Report to the Faculty Senate

Jim Hoburg, vice-Chair

Trip to review the CMU Qatar Campus

March 8 – March 10, 2005

Trip coincided with Inaugural ceremonies, attended by a delegation including Trustees, President, Provost, Deans, faculty and students.

Coordinated some of visit with Mark Stehlik, Undergrad Advisor and Teaching Professor of Computer Science, who was reviewing the Computer

Science component of the CMU program.

OutlineOverview of CMU Qatar CampusOverview of Education City, Doha, QatarI met with ...Texas A&M experienceThoughts and issues raised by CMU facultyThoughts and issues raised by CMU Qatar studentsMy impressions

Overview of Education City, Doha, Qatar:

4 universities, with a 5th soon to announce, each bringing specialty area(s):

– Virginia Commonwealth: Design– Cornell: Medical School– Texas A&M: Engineering (Electrical,

Mechanical, Chemical, Petroleum)

– Carnegie Mellon: Computer Science, Business

– Georgetown: International Relations (future)

Overview of CMU Qatar Campus– Began operations from scratch in Spring, 2004

– Program was advertised (mostly newspaper).

– CMU faculty recruited and brought from Pittsburgh to begin the operation.

– ~ 270 students (mostly living in Doha, but ~60/40 Qatar citizens/expatriates) applied.

– All applicants were individually interviewed.

Overview of CMU Qatar Campus (cont.)

–   ~70 accepted to CMU Qatar.

–   Class of 42 began in Fall, 2004 (21/21 Computer Science/Business).

–   Students now in second semester, first year. None have dropped out.

– Grade point averages from first semester ~ 0.5 – 0.75 lower than for Pittsburgh students in same curricula.

I met with:Administrators:

• Jim Holste, Associate Dean for Academics, Texas A & M

• Chuck Thorpe, Dean of CMU Qatar campus

• Bob Kail, Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs, CMU Qatar campus

I met with (cont.):

Pittsburgh-based faculty:

• Lowell Taylor, Prof. of Economics

• Russ Walker, Teaching Prof. of Mathematics

• Jacobo Carrasquel, Assoc. Teaching Prof. and Undergraduate Advisor, Computer Science

I met with (cont.):

Faculty jointly hired by Dean Thorpe and corresponding Pittsburgh departments:

• Marion Oliver, Professor of Mathematics

• Ben Reilly, Professor of World History

• Salam Mir, Director, Intensive English Program

Texas A&M experience– Began in Fall, 2003, one year earlier than CMU.

– 7 faculty members first year, 14 faculty members second year.

– Not clear how difficult it will be to staff all courses in steady state. Until now, mostly freshman courses have been taught. Most of original class will probably require 4 ½ - 5 years to complete requirements because incoming backgrounds were weak.

– Some early lack of buy-in from College Station department heads. This seems to have improved.

Texas A&M experience (cont.)– Cultural difficulties:

– Many boys are pampered and propped up throughout childhood and adolescence. They have difficulty in facing hard courses and hard work, particularly with multitasking, i.e. multiple simultaneous pressures.

– Many girls are raised with the dominant objective of marrying well and having families. Advanced education and careers are a relatively new goal in the culture.

Texas A&M experience (cont.)

– Excellent financial support from Qatar Foundation

– Good research funding opportunities in some engineering areas (e.g. Petroleum Engineering

– Strong interest in cross registration with CMU to achieve more elective options. (Bob Kail is leading the effort for CMU in establishing this.)

Thoughts & issuesraised by CMU faculty

– Tougher than expected to leave family and connections in Pittsburgh to come to Qatar for one semester or more.

– Not much to do beyond campus – requires a special attitude.

– Well-compensated.

– At present scale, little to no intellectual richness from interaction with others in the same discipline. Perhaps okay for one semester to get old things done and to think about new directions.

Thoughts & issuesraised by CMU faculty (cont.)

– One model for how to staff many more courses – People hired by Dean Thorpe, in coordination with corresponding Pittsburgh departments, constitute some part of faculty, stimulated & enriched by Pittsburgh-based faculty staying in Qatar for varying amounts of time. Qatar people might spend one year in Pittsburgh to acquire/renew CMU perspective and culture, for every three years in Qatar.

– Solution of staffing courses through Qatar-hired people considered non optimal, in fact not good, by at least some CMU faculty.

Thoughts & issuesraised by CMU faculty (cont.)

– People hired by Dean Thorpe are represented on Faculty Senate and can bring concerns to Faculty Review Committee through their connections with Pittsburgh departments. By contrast, some staff members are hired locally in Qatar with no link to Pittsburgh, and governed by a local set of laws regarding grievance process, etc.

– Some disagreement among faculty members as to overall quality of students in comparison with those on Pittsburgh campus. Some think not as high, but not clear how much of this is cultural. In some cases, has been made up for with more class hours and more attention to individuals by professors, with resultant performances on identical tests and homeworks that are very similar between Qatar and Pittsburgh students.

Thoughts & issuesraised by CMU faculty (cont.)

– Despite lack of social and cultural opportunities outside campus, faculty members love the students and the internal environment. Great positive spirit within a relatively small and committed group.

Thoughts & issuesraised by CMU Qatar students

– Lack of electives a primary problem. Very little flexibility and opportunity to explore. Looked forward to the intellectual richness of a university environment, but in reality what is available now (at the start) is not as broad as what was available in high school.

– All students have very positive, very optimistic attitudes. They realize that the operation is just getting off the ground. Without exception, they enthusiastically praise the support and stimulation they get from their CMU professors.

My impressions– The context is a Middle Eastern society that is moving from

autocratic leadership of the poorly educated masses by a small intellectual elite to one with a highly educated middle class. A culture wherein “who you know” is more important than “what you know” is still apparent in much of day-to-day life in Doha. The commitment of the Sheik and Sheika in using vast oil and natural gas wealth to rapidly transform the society and culture is remarkable.

– The vision for Education City is an intellectually rich, vibrant community, with several outstanding universities bringing programs in areas where they excel. Qatar Foundation financial support is very strong, certainly capable of creating outstanding physical facilities to support the endeavor within well less than a decade.

My impressions (cont.)

– The physical infrastructure and financial support will not, by themselves, achieve what is hoped for. Not clear what “critical mass” is necessary for a vibrant intellectual community that is relatively isolated.

– This is very much a work in progress. What is in place at this point in time is much smaller and narrower than what I expected. A small group of faculty and staff are using temporary facilities to teach a small group of first year students a few required courses.

My impressions (cont.)– The commitment and enthusiasm of administrators, faculty,

staff and students are all very striking. The CMU team has a very obvious camaraderie and good spirit that gives the place a very positive feeling. The students seem genuinely grateful for the opportunity that’s provided to them, and despite the fact that the program is just beginning and has almost no flexibility they revel in the whole experience. They don’t seem to have learned to be negative or cynical. Young women in headscarves laugh together and describe their experience with American football, taught to them by a CMU staff member, as “girl mudwrestling” – one cannot help but be happy to see this snapshot in the lives of people from such a different, rapidly changing part of the world. Everyone connected with the operation seems a real pioneer in a remarkable endeavor.

My impressions (cont.)

– The difference between rich vision and nuts and bolts reality is striking. The place doesn’t yet have the feel of the artist’s drawings of what it is to become. Much of the construction that will make it a grand education center has not yet begun – a remarkably large number of buildings are slated to be built over the next few years. If the project fulfills the dream, the current pioneers will likely look back at the way things started (as they are now) with some amazement that they made it happen.

My impressions (cont.)– As I see it, the biggest problem by far will be in attracting

significant numbers of CMU Professors to spend significant amounts of time at the Qatar campus. The current operation is staffed by a relatively small number of faculty members who derive large satisfaction from their interactions with students in low level courses. How will more advanced courses be staffed? The faculty members that staff more advanced courses in Pittsburgh are often engaged in growing their research programs and graduate student “pipelines”, and in teaming with groups of faculty in relatively large interactive research programs. How difficult will it be to attract such people, who are a key part of the richness of CMU, to go to Qatar for a semester or more, and to make this happen each year? Will it be in the best career interests of young faculty members to do so? Will department heads buy into the importance of building the Qatar campus? As I see them, these are open and problematic questions.