A new report from the National Association of Scholars explores the entanglements between American universities and Qatar, a small state on the Persian Gulf known as the home of the Al Jazeera news network and a haven for Hamas leadership and other assorted radical Islamists. Qatar has emerged as a top foreign funder of American universities, investing more than $4 billion between 2001 and 2021. Virginia Commonwealth University, the first American university to establish an overseas campus in the country, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries, receiving more than $103 million.
University leaders say their Qatari campuses help spread Western values in the conservative Middle Eastern country, which is ruled by an authoritarian, semi-constitutional monarchy, according to the NAS paper. But one might ask the reverse: what influence, if any, does Qatari money exert on VCU?
VCU reports having a total of 982 international students, or 3.4% of the student body, on campus, according to College Factual. The largest contingent came from Saudi Arabia, accounting for about 20% of the foreign student body and 0.7% of the total student body.
In 2019, VCU’s School of World Studies began offering a minor in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, which “aims to correct the record by offering a more nuanced and balanced perspective about the region, its politics and people, and in so doing help to build bridges of understanding.”
What does this all add up to? The NAS report doesn’t have much to say about VCU. But as U.S. universities get sucked into the PR maelstrom of the Hamas-Israel conflict, it’s a question worth asking.
Last fall hundreds of VCU students, organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, held a rally in support of the Palestinians. The protests have continued off and on. When VCU President Michael Rao gave his state-of-the-university speech last week, eight pro-Palestinians held up their hands, which were painted red to symbolize blood. They said they felt unsafe and unheard.
From what I can tell from a scan of the news reports, the pro-Palestinian sentiment at VCU is thoroughly American in origin, the result of home-grown leftists identifying with Palestinians as the global “oppressed.” But then, you can never go wrong by adhering to the dictum, “Follow the Money.”
VCU, which is not an especially affluent institution, has a lot invested in its Qatari campus. If Qatari officials were unhappy with the treatment of Muslim students in Richmond, could it pressure the Rao administration by cutting off the flow of funds or putting the squeeze on the Qatari campus? Even if it hasn’t exercised its financial clout, has Team Rao ever tempered its actions for fear of what the Qatari monarchy might do?
I have no evidence at all to suggest the Qataris have ever abused their influence. I’m engaging purely in hypotheticals. But the VCU-Qatari relationship is worth watching.
— JAB
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