Can Culture Be Bought in the Gulf?

[qatarperegrine]

The talk of the campus today is the New York Sun's recent article Can Culture Be Bought in the Gulf?, which slams Education City as well as other plans to bring Western cultural institutions to the Gulf.

The final paragraph of the article reads:

A good example of what can happen when modernity is faked can be found in Qatar, where a pretentious emir, Hamad bin Khalifa, and one of his even more pretentious spouses, Sheikha Mozza, became enamored with the idea of creating a Harvard-like educational atmosphere in a land that is a desert of thought and culture and a center of Wahhabi Islamic fundamentalism. Their billion-dollar ventures with Weill Cornell Medical College, the Rand Corporation, Texas A&M University, and Carnegie Mellon University stand today as an embarrassment. Nowhere near enough qualified Qatari or Gulf Arab students have been found, nor have foreigners, even when offered full scholarships, joined what in effect are gated communities in a society living in the 18th century.

Needless to say, this article has not been well-received in Education City. One of our associate deans responded here; the dean of Georgetown responded here; and, as I write this, one of our students is sitting in the ARC writing her own response.

I'm somewhat perplexed. That's not even an accurate list of the Education City branch campuses (Rand isn't a university, and why didn't he lambaste VCU or Georgetown?), and what exactly does it mean to say "nowhere near enough qualified Qatari or Gulf Arab students have been found"? Nowhere near enough for what?

Then again, the article also says that Dubai and the UAE are rival cities, which is rather embarrassing. Dubai is in the UAE.

I think it's good to have some frank discussion of what these Western Universities are contributing to Qatar, not to mention some skepticism of the materialism rampant in this society. It seems a shame to have it discussed in such a needlessly condescending way, though.

Comments

[dubaiwalla.livejournal.com]

The New York Sun is the same paper that started up the fuss about Dubai buying ports in the US. And the tone of this article ("...Saudis, Kuwaitis, Qataris, Bahrainis, Emiratis, and other oil-rich Arabs have grown accustomed to buying anything. They have bagged whole foreign governments...") was about as annoying.

But I'd love to see your thoughts sometime on the standard of education there: To what extent are they really on par with top American universities? Are enough courses being offered for students to get to do whatever they want to? Are there enough events on campus and around town to keep people busy? Is academic freedom restricted in any way? What is the atmposphere like on campus? Do people of various backgrounds mix easily? Are there a lot of intellectual exchanges? What do students gain and lose by not actually going to America?

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Way to ask the tough questions! I feel squeamish about answering them for two reasons: first and foremost because as a lowly writing tutor I don't think I can accurately assess students' experience here, and secondarily because I don't (and shouldn't) speak for Carnegie Mellon. But I'll give it a stab, because I think these are important questions that ought to be answered with more than just PR jargon. :-) So here are my gut responses, which absolutely don't represent anyone's viewpoints but mine.

1. To what extent are they really on par with top American universities? Well, our students here in Qatar go through the same curriculum as students in Pittsburgh; they take the same core courses and similar electives and so on. On the other hand, it's silly to think that you can just pick up one system and drop it into another environment without making some adaptations. The nature and extent of those adaptations is an ongoing debate. :-)


2. Are enough courses being offered for students to get to do whatever they want to? Obviously a campus with 120 students can't offer anywhere near the range of electives that a campus of 6000 can offer, but we do as much as we can. This semester, for example, we're offering 34 classes, and our students are cross-registered in several other classes in other Education City campuses. I think the bigger barrier to students "getting to do whatever they want to" is that only a few majors are offered. If a CMU student here decides they don't want to study computer science or business after all, they have to transfer to another university to change majors.


3. Are there enough events on campus and around town to keep people busy? I think that varies from person to person. I feel pretty busy most of the time. :-) But I miss the activity of Pittsburgh; I miss plays and concerts and temporary museum exhibits.


4. Is academic freedom restricted in any way? I haven't experienced any restrictions, and to my knowledge the Qatar Foundation does not want to restrict academic freedom.


5. What is the atmposphere like on campus? It's an extremely close-knit community, which is pretty awesome. Sometimes our students go to Pittsburgh for a semester and come back complaining about the lack of community there.


6. Do people of various backgrounds mix easily? I'm not sure I'm close enough to the students to answer that question. My perception is that there's a significant gap between Arab and non-Arab (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi) students. Of course that would be the case on any college campus.


7. Are there a lot of intellectual exchanges? Hmm. What do you mean by "intellectual exchanges"?


8. What do students gain and lose by not actually going to America? That's a huge question, and I'm not sure I'm equipped to answer it. I think there are, in some ways, more opportunities in America: more majors to choose from, more electives to take, a wider range of people to meet. But they also gain a tremendous amount by being here, I think: a real sense of community with the other students, individual attention from instructors, the ability to do internships in the actual companies they'll be working for in the future, etc. And of course, studying in the States is not an option for many of our students, so having the branch campus here is an enormous gain for them. :-)

[dubaiwalla.livejournal.com]

Way to ask the tough questions!
Hey, if I wanted to ask softball questions, I'd send them in to the local press, or better yet, the government. There's nothing quite like getting an answer from people on the ground.

I didn't realize just how small CMU was. This helps explain why the list of students on the Dean's List was so small.

My perception is that there's a significant gap between Arab and non-Arab (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi) students. Of course that would be the case on any college campus.
There? Maybe. This certainly was the case in the UAE. As a foreign student in the US, however, I certainly don't feel like an outsider by virtue of my nationality; Americans are as happy to mix with me as with anyone else.

What do you mean by "intellectual exchanges"?
Bit of an open-ended question, that one. Visiting speakers who stimulate discussion, debates held on campus, people getting together for pizza every week while talking about the state of the world, anything, really.

I also forgot to ask you about the consequences for students of being in a newly established institution, one which would presumably have teething troubles, and be bereft of traditions.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

"There? Maybe. This certainly was the case in the UAE. As a foreign student in the US, however, I certainly don't feel like an outsider by virtue of my nationality; Americans are as happy to mix with me as with anyone else."

Yeah. But I shouldn't have expected this to occur seamlessly here.

"Visiting speakers who stimulate discussion, debates held on campus, people getting together for pizza every week while talking about the state of the world, anything, really."

We try to bring in visiting speakers; we haven't had many, so far, but our students can take advantage of the other universities'. And that includes people like Madeleine Albright and Bill Clinton, so no complaints there. I'm not sure the students are as equipped to handle controversy as I'd hope, but the speakers are there.

Same thing with debates -- the Doha Debates go on here, and our students get to participate. Tomorrow I'm going to one on whether veiling is an obstacle to integration.

Talking about the state of the world -- I haven't seen a great deal of that. But it would happen in Arabic, so who knows.

"I also forgot to ask you about the consequences for students of being in a newly established institution, one which would presumably have teething troubles, and be bereft of traditions."

It means they get to create the traditions; they like that part. :-)