If Cal Poly San Luis Obispo had wanted to start an engineering program for a university in someplace like Norway, the proposal probably would have sailed through without much comment either on campus or off.
But the school's plan to start an engineering department in Saudi Arabia is a different story.
Some staffers and students contend that the university -- which prides itself on the number of female engineers it graduates -- should steer clear of a kingdom where women's rights are restricted and a fledgling engineering program would be open only to men.
Other U.S. schools confront similar issues when it comes to establishing partnerships in the oil-rich kingdom.
"The hardest problem is who controls the curriculum," said John Burgess, a former Foreign Service officer in Saudi Arabia, adding that Saudi education officials have insisted on an approach that many U.S. academics and even some Saudis believe is too heavy on religion and too light on technology and global trade.
"I've heard Saudis complain that when their tooth hurts, they want to see a dentist -- not a Muslim dentist," said Burgess, a blogger who focuses on Saudi Arabia.
In San Luis Obispo, the development of a program 8,000 miles away at Jubail University College hasn't exactly galvanized the placid campus. But it has created a buzz, with a columnist in the Mustang Daily student newspaper saying that it would "jeopardize the honesty and integrity of our institution in the name of money." Last fall, the mechanical engineering faculty protested it in a 15-3 vote.
Over five years, Cal Poly would receive $5.9 million from the Saudi government to create an engineering curriculum, build labs and train teachers in Jubail, a sprawling oil center on the Persian Gulf. Only men would qualify to take or teach engineering classes, although the campus has separate classes in other disciplines for women.
"No matter how you cut it, we're supporting the oppression of women," said Jim LoCascio, a professor of mechanical engineering at Cal Poly since 1981.
"A woman in Saudi Arabia got 200 lashes for being gang-raped," he said, indignant that his school would consider a venture there. "What is this administration talking about?"
Sentenced for "un-Islamic behavior," the woman was pardoned last year by King Abdullah after international outrage over the planned flogging. Still, Saudi women require a man's permission to seek medical care, cannot drive or vote, and must be veiled in public.
