November 2, 2007--Fanaticism XCV: King Abdullah U

Tom Friedman is right about at least one thing--countries such as Saudi Arabia need to figure out how to leap into the 21st Century and thereby make possible a better life for the vast majority of their citizens. This means building an economy that is not just dependent on oil. And to accomplish that they need to provide a real education to young people, most of whom are unemployed.But will King Abdullah University now being built for $12.5 billion on an isolated patch of desert get the job done?

I suspect that isolating the campus, if one can call it that, is totally intentional because if you think places such as Columbia and Yale and Harvard have Town-Gown problems, King A U has a Wahabi-Gown problem that makes loud weekend frat parties seem like child’s play—which of course is what they are.

In Saudi Arabia, since the new U will have male and female students, part of the plan calls for the institution to be walled off and declared off limits to the county’s notorious Religious Police. The last thing the Dean of Students will want is to have those storm troopers invading the place on Saturday nights and stoning coeds to death. And just for going to class with the guys.

The King has taken other precautions—knowing all to well the nature of his own Ministry of Education, which requires male and female students to enter classrooms by separate doors and sit with a curtain between them, he has not allowed them to be involved and therefore hired the oil company Saudi Aramco to build the campus; and, according to the New York Times, determine the curriculum; and, here’s the rub, attract foreign faculty members. (Article linked below.) With Aramco at the center of things I assume that after he leaves the White House one westerner, Dick Chaney, can go over there as Prexy or to teach Drivers Ed to the female students.

Nonetheless at KAUST (the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) women will be required to wear birkas and will be required to meet with male faculty advisors only in “free zones” such as the library. And even faculty who they manage to lure from the west (I assume with big wads of Petrodollars) will not be allow to teach modern genetics or evolution in graduate biology courses.

I should restrain myself from making too much fun of this ambitious project. If we’re ever to have a more peaceful world, efforts of this kind must succeed. But, I can’t help but think about what might be an appropriate alma mater for them (what rhymes with KAUST?) or a cheer for their beach volleyball team. Enough. I promise.