Support Poly professors first

Happy National Engineers Week! This National Engineers Week, I hope that engineers here at Cal Poly take time to reflect upon what it truly means to be an engineer. As an engineer in a global community, we are often tasked with tackling small and large problems across the world, ultimately in the hopes of making this world a better place.

Cal Poly has a world-renowned reputation as one of the best engineering schools. As such, other schools and institutions have often consulted Cal Poly for our expertise. One such school is Jubail University College in Saudi Arabia. In September, a proposal was authored by several officials in the College of Engineering, including Dean Mohammad Noori himself. On the surface, this deal seems like a simple exchange program for professors, but when you look deeper, it seems to really jeopardize the honesty and integrity of our institution in the name of money.

At first, Frank Owen, a mechanical engineering professor, supported the deal because he thought it would help students learn about other cultures, and provide a worldly experience. However, he changed his mind; being in a department with female and Jewish professors, he felt that it would be insulting to them because they would be denied from this program based on their religion and sex.

Let’s face it, Saudi Arabia isn’t the most tolerant place in the world, and Jubail University explicitly excludes women from its engineering department. To Owen, the deal was “morally and ethically weak.” After consulting other professors from different universities, he also felt the deal violated agreements made with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prevents Cal Poly from entering into a contract that discriminates on sexual preference, religion or sex. Instead, he thinks “Cal Poly must be aggressive in the support of rights of women.”

Because of the restrictions on who would be entitled to attend, the mechanical engineering department voted nearly unanimously against the program.

However, every argument has two sides. Gregg Fiegel, the chair of the civil and environmental engineering department and author of the proposal, believes this deal will help both Saudi Arabia and the University of Jubail. He sees nothing discriminatory in the deal and sees it as an opportunity to “help build an engineering program from the ground up.” While Fiegel says he would consider a qualified female, Jewish or gay applicant, he admits that there would be concerns for the safety of such a candidate in Saudi Arabia, and he would be unwilling to send a faculty member into a dangerous environment. Though he cannot speak as to whether the Saudis would be likely to accept such a person, he said when working in a culture such as Saudi Arabia, it’s important to adhere to their laws and customs.

With this in mind, it’s easy to make the legitimate argument that it is a necessary evil or setback to exclude these groups of professors from participating in the program in the interest of promoting an interaction between Jubail University and Cal Poly and, on a larger scale, between the United States and Saudi Arabia. However, this fact should be freely admitted and honestly discussed among the faculty and students.

As it stands, this deal does not really promote an exchange, since the Saudi Arabians are not interested in sending students to Cal Poly or having Cal Poly students go to Saudi Arabia. If this were truly about an exchange of ideas and culture, then students should be involved. If Cal Poly truly wants to be an agent of change, it should demand that Jubail University accept whatever professors we send regardless of their religion, gender or sexual preference. If we at Cal Poly truly support the rights of women, then we cannot ignore Saudi Arabia’s atrocious human rights record just for the sake of helping another university.

So really, why would Cal Poly fail to make these demands and why do certain administrators really care so much about helping? Well, in the initial proposal, it seems that the university stands to make several million dollars if this deal is accepted. Of course, all it costs is some integrity. This wasn’t lost on professors in the mechanical engineering department. In the words of Owen, the reason that Cal Poly is pursuing the program is simply because “.the university smells money.”

I hope that as students celebrating National Engineering Week, we continue to inform ourselves of these issues and make our voices heard to the administration concerning issues such as these. As future engineers, we have a responsibility to our community and our world. While we may disagree on certain issues, it’s important that we have an open and honest debate.

Brian Eller is a materials engineering senior and a Mustang Daily conservative columnist.