A Question of Judgment: The Rights of an American Scholar Abroad

Abstract

an American professor abroad who has been a Fulbright scholar be free to criticize publicly the administration's policies? Not according to senior government officials responsible for administering the Fulbright program, who severely reprimanded Professor Carol B. Thompson for participating in a demonstration outside the American embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, protesting the April 14 American air raid against Libya. Professor Thompson received a Fulbright award to do research at the University of Zimbabwe for the period December 1984 to August 1985. While at the university, Professor Thompson obtained an extension of the award to February 1986, as well as of her temporary work visa until May 1986. Professor Thompson is a member of the Department of Political Science at the University of Southern California. A specialist in comparative politics, she holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Georgetown University, and Michigan State University. Her publications include numerous studies on southern Africa, among them the book Challenge to Imperialism: The Frontline States in the Liberation of Zimbabwe (1985). The demonstration took place on April 25. A month lateron May 28Mr. Mark Blitz, associate director for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Information Agency (USIA), and Mr. James B. Meriwether, chair of the Board of Foreign Scholarships, wrote to Professor Thompson about her role in the demonstration on April 25. Funds for the Fulbright program are channeled through USIA, and the Board of Foreign Scholarships is the governing body for the program. The letter began, We were shocked to learn of your active participation in the April 25, 1986, demonstration directed against the U.S. Embassy in Harare. It went on to say: