The administration of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has recently forgotten who it works for, setting an example I hope will not be followed by any other academic institutions.
The problem began innocuously enough. Cal Poly, renowned for its technical departments, recently announced it was negotiating a contract to introduce an engineering program at Saudi Arabia’s Jubail University College.
In return for creating the curriculum, hiring faculty and overseeing the administration of the new department, Cal Poly would receive $5.9 million, according to a report by NPR.org.
So in exchange for worldwide prestige, Cal Poly would receive millions. The catch? Only male faculty will be allowed to teach in the new engineering department at Jubail University College, and only male students will be allowed to attend.
Objections have been raised with this fact from both professors and students, who understandably do not wish to see their campus, which has received numerous awards for the number of women involved in its science departments, participating in the oppression of women overseas.
The mechanical engineering faculty, the individuals who would be in charge of fulfilling Cal Poly’s end of the contract, voted 15 to 3 against it.
Add to this student protests, complete with the displeasure of the president of the 300-strong Society of Women Engineers, and it looked as if Cal Poly had a potential public relations disaster on its hands.
So the administration stuck its collective head in the profitable Saudi Arabian sand and refused to address public concern.
Brian Eller, a fourth-year materials engineering student at Cal Poly and a columnist for its student newspaper, the Mustang Daily, told me over the phone that the university has done a “pretty poor job” of responding to students.
Eller noted that during an academic senate meeting, students weren’t allowed to ask questions, and the university refuses to release the terms of the contract to the public.
William Durgin, Cal Poly’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, offered the following defense to NPR.org: “I am hoping we can influence Saudi Arabia. One has to start somewhere.”
There are two glaring problems with his statement.
First, the idea that Durgin is going to liberate the women of Saudi Arabia by teaching their men engineering is breathtakingly ridiculous.
Second, Saudi Arabia will be paying Cal Poly to provide its services ““ establishing an engineering department under Saudi Arabia’s terms ““ in male-only classrooms. Durgin needs to seriously consider who will be exerting the most influence in that relationship.
And discrimination isn’t just limited to women in Saudi Arabia but warmly includes the female faculty at Cal Poly.
According to insidehighered.com, an online journal that follows academic news, there will be positions, such as on-site director, to fill at the new department in Saudi Arabia and proposed salaries of $180,000 to collect in exchange.
Imagine the life of a female on-site director at Jubail University College. She wouldn’t be allowed to interact with any of the students, faculty or even enter the classrooms while instruction was occurring.
Oh wait, that sounds like she wouldn’t be able to do her job. I guess those choice positions will have to go to male faculty instead.
Audio from the academic senate is available on the Mustang Daily’s Web site. The faculty seems to attempt to reframe the debate as a false choice between isolationism and cultural exchanges ““ simplistically implying that those who oppose the contract oppose cross-cultural learning.
While clever, the argument both demeans the intelligence of Cal Poly’s faculty and students and serves as a distraction from the fact that spreading knowledge doesn’t necessarily require discriminating against women.
While choosing to do business with a country that bans women from driving and criminalizes homosexuality is bound to be somewhat controversial, other universities have managed to participate in academic institutions in Saudi Arabia without compromising their ethics.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Stanford and UC Berkeley will each receive nearly $30 million for helping establish King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, which accepts both men and women of all religions.
Cal Poly’s administration must immediately stop treating concerned students and faculty with such impatience and disrespect. It is time for them to adequately, fully and maturely address all of the legitimate concerns being voiced.
After all, Cal Poly exists to serve its students, not the king of Saudi Arabia, and that purpose is far more important than a few million dollars.
Unlike Cal Poly, Strickland is unwilling to sell out, so don’t bother sending bribes to kstrickland@media.ucla.edu.