Officials Reschedule Qatar Trip

Provost Robert Shelton said the group will travel to Qatar, a small country bordering Saudi Arabia and across the Persian Gulf from Afghanistan, sometime during the first part of November.

Chancellor James Moeser and faculty from both the business school and the College of Arts and Sciences will go on the trip, although the final group of participants has not been determined. Several members of the Board of Trustees are slated to go on the trip, which will be financed by officials in Qatar. The trip originally was scheduled in September but was delayed due to business and security concerns after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Leaders of the UNC system and education officials in Qatar have discussed the possibility of establishing a business curriculum and degree program for students in that region for about two years.

Shelton called the trip a fact-finding mission in which UNC faculty can get a sense of security, lifestyle and cultural issues in Qatar. If the trip is successful, he said, the University will continue negotiations with Qatar officials.

"We need to take a `go, no go' stand by the end of the calendar year," he said. "We need as much input as possible from people whose opinions we deeply value. That's the real purpose of the trip."

Some UNC faculty said they fully support the venture in Qatar. Management Professor Robert Adler said UNC should use the program to share American principles such as democracy, diversity and freedom of expression. "This is an important initiative because the Middle East is a critical part of the world," he said. "We should unashamedly engage people in that region and share our values and skills with those people. We should not leave the Middle East to haters."

But not all business faculty support the upcoming trip. Marketing Professor Paul Bloom said he is worried about long-term volatility in the Middle East and its consequences for the Qatar program.

"I'm concerned about the effect this program will have on the University and the business school," he said. "I'm not accusing (Qatar) of doing anything wrong, but I'm concerned about our school being involved in a place of instability. I think it's a risky venture."

Management Professor Dennis Rondinelli also said he questions the general objectives of the program. He said transferring a UNC campus to the Middle East would not necessarily benefit Qatar's academic community. "I'm concerned if this is the right model to influence minds of the Islamic world," he said. "I think this is the wrong time and wrong place to do this program."

The Progressive Faculty Network, a group of faculty members committed to discussing liberal social issues, has raised similar concerns about the program.

Geography Professor Altha Cravey said the PFN has discussed the appropriateness of the venture in recent meetings. "There are lots of concerns in our group," she said. "We have concerns about the undemocratic nature of Qatar and how closely we would want to align ourselves with that government."

In response to these concerns, the Faculty Council will discuss the matter in a special meeting. Chairwoman Sue Estroff said the group will hold a meeting of the general faculty in late November after the trip. She said the faculty will discuss the program and could draft a resolution about the issue.

Student Body President Justin Young also said he has reservations about the Qatar program, mostly because students have not been involved in the process. Young said he lobbied to get student representation on the November trip to Qatar but, he said, administration would not agree, partly because of liability concerns.

Young did say student government will continue to push for direct student participation in the program's planning.

"We definitely feel the student voice should be felt all around," he said. "(The Qatar program) is definitely a big deal that affects the whole University."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.