The College Fix

Last week, His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi, received Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nick Zeppos at Emirates Palace.

Less than a month earlier, the crown prince’s brother, Sheikh Khalifa, had sent Emirati troops into the streets of Bahrain, where they opened fire on unarmed protesters who dared to question the absolute monarchy and lack of basic freedoms in that country.

So why was Zeppos hob-knobbing with His Highness in a place where such principles as human rights, political and intellectual freedoms, gay rights and workers’ protections simply do not exist?

It turns out Zeppos and Provost Richard McCarty have a plan to open a Vanderbilt campus in Abu Dhabi.

According to people with knowledge of the conversations, the move “is very far along in the process.” The proposed campus — which would serve primarily as an education school for Arab students — should concern all members of the Vanderbilt community. Vanderbilt has one of the world’s best schools of education and should be on the forefront of improving education around the globe; yet the United Arab Emirates seems like the wrong place to start.

Last week, the Emirati government ordered the arrest of three pro-democracy activists, who were then taken from their homes in the middle of the night. None have been heard from since. Yesterday, CNN reported that the government had arrested a fourth activist.

Human Rights Watch has severely criticized Abu Dhabi for its mistreatment of foreign laborers, a concern echoed by a member of the Vanderbilt delegation who visited last week.

In the United Arab Emirates, homosexuality is a serious offense, as spelled out in their penal code, and is punishable by death in many cases.

The country refuses visitors with Israeli stamps on their passports and denies the existence of the Jewish state, our nation’s closest ally in the region.

For us, this issue is personal. Like many Jews, both of us lost family members in the Holocaust. Questioning the reality and the severity of Nazi Germany’s brutal murder of 6,000,000 Jews is disgusting. Before Vanderbilt agrees to partner with the United Arab Emirates government and open an education school in Abu Dhabi, there are a lot of questions that need answering.

Why? Because in 2002, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a symposium sponsored by the state-financed Zayed Center challenged the existence of the Holocaust; speakers referred to Jews as “the enemies of all nations.” The speakers at the conference were noted anti-Semites, but they also paraded as academics. The center called the symposium an effort “to counter the historical and political fallacies propagated by Israel … Israel has indulged in spreading lies and exaggerations about the Holocaust in order to squeeze out huge sums of money from European countries through worst forms of blackmail …”

Professor Pearl Sims, a senior lecturer in Education at Peabody College who is involved with the project, spent a class period last week discussing the challenges that our “cultural differences” would pose for Vanderbilt faculty and students. Night classes, for instance, would be prohibited in order to comply with Abu Dhabi’s prohibition of women appearing in public after dusk without being accompanied by a male family member.

Vice Provost Tim McNamara, who has been working on the proposal, did make clear that unless professors and students had complete academic freedom, the university would be unable to go forward with the plans. He also suggested that we look at Yale University’s program with Singapore, where a separate institution is being set up, with Yale’s name and support; it will grant its own degrees. Yet Yale is headed to Singapore after its own failed attempt to do business in Abu Dhabi. Our concern is less the nature of the relationship; it’s about who’s on the other end of that relationship.

The University of Connecticut abandoned plans to open a campus in the United Arab Emirates after intense pressure from students, faculty and state legislators in part because the country’s legal restrictions on homosexual and Israeli students would have violated the university’s nondiscrimination policies.

“It’s appealing when a wealthy nation offers to create a campus and potentially cover all of its costs, but it’s always important to understand whom you are partnering with,” Andrew Fleischmann, the state legislator who led the fight against the plans, told the (Connecticut) Journal Inquirer. “I would be concerned about young people from Connecticut, or from anywhere else in the country, for that matter, heading off to (the United Arab Emirates) to get an education.”

And at Harvard University, officials returned a $2.5 million gift from the former Sheikh because of concerns about the royal family’s support of the Holocaust-denying Zayed Center.

Opening Vanderbilt-Abu Dhabi would hurt the perception that our university is a welcoming place for Jews, the LGBT community and anyone who cares about human rights and the dignity of all peoples.

Before Vanderbilt goes to Abu Dhabi, the administration should answer these questions: Why are we opening a campus in a country that does not recognize the existence of Israel? How does the United Arab Emirates’ record on gay rights and human rights relate to our mission? How would the school confront the country’s record on Holocaust denial?

It’s time for Vanderbilt to move swiftly to be open and honest with students, faculty, alumni and donors about this controversial plan.

Theodore Samets is the opinion editor of the Vanderbilt Hustler; David Pasch is a Vanderbilt senior. They are contributors to the Student Free Press Association.

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