Controversial Middle East pundits Daniel Pipes and Norman Finkelstein will likely speak on campus in April, Director of Student Activities Stephanie Grimes said.The students who invited the two to campus were told by Student Life administrators and Student Union President Alison Schwartzbaum '08 last month that they had to meet with the Union's new "Campaign for Peace" committee to discuss the details of their events before approval. Pipes is tentatively scheduled to speak April 23 at the International Business School's Wasserman Cinematheque, Grimes said. But a date for Finkelstein has not been set, she said.

Schwartzbaum formed the committee soon after former President Jimmy Carter spoke last January in the Shapiro Gymnasium, to deal with what she and others called the unproductive way in which Middle East speakers come to campus.

"What often happens is someone comes, speaks, leaves, and that's it," Schwartzbaum said. "And that shouldn't be it."

It was unclear to Kevin Conway '07, a member of the Radical Student Alliance who invited Finkelstein, and Jacob Olidort '07, who invited Pipes, before they met with the committee last month whether it would have veto power over the invites.

Schwartzbaum and Grimes both said the committee does not, but Olidort isn't convinced.

"It still seems like the committee is serving its purpose of keeping our events in check rather than keeping the campus educated," he said.

The committee requested that both events leave time for discussion, Olidort and Conway said. But Olidort said their request was redundent because he already planned on a 40 -minute open question-and-answer session to follow Pipes' 20-minute speech.

Conway said Finklestein event will give a lecture followed by a question-and-answer session. He added that he wanted Finkelstein to come because he was a "serious scholar" representing "an alternative perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that's missing here [at Brandeis]."

Pipes will speak on the topic of "The Islamization of Europe," Olidort said.

Schwartzbaum said the goal of the committee is to provide a contextual dialogue to Middle East-related events. She denied that the committee meeting is mandatory for groups to move forward before they can go ahead with their events.

The committee doesn't exist to "infringe on students' autonomy," but rather, will help facilitate constructive dialogue on campus, she said.

Still, Conway said, "It's not really clear why the committee is necessary."

Olidort said his meeting with the committee was "very different" from a telephone conversation he had beforehand with Schwartzbaum, in which she mentioned a "screening process" of speakers, he said.

Grimes said that although the committee won't veto speakers, she has the power to reject a student's request for an event in general. The Rights and Responsibilities Handbook states, "The University requires reasonable advance notice for the use of facilities and reserves the right to determine the time, place and manner for any event."

Grimes said she and other administrators denied an earlier request by Conway for Finkelstein to speak on the same day as Carter and Harvard law Professor Alan Dershowitz because there was no available space and not enough time to arrange for proper security.

"We're not saying 'no' [to an event,] but what we're saying is that you need to look at a different time, space or location," Grimes said. When asked if this meant the University could absolutely prevent an event from happening, she said she "wouldn't interpret it that way, but there may be some administrators that would."

Conway didn't want to confirm that the Finkelstein event would definitely happen, citing "unexpected obstacles [that] have just come up," such as, "room changes, unexpected events and mysterious committees."

Grimes said Finkelstein's visit will be funded by the Union's Finance Board and its organizers, the Radical Student Association and the Arab Culture Club. Olidort said he expects funds from the F-board and, possibly, the Crown Center for Middle East Studies.