The Center for Middle Eastern Studies held a discussion Monday night called "Iraq: Perspectives and Responses" that failed to be the objective forum the innocuously educational title suggested.

The center organized a panel of experts from various fields to provide meaningful dialogue on the possible impending war between the United States and Iraq. However, the event, attended by 500 people, turned out to be strongly politically slanted ÷ a crucial point that the center should have clearly advertised in advance.

Anne Bennett, assistant director of the Middle East center, pointed out that she did not feel it was the responsibility of the department to seek out specific political viewpoints for the forum. "Our whole point was to present information," Bennett said, remarking that panelists were picked as experts in their respective fields, rather than as proponents of particular ideologies.

Yet the panel's presentation was almost exclusively one-sided, with an anti-war sentiment as its central focus.

Whether it is appropriate for academic departments at a public university to openly take a political stand is debatable. But the fact is that the advertisements for the event ÷ which emphasized the center as its organizer ÷ implied that both sides of the issue would be addressed in a fair and balanced manner. Unfortunately, "Iraq: Perspectives and Responses" was not nearly as objective as it should have been.

It is appropriate that the center organized an event to discuss national and international issues, during this time when war and national security are of extreme interest to Americans ÷ college students included.

But it is not appropriate for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, or any department organizing such an event, to fail to fairly represent both sides of a discussion.

In the future, if an academic department does decide to hold a public forum in which the speakers intend to disproportionately back a single political view, it should label the event accordingly.