Agenda for the ECDET Meeting, April 26th,
at the Carnegie Endowment in
Washington, D.C.

**The meeting will be held from 2:00 - 6:00 in the upstairs Root Room of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1779 Mass. Ave., NW Washington, DC). It will be followed by a cash bar reception.

First Session

2 p.m.: Wayne Smith will chair the first session. This will consist principally of reports from task force members, with questions and comments at the end of each report. Phil Brenner will lead off with an account of his conversations with the State Department with respect to the possible "voluntary" removal of the new restrictions on academic travel (possibilities which appear to be dim if nonexistent).

Prof Cynthia McClintock, the head of the task force for legislative approaches, will then introduce Bob Muse, our lawyer, who will report on the bill which Senator Craig (R-Id) will just have introduced or will be on the verge of introducing - a bill to remove all the new restrictions on academic exchanges and educational travel. Bob will indicate what members can most usefully do to support this bill and see to it that it moves forward in the Senate, and that a companion bill is introduced in the House. One of the principal things will be to get college and university presidents to write senators and congressmen urging their support for this specific legislation. Involving university board members, many of whom have considerable influence, could also be useful.

Prof McClintock will then introduce Mavis Anderson, of LAWG, who will report on efforts to present amendments before both houses calling for the neutralization or lifting of travel controls across the board, not simply on educational travel. With Cuba Action Day in mind, Mavis will also give a few pointers on lobbying Congress.

Bob Muse will take the floor again to report on where we stand with litigation. As indicated in earlier reports, we are moving to take the federal government to court and demand that it remove the new restrictions on academic exchanges and educational travel. We hope that by the 26th, Johns Hopkins and American University will have signed on as our first plaintiffs. We will then be looking for other colleges and universities whose Cuba programs have been curtailed by the new regulations to sign on as additional plaintiffs. Bob Muse will explain the process and indicate what members can do to help - to bring their institutions aboard if appropriate and to support the litigation in other ways if not.

Wayne Smith will then report on where we stand with our membership drive and on plans for the future.

Second Session

Les McCabe will then take over as chair for the second session. Following on our last discussion in the first session, he wants to say a few words about how we might recruit new members through professional organizations, conferences, etc. and the usefulness of targeting professional conferences with presentations on the Cuba educational travel issue. Les will also discuss the need to have op-eds and articles published about interruptions in Cuba educational travel and will have some pointers on how best to do that.

The floor will then be open for comments and suggestions. Some members will doubtless wish to talk about and ask for advice as to how to best to make their presence felt on Cuban Action Day, especially as to how best to lobby their congressional representatives. Also, for those members who have ideas as to how ECDET might be better organized and directed or as to new initiatives it should be undertaking, now will be your chance to have your say without fear of interruption.

Without fear of interruption, that is, until 6 p.m. when the cash bar will open and a more convivial atmosphere will immediately pervade the meeting hall. Networking and just plain getting to know one another is an important element of this meeting which we hope will be enhanced during the cocktail hour.

ECDET seeks to end the academic travel restrictions to Cuba. The coalition works to fight against the violations of academic freedoms. Search WWW