Staff Editorial: A tale of two centers

Since the Sept. 11 attacks last year, one name on this campus has become synonymous with terrorism : Political Science Professor Stephen Gale.

For years, Gale has taught Political Science 156, Terrorism, though usually to much smaller crowds than he finds himself faced with this year. He is a frequent national commentator on the issue, whether it be through the mass media or a Congressional hearing.

Few people have his knowledge and experience on a subject that was, until just over a year ago, more or less an abstract concept for most Americans, and certainly not a pressing issue.

So it seems strange to say the least that Gale would be unaffiliated with the University's new Institute for Strategic Threat Analysis and Response, which seeks to develop responses to a wide variety of disasters, including terrorism.

Stranger still -- and downright counterproductive -- is that Gale will lead the new Center for Research on Terrorism and Counterterrorism, part of an independent Philadelphia thinktank.

Gale is annoyed that the University refused Congressman Bob Brady's offer to fund a terrorism research institute at Penn and believes that ISTAR's scope is too broad to have any meaningful impact. Penn counters that the offer to fund the center, which came prior to the founding of ISTAR, did not follow protocol and that it invited Professor Gale to be a part of ISTAR, an offer he declined.

Whatever the causes of the split or lingering feeling there might be, it does the University no good to have such an eminent faculty member as Gale doing his important work for someone else. It would seem that the sensible thing to do would be to reach some kind of rapprochement with Gale, if such a thing is possible this late in the game.

It would be a terrible lost opportunity to have an eminent leader in the field on campus but not on board with ISTAR.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.