Josh AyersSaudi Arabia’s push for engineering and technological advancement has caused many American universities to get involved in the country’s development of higher education.
Cal Poly’s College of Engineering has proposed forming a partnership with Jubail University College to help it develop engineering curricula, recruit faculty and form relationships with local industry.
There may eventually be a faculty exchange between the two schools if the deal goes through, though there are no plans for student exchange.
Many argue that the program will be discriminatory toward certain faculty, especially women, homosexuals or Jews.
International Education and Programs director John Battenberg offered some insight into the controversy surrounding the proposal.
“If one is overtly Christian and wants to evangelize, you’re going to have a problem,” Battenberg said. “And that’s if you come from the U.S. or Western Europe or anywhere else. If one is Jewish-American or Christian-American and one is discreet, one should be fine. It’s the same with homosexuality. There are gays in Saudi Arabia; my sense is that they don’t broadcast it.”
Segregation of the sexes is common in many sectors of society, including higher education. JUC is a co-ed institution, but since JUC’s engineering program only has male students, it’s safe to assume that no female faculty would be allowed to teach, Battenberg said. He has taught female students in Saudi Arabia as a former U.S. State Department Language Specialist but had to do it through a closed-circuit TV, in which they could see him but he could not see them.
However, he thinks it’s less likely that a female professor would be allowed to do the same with male students.
“If we start coming up with a litmus test about what countries need to do in order for us to have an involvement with them, there are going to be very few countries on the list,” he said. “It’s hypocritical because many countries have serious reservations about American foreign policy. By extension, should they not send their faculty or students here?”
Though there have been attempts to block the Cal Poly program, many other U.S. universities have already signed on to help Saudi Arabian universities develop their programs. UC Berkeley and Stanford have both signed nearly $30 million deals with the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), while Cal Poly would receive $5.9 million for its partnership with JUC.
However, KAUST has a $10 billion start-up budget and is expected to have 20,000 students, while JUC has only 435 students. The deals are similar, with American universities assisting in the development of the Saudi schools’ engineering programs. Both Berkeley and Stanford’s deals are centered with the mechanical engineering department, while Cal Poly’s mechanical engineering department initially opposed the bill by a 15-1 vote.
As to the issue of the country’s different culture, Battenberg stressed that a university-to-university relationship does not mean one is endorsing a country’s policies, but is merely attempting to better understand the region and culture.
“It’s an area that dominates our headlines, television, radio and newspapers but (most people) have very little knowledge of it,” he said.
He doesn’t agree with Saudi practices, but supports Cal Poly’s proposal to develop a partnership there.
“I think Saudi Arabia is a country in transition. In the years that I’ve been going there, it’s become more liberalized and I’d like to see that continued.”