By KAREN BRANCH-BRIOSO
The Tampa Tribune
Published: Aug 2, 2007
TAMPA - A dozen Saint Leo University faculty members will leave for a
10-day research trip to Cuba next week.
Last year in Florida, that would have been an unremarkable statement.
But as of July 2006, state lawmakers banned Florida's public
universities from spending money on travel to any nation labeled by the
State Department as a state sponsor of terrorism, Cuba included. They
also banned private universities - such as Saint Leo, a Catholic
university in Pasco County - from using state money for such trips.
That makes Saint Leo's trip most remarkable now, among Florida universities.
"I'm really jealous that they're going," said Noel Smith, curator of
Latin American and Caribbean art at the University of South Florida's
Graphicstudio. She is organizing a fall sculpture exhibition with a
Cuban curator via e-mail since she can't travel to Cuba.
One of several co-plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging the ban
that is set for trial in December, Smith applauds Saint Leo's trip:
"They're very lucky that they're able to do this - and very smart."
Saint Leo spokeswoman Susan Shoulet said the professors are tapping
privately funded faculty development money for the trip: "They were very
careful that they had taken a look at all the regulations, to the letter
of the law."
The group, including university President Arthur F. Kirk Jr., will
arrive in Havana on Aug. 11 for nine days of meetings with a broad range
of Cuban officials and professors. They will also meet with Catholic
Church officials and Mariela Castro Espín, daughter of acting President
Raúl Castro and the director of Cuba's National Center for Sexual Education.
"That one is for health care administration," Shoulet said. "If you look
at GNP for Cuba, it's very low. But if you look at U.N. quality of life
for health care, Cuba is rated well in the global marketplace. So she
has firsthand knowledge of that."
The group will meet with chief Havana historian Eusebio Leal. And it
will delve into some personal history of Saint Leo's historical ties
with Cuba and those of Assistant Professor Jose Coll, who teaches social
work at Saint Leo.
The group will visit Coll's hometown of Bejucal. He first traveled there
after 25 years of exile two years ago on another research trip and
decided after his return to try to organize a larger visit for Saint Leo
professors.
The professors will return and make presentations on their whirlwind trip.
Law 'Very Destructive'
For other researchers, the state ban on most academic travel to Cuba
this past year has had far-reaching effects on long-term research
projects, according to Tom Auxter, president of the United Faculty of
Florida. The group represents higher-education faculty across the state
and surveyed members affected by the year-old law. He knows four dozen
researchers whose work was affected.
"It's very destructive," Auxter said. "And how in the world we're
protecting ourselves from terrorists, it's impossible to imagine.
Anything that makes you dumber does not protect you from anybody."
The law, sponsored by Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, and Sen. Mike
Haridopolos, R-Indialantic, never mentions Cuba. Instead, its ban
targets travel to nations "designated by the United States Department of
State as a state sponsor of terrorism." Today, there are five on that
list: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.
Rivera said he was inspired to file the bill after two Florida
International University professors were arrested early last year on
charges that they acted as illegal foreign agents for the Cuban
government. The couple pleaded guilty to lesser charges in December.
"I don't think Florida taxpayers want their money used to subsidize
terrorist regimes," said Rivera, whose bill also bans "non-state funds
made available to state universities" for such travel.
Just before the bill passed last year, Erik Camayd, an FIU associate
professor of Spanish, had won a privately funded grant through FIU's
Cuban Research Institute to travel to Cuba. For a decade, he worked on a
research project about Cuba's Presidio Modelo that has housed political
prisoners throughout its history from 1926 to 1967.
He has researched political prisoners held there since the rule of Cuban
President Gerardo Machado, who ordered its construction. He studied
Fidel Castro's imprisonment there from 1953 to 1955. He interviewed
former political prisoners in exile.
And he had successfully secured a sabbatical semester last fall to make
the trip to visit the prison, now a museum, to interview aging former
prison employees.
"I was ready. Now my research is at a standstill," said Camayd, who was
counting on the book project to aid a hoped-for promotion to full
professor next year. "Without this major project, I'm reduced to doing
short projects, talks and articles. And forget about the book project. I
don't see with this ban how I'm going to be able to do it."
Rivera said such projects should not be limited by the law he sponsored
if a private foundation is willing to fund them directly.
"Foundations don't usually give money to the professor. They like to
have it funded through the university," Rivera said.
'Should Be Ashamed'
As for Saint Leo's trip, Rivera is succinct: "Given the level of
persecution against the Catholic Church in Cuba, Saint Leo should be
ashamed of itself for traveling to Cuba."
Shoulet said the timing of the trip, a year after Fidel Castro handed
power to his brother Raúl, will offer the professors a
"once-in-a-lifetime" learning experience.
"It's obvious that Cuba is in transition right now" Shoulet said. "In
the next few years, it's going to change entirely. And that, for
faculty, who are curious people, makes it a fascinating study."
Reporter Karen Branch-Brioso can be reached at (813) 259-7815 or
kbranch-brioso@tampatrib
No comments:
Post a Comment