Controversial faculty reassignments and resignations in March have left the Middle East Center at the University of Utah in turmoil. The problems come only a year before the university must reapply for the grant from the U.S. Department of Education that supports the center, which is among the oldest such academic units in the country. The controversy underscores the larger pressures--financial, structural, and political--that affect many area-studies centers supported under Title VI of the Higher Education Act. Those centers must reconcile increasing government mandates and scrutiny with the universities' larger interests and politics. Amid the tumult, however, Michael K. Young, president of the University of Utah, is confident that the university will have its grant renewed.