Job Discussion Forums

[johnslat]

Stanford University and UC Berkeley will each get nearly $30 million for helping set up the curriculum and hire faculty for a new graduate university in Saudi Arabia, it was announced Tuesday.
The money, spread over five years, will go to Cal's well-regarded mechanical engineering department and to the equally respected Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering and computer science department at Stanford.
The two Bay Area colleges are among five universities that have entered into agreements to help the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology hire 60 faculty members and create graduate-level programs in six disciplines for its planned opening in fall 2009.
The names of the other universities are expected to be announced later this week, said Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, interim provost of King Abdullah University.
Cal and Stanford each will receive $10 million earmarked for the participating departments, $10 million for joint research conducted here and $5 million for collaborative research conducted at the King Abdullah University.
In addition, UC Berkeley will receive $3.3 million to cover administrative costs associated with the work done for the new university and Stanford will receive $4.4 million. The universities can also be reimbursed for other costs, such as travel.
Peter Glynn, director of Stanford's Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering and a professor of engineering, said the participating Stanford departments are already well funded and are more interested in having a role in creating a new university.
"Frankly, the thing that got Stanford faculty interested hasn't really been the funding," he said. "It was more the potential to help create a world-class university. We get to basically initialize this university with a faculty that will share Stanford's values."
The contract with Stanford was not released, but the agreement with the public UC Berkeley laid out in detail what is expected of the mechanical engineering department.
Three senior faculty members of the department and the head of the department or a designated representative have to sit on a search committee that is responsible for conducting a faculty search and interviewing, evaluating and recommending candidates to King Abdullah University officials. They must nominate five faculty members this year and another five by Sept. 1, 2009.
If they are not able to hire 10 faculty members through that process, King Abdullah University can invite UC Berkeley professors, lecturers and postdoctoral researchers to be visiting instructors in Saudi Arabia, and will establish audio and video classes with UC Berkeley.
Among other things, Cal must host visiting faculty members from King Abdullah University at least until the new university opens. Three to six mechanical engineering faculty members from Cal are also expected to visit the new university for one week each semester to teach and review research programs.
Glynn said that there are very similar expectations at Stanford. Like UC Berkeley, the main role of Stanford will be to select faculty and develop curriculum.
There was some concern about the discriminatory practices of Saudi culture and politics, but representatives at both UC Berkeley and Stanford said that they believe the benefits of opening the university outweigh the negatives. In addition, the UC Berkeley agreement, at least, includes a provision that the university cannot discriminate.
King Abdullah University, which is being built on the Red Sea at Thuwal, about 50 miles north of Saudi Arabia's second-largest city, Jidda, will accept students of both sexes and will not discriminate on the basis of religion, Al-Khowaiter said.
But, he added, employees and students will have to abide by the restrictions of Saudi law when they are off campus.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/05/BAHBVDFQ7.DTL

[Cleopatra]

[johnslat]

Dear Cleopatra,
Well I imagine most of the faculty aren't ESL/ESL teachers, so maybe they're really not all that interested in the cash.
Tee-hee.

[Cleopatra]

I was also intrigued by this line:

[johnslat]

And this one intrigued me, too:

"In addition, the UC Berkeley agreement, at least, includes a provision that the university cannot discriminate.
King Abdullah University, which is being built on the Red Sea at Thuwal, about 50 miles north of Saudi Arabia's second-largest city, Jidda, will accept students of both sexes and will not discriminate on the basis of religion, Al-Khowaiter said."

So, does that mean Jewish faculty members/students will be welcomed?

[Cleopatra]

The Saudis claim that they do not discriminate against Jews, they simply bar entry to Israeli citizens. While I'm not sure that is true, I do think there are groups of people far more likely to suffer discrimination in KSA, and in far greater numbers, than Jews are. But I, of course, am aware of contrived US "sensitivities".

[veiledsentiments]

I suspect it is more about protecting the uni from law suits in the US concerning the hiring of women. And the religion thing is thrown in as a bone to the Christians who get all bent out of shape because there are no churches allowed. (err... so don't go there if that is an issue for you)

I wonder if they plan to try to have integrated classrooms like in the rest of the Gulf. Or women teaching men or vice versa....

VS

[Cleopatra]

Any of the reports I've read so far have been rather vague about the issue of gender mixing - or lack thereof. I would say that even in an 'ultra liberal' place like this, the idea of having male and female students mixing casually in a classroom is still several years - maybe even decades - down the road. My guess is that the most they would dare would be for male and female students to be in a lecture hall with separate entrances and a pretty substantial barrier between them. Of course this is trendy Jeddah, but even that might be going too far, at least if most of the students are Saudi.

[johnslat]

Dear Cleopatra,

"While I'm not sure that is true, I do think there are groups of people far more likely to suffer discrimination in KSA, and in far greater numbers, than Jews are."

How many Jewish people (who are openly Jewish - for, to suffer discrimination, you would have to be known to be Jewish) do you think there are in Saudi?

By the way, I believe I can identify with the universities - I had "some concern" myself about the "discriminatory practices", but yes, I confess, it was the money (and not the nightlife) that was the big draw. As an EFL teacher, I suspect I am not alone in this mercenary motivation.

[Stephen Jones]

I suspect there will be co-education. After all it's meant as an alternative to sending students to Western Universities.

There are of course plenty of Jewish teachers here in Saudi, but I suspect few put down Jewish as their religion (it was explicitly forbidden until only four or five years ago). Frankly, though, announcing you are Jewish in the present political situation, would be temorous in the extreme, if only for the endless tedious political discussions you would get into.

[johnslat]

Dear Stephen,
While I think I can make a pretty good guess from the context, would you mind defining "temorous" for me? I've never run across that word before, and a web dictionary search wasn't of any help.
I did come across this:

Temerarious - which had "rash" as a synonym.

Thanks,
John

[guangho]

While doing my M.Ed. a lad offered to set me up with a gig teaching army officers in Taif, if I remember the name of the city correctly. Now I am by no means super duper religious but how do you think they would take it if I strolled around downtown Taif wearing a kippah? [I don't wear one but would not want to be hounded if I did.]

For the record, I declined. I soon recieved numerous emails such as "I've been here six months and have not spoken to a woman yet." Which, for a 30 year old single male is a lot more difficult to come to terms with than the kippah thingie.

[lall]

[Cleopatra]

[johnslat]

Dear Cleopatra.

"How many Jewish people (who are openly Jewish - for, to suffer discrimination, you would have to be known to be Jewish) do you think there are in Saudi?"


"Very few if any . . . "

That would be my guess, as well - which is why I found it odd that you would use them as a basis for comparison:

"I do think there are groups of people far more likely to suffer discrimination in KSA, and in far greater numbers, than Jews are."

Regarding those other groups of people, whom did you have in mind?
Mu guesses (and they are only guesses) would be: women, Shia, manual-labor class ex-pats.

Dear lall, I think you're right; thanks for the clarification. I really wasn't trying to be "picky"; I was genuinely curious as to the word's meaning.