Critics and Chairs

By Abdul-Aziz Al-Sa’ety

Replying to an editorial I had published in Al-Youm newspaper in April in which I slammed the King Saud University (KSU), Professor Dr. Abdullah Al-Uthman, King Saud rector gave me a phone call.  I - along with others - criticized KSU severely.

Al-Uthman replied to the editorial: Congrats for the Universities; They Have Two Trumpets. The phone call was transparent and candid. I got some connotations from the call, including but not limited to, the high-caliber selection by the Saudi leadership of a charismatic personality like professor Al-Uthman to change the prime university kingdom-wide without prejudice to former rectors.

A real desire to make a change is goaded with confessing of falling short and working on averting mistakes. This is what the rector hinted at when meeting students and staff for the first time. He said to the letter, “Bring me to account after four years!”

Al-Uthman is good in debating with the counter-opinions and knows how to refute the critics’ opinions, dispelling their misconceptions.

Following up the hustle and bustle on campus, one sees that workshops are held on a daily basis; development programs are worked out; new innovations are licensed; patents for university students are issued; bilateral agreements with international research centers are inked; and celebs and Nobel laureates are lured on campus. However, the real signal achievement is luring many public and private institutions to fund research chairs.

The research chairs comprise; for example, Chair of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz for Developmental Housing; Prospective Pioneers Chair by Dr. Naser Al-Rashid; Preventing Narcotics Chair; in addition to others.

Unfortunately, those - who slammed the KSU in coincidence with the Spanish ranking of universities - are now tongue-tied after the research chairs were launched. They cannot speak up after seeing the right track the KSU has walked into.