Wake-up call for Georgetown

The head of the London School of Economics recently resigned because the university had accepted a large donation from a charity run by one of Colonel Gaddafi's sons, among other ties to the nutty and ruthless dictator.  It's no secret that many of the top U.S. universities have substantial ties to equally repressive Middle East regimes. 

Indeed, there are endowed chairs in the names of kings and princes at a number of well known universities, and there are a few Middle East studies departments that would be mere shadows of themselves if not for the largesse or, perhaps more accurately put, the purchase, by Middle Eastern tyrants.  Despite the pronouncements of academic independence and integrity, some might reasonably conclude that these relationships account for the huge focus by many Middle East departments on the alleged oppression of the Palestinians by Israel while truly repressive regimes have by-and-large been given a pass.

 Item for the dean's suggestion box:  start cutting the ties and sending the dollars back before the embarrassing brutality makes it to CNN.