When the FBI comes knocking on your door, you know you’re
in trouble. But when the FBI invites you into its home, it’s
not exactly any more comforting.
Today, the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board,
formed by FBI Director Robert Mueller and consisting of 17
university leaders, will meet for the first time in Washington,
D.C. (UCLA’s own Chancellor Albert Carnesale, a member of the
board, will not be attending due to a prior engagement.)
Though the name of the board sounds nice, it’s a bit
unclear as to what exactly it will accomplish. With the obfuscation
typical of federal agencies, a press release states the board will
“foster outreach and … promote understanding between higher
education and the (FBI).”
Normally, we’d praise the offering of a reconciliatory
hand in any dispute. But in this instance, it’s difficult to
shake the idea that the gesture is just window-dressing.
This is mostly a PR move by the FBI to redress a perception on
college campuses that the agency is Big Brother and the Big Bad
Wolf rolled into one. And there’s plenty of evidence to back
up that perception, especially in the wake of the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks:
“¢bull; A provision in the USA Patriot Act gives the FBI the
power to sift through patron records and library computers to see
what Web sites patrons visited and what e-mails they sent. The
provision drew fire from librarians ““ both at public and
academic branches ““ who feared the FBI was drastically
overstepping its bounds.
“¢bull; In 2003, an FBI memo was made public that detailed the
tactics of anti-war demonstrators, a movement of which students are
a significant part. Protesters cried foul, alleging that the FBI
was monitoring them illegally.
“¢bull; Also in 2003, the FBI began tapping into campus police
forces at some colleges, making them part of local Joint Terrorism
Task Forces. Critics said the move would mean more aggressive
tracking of foreign students and professors.
But bad blood between the FBI and universities runs deepest
through the 1960s and ’70s, when then-FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover launched an aggressive attack on college students involved
in the counter-culture movement. FBI agents snapped photos of
student protesters, riffled through personal records, and even went
so far as to distribute fake campus newspapers to sow dissension in
the student body.
Academia never forgot those gross violations of personal rights
““ and justly so.
The only good thing that could possibly come of this advisory
board is that it provides a forum for higher-education leaders to
voice concerns and suggest university-friendly ways to enforce
national security. But if talk turns toward how the FBI can better
secure foreign students’ records or tap into library
networks, those university chancellors and presidents in attendance
would best be advised to leave the room.
If the FBI truly wanted to patch up relations with universities,
it would do more than form a committee that meets three times a
year. Unequivocally assuring universities that it would not violate
the spirit and openness of the academic setting would be a good
start.