In the wake of intense criticism over how the University manages Middle East dialogue on campus, Provost Marty Krauss established a faculty committee to advise the community on potentially controversial exhibits and events.Meanwhile, Student Union President Alison Schwartzbaum '08 is forming another committee, one that she said will include students, staff and faculty and will focus on providing a contextual framework for discussion on the Middle East.

The Provost's committee will meet this week, Prof. Paul Jankowski (HIST), committee chair, said.

It remains unclear how they will operate, though it seems they will have little, if any, concrete power to set stipulations for events. Their formation comes after the high-profile visits of former President Jimmy Carter and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz last month and the removal of Palestinian artwork last spring, events that garnered national attention. And with students currently trying to bring more controversial speakers to campus-such as Norman Finklestein and Daniel Pipes-the committees may find issues to tackle very soon.

Krauss, who announced the formation of the Advisory Committee on Campus Events in a campuswide e-mail Wednesday, said those hoping to host a potentially controversial event would not be required to present their plans to the committee.

"We are only there for people who want to use it," Krauss said.

The committee, which currently includes no students, will primarily advise her, Krauss said.

She did not directly say why no students were on the committee, but said that student membership was still a possibility. Formation of the committee was recommended in the fall by a faculty panel that harshly criticized the University's removal of the Palestinian artwork as suppressing free expression.

Jankowski said the committee will try to address free- speech controversies in campus events and exhibits when they arise.

"In a way this is a committee for grievances, but it is also consultative," he said. "It's there to help."

Jankowski said he is uncertain of what steps the committee would take to resolve a potential dispute. He said the committee may work to add context to potential events, facilitate expression of opposing views or do nothing at all.

The Union's committee, which Schwartzbaum is calling "The Campaign for Peace," is in even more preliminary stages. Not all of its members have been determined, Schwartzbaum said, though one definite member is Shai Feldman, the director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies. The committee would advise students regarding how to hold events that further dialogue without fracturing the community, she said.

"Controversy opens up space for dialogue," Schwartzbaum said. She also expressed anger that no students were on the Provost's committee, and said she would campaign for at least one student to join the panel.

Some students who have been trying to bring certain speakers to campus have expressed concerns about the Union's committee. Kevin Conway '09, a member of the Radical Student Alliance, has been working to bring to campus Norman Finkelstein, a left-wing professor of political theory at DePaul University who has written controversial books on the Middle East and the Holocaust.

"It is an outrage to free speech," Conway wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "Ms. Schwartzbaum and the rest of the gang have quite some nerve in thinking that they have the authority to act as the vanguard of the student population and determine, on its behalf" who may speak.

Schwartzbaum insisted that the committee would not act as a censor.

Another student has been working to bring the neoconservative Middle East analyst Daniel Pipes to campus for a panel discussion on Islam in Europe. The student, Jacob Olidort '07, said his efforts to bring Pipes to campus have been seen as another response to the Carter and Dershowitz events, and he added that he has not yet received a clear answer from the University on whether the visit will be allowed.

"I took [Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer's] invitation to discuss this, but he never responded," Olidort wrote in an e-mail.

Pipes has spoken on-campus a couple of times before.

Meanwhile, Conway, in his efforts to bring Finkelstein to campus, said he has been twice deferred to Schwartzbaum's committee, even though it has not been entirely formed.

Sawyer said the request to bring Pipes to campus is sitting on his desk, and he is waiting for the Union committee to discuss the event before signing off on it.

He said that events and speakers on campus should occur in a framework that would provide a more organized discussion.

"The right of free speech is not absolute, but there should be very good grounds for infringing this practice," he said.