, including students, Cuban-Americans, agricultural and business representatives, and religious leaders, each to protest travel controls and demand that they be removed. There will be meetings, rallies and a massive lobbying effort on the Hill.

            We are now planning to hold our organizational meeting the previous afternoon, on March 14, to formalize our coalition, make any needed alterations, and announce our presence and action plans to the press.

            Hopefully, as many of you as possible can be here for our organizational meeting and for Cuba Advocacy Day. This could be our key event for 2005. We’ll be in touch about arrangements shortly.

            Web site.   Finally, we are opening an ECDET website. If any of you have items you’d wish  to put on it, please e-mail to Ti at the e-mail address indicated above.  We will screen everything before we put it on.