SCHOLARS SUE GOVERNMENT OVER ACCESS TO CUBA

Academe, Sep/Oct 2006 by Bradley, Gwendolyn

A coalition of scholars filed suit against the U.S. Treasury Department in June, arguing that their academic freedom has been restricted by new rules governing travel to Cuba. The rules, implemented in 2004 by the Bush administration, are more restrictive than those previously in effect. They require that employees of academic institutions who travel to Cuba to teach or oversee U.S. educational programs there must be "full-time permanent employees"; that students can participate only in those Cuba programs sponsored by the institutions at which they are enrolled in a degree program; and that educational courses in Cuba cannot be less than ten weeks in duration. The new rules therefore prohibit shorter Cuba programs that used to be common, bar part-time professors from teaching in Cuba programs, and make it impossible for students at one college to enroll in another school's program, even if it meets the credit-transfer requirements of the home institution. The suit names as plaintiffs two faculty members, including one adjunct professor, and two students; another plaintiff is the Emergency Coalition to Defend Educational Travel, a group of about 450 academics.

-G.B.