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Why Is There So Much Saudi Money in American Universities?

nytimes.com

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Re: Why Is There So Much Saudi Money in American Universities?

#51

Post by brightball »

mattmanser wrote: post #12
ed312 wrote: post #5

I don't understand the protests. I would expect educating Saudi youth in exceptionally liberal institutions like universities in the Northeast to have a net liberalizing effect on the Saudi government and culture long term. Is this not a better use of Saudi funds then e.g. buying more weapons?

It's a double edged sword. For a few reasons. Firstly it maintains an elite who are much better educated, and skilled, than those at home. Secondly, when there's lots of foreign students from the same place, they just clique up. In my university there were a lot of Chinese students that hung around almost exclusively with other Chinese students. One year I represented the student common room, a sort of social club/su…

This was one of the big complaints when there was a push for a diversity center at Clemson a couple of years ago. It was pitched exclusively as a place for people of other cultures to use as a hang out, separated from the rest of the university students...which seemed like exactly the opposite of what increasing diversity should be aiming for.

Re: Why Is There So Much Saudi Money in American Universities?

#52

Post by pmyteh »

rasz wrote: post #50
aeontech wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to think you know better than the parent commenter what their experience was, despite the fact that they were there and you were not. Interestingly, what you imply is a more negative view of the experience rather than a more positive, which may make one think you hold a prejudiced view of the French specifically for some unstated reason.

Have you been abroad? and compared your experiences to France? Speaking broken Czech in Prague gets smiles, encouragement and comments about Slavic language similarities. Doing the same in France results in evil eye and being treated as an asshole.

Not uniform across France, either. If you try your broken French in out-of-the-way villages in Brittany, you will generally once again get your smiles and encouragement. In Paris, more of the evil eye.

The Netherlands is interesting. It's nearly guaranteed that their English is better than your Dutch, so if you try anything more than "good morning" then they will generally rapidly switch to English. More politely than in France, but with a firmness that indicates no desire at all to waste time on communication problems when none are necessary.

Re: Why Is There So Much Saudi Money in American Universities?

#53

Post by meowface »

aeontech wrote: post #46
rasz wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France is a very special case, so is Quebec. Your French was probably more than intelligible to natives, they scoffed you out of nationalistic pride, how dare you try speaking the holy language of culture and fine art.

You seem to think you know better than the parent commenter what their experience was, despite the fact that they were there and you were not. Interestingly, what you imply is a more negative view of the experience rather than a more positive, which may make one think you hold a prejudiced view of the French specifically for some unstated reason.

I've never been to France but I've heard this stereotype many, many times elsewhere online: that the French don't want foreigners speaking French even if their French skills are good, because they don't like to hear even the slightest imperfection in pronunciation or usage, seeing it as some sort of defilement of their language. The stereotype is especially pronounced for Parisians, and appears to only exist for European French. No clue how accurate it is, but I've heard it repeated so often that I can understand why the parent posted that. Would be interested in input from tourists and French natives regarding the stereotype. Given the French government's unusually stringent prescriptivism, which I think is shared by much or most of the populace, this seems plausible on the face.

Re: Why Is There So Much Saudi Money in American Universities?

#54

Post by alacombe »

rleigh wrote: post #47
seieste wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kim Jong Un was educated in Switzerland, which has a very strong democratic environment, yet it didn’t change about how he ran North Korea.

I don't wish to defend the regime in any way. However, do consider that while he has power, he's also the figurehead. There may be real constraints upon how much change he can meaningfully effect without the system falling apart entirely, or resulting in his removal if he treads on other powerful people's toes. He wouldn't be the first dictator which had to walk along a knife edge to maintain their power base and sec…

There is sure no better way to show how you are constrained by the system than by ordering the assassination of your exiled brother with nerve gas in a foreign country !

Re: Why Is There So Much Saudi Money in American Universities?

#55

Post by ajcodez »

spunker540 wrote: post #16
mattmanser wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a double edged sword. For a few reasons. Firstly it maintains an elite who are much better educated, and skilled, than those at home. Secondly, when there's lots of foreign students from the same place, they just clique up. In my university there were a lot of Chinese students that hung around almost exclusively with other Chinese students. One year I represented the student common room, a sort of social club/su…

I think a lot of foreign students come to the US wanting to make friends with Americans and more-or-less “assimilate” but then quickly realize their English language skills aren’t as strong as they thought and that the cultural differences are larger than they thought and truthfully, that Americans aren’t as welcoming and tolerant of those differences as they thought. So they fallback to a much more comfortable situa…

It’s true in cities as young professionals too. It’s often a group of friends where everyone moved to the city after school or a group of friends that grew up there.

Re: Why Is There So Much Saudi Money in American Universities?

#56

Post by arkh »

meowface wrote: post #53
aeontech wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to think you know better than the parent commenter what their experience was, despite the fact that they were there and you were not. Interestingly, what you imply is a more negative view of the experience rather than a more positive, which may make one think you hold a prejudiced view of the French specifically for some unstated reason.

I've never been to France but I've heard this stereotype many, many times elsewhere online: that the French don't want foreigners speaking French even if their French skills are good, because they don't like to hear even the slightest imperfection in pronunciation or usage, seeing it as some sort of defilement of their language. The stereotype is especially pronounced for Parisians, and appears to only exist for Euro…

I think it is a cultural difference.

I'm French. When I mispronounce something people will correct me. That's how we learn and it is expected.

Now when I voicechat with American people and say something they don't understand I just get some "polite" silence.

So I think it is a case of people taking offense because of a culture difference. "They're white, using the same characters as us so they're the same", nope.

Re: Why Is There So Much Saudi Money in American Universities?

#57

Post by rleigh »

alacombe wrote: post #54
rleigh wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't wish to defend the regime in any way. However, do consider that while he has power, he's also the figurehead. There may be real constraints upon how much change he can meaningfully effect without the system falling apart entirely, or resulting in his removal if he treads on other powerful people's toes. He wouldn't be the first dictator which had to walk along a knife edge to maintain their power base and sec…

There is sure no better way to show how you are constrained by the system than by ordering the assassination of your exiled brother with nerve gas in a foreign country !

I certainly don't doubt that he has considerable freedom of action in some areas, perhaps so long as his upper echelons agree with it. However, that doesn't imply he has the same freedom of action in all areas.

Re: Why Is There So Much Saudi Money in American Universities?

#58

Post by bobthepanda »

tw1010 wrote: post #29
dogma1138 wrote: post #4

Because the Saudis have a ton of money to spend; more than they can spend locally.

What a weird theory.

How is it strange?

Spending all that money locally (and they try very hard to with welfare schemes and building new cities like Kingdom City and whatnot) will just spike inflation, since the economy can only use money so quickly. It's what happened to the Spanish when they destroyed their economy by mining all that colonial gold and silver. https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/Prices-an...

Re: Why Is There So Much Saudi Money in American Universities?

#59

Post by [deleted] »

qwerty9876 wrote: post #48
spunker540 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of foreign students come to the US wanting to make friends with Americans and more-or-less “assimilate” but then quickly realize their English language skills aren’t as strong as they thought and that the cultural differences are larger than they thought and truthfully, that Americans aren’t as welcoming and tolerant of those differences as they thought. So they fallback to a much more comfortable situa…

In Finland the Erasmus/foreign exchange students of universities also tend to hang out among themselves and the native Finns don't really care about them. One thing I've heard is that the Finns consider many of the exchange students to be a bit juvenile since in their home countries people often live with parents until their 30s. Whereas most Finnish students move out and become fully independent by age 20.

[deleted]

Re: Why Is There So Much Saudi Money in American Universities?

#60

Post by veb »

qwerty9876 wrote: post #48
spunker540 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of foreign students come to the US wanting to make friends with Americans and more-or-less “assimilate” but then quickly realize their English language skills aren’t as strong as they thought and that the cultural differences are larger than they thought and truthfully, that Americans aren’t as welcoming and tolerant of those differences as they thought. So they fallback to a much more comfortable situa…

In Finland the Erasmus/foreign exchange students of universities also tend to hang out among themselves and the native Finns don't really care about them. One thing I've heard is that the Finns consider many of the exchange students to be a bit juvenile since in their home countries people often live with parents until their 30s. Whereas most Finnish students move out and become fully independent by age 20.

where on earth is it the norm to be living with your parents until you're in your 30s?

Kiwi here, a lot of us move out and go flatting at the first possible chance we get - which is right after high school/first year of uni.

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