el Don /SANTA ANA COLLEGE • MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2015/eldonnews.org
NEWS
WORLD: THIRD INTERNATIONAL DEAL
FACTLINE
Faculty and staff dispute
the district’s decision to
bypass a board vote on
Saudi Arabia.
DIRECTIVE / District
Chancellor Raul
Rodriguez announced
that the deal will be
finalized in April and
the project will begin
in May.
ADVISORY / The State
Department issued
an advisory on travel
to Saudi Arabia, with
Americans warned
to stay away from
malls and schools,
FARSSCD President
Barry Resnick said.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
considered in the hiring
process for jobs relating to
this project before instructors outside of the district
are considered.
“If we do send any faculty
they would only go for a
two-week period at a time,
one to two times a year at
most,” Rodriguez said. “Most
of the people being hired
are people from Middle
Eastern countries.”
To limit liability, the agreement is between Saudi Arabia and the district’s fundraising foundation, meaning
that this arrangement did
not have to go through the
board of trustees.
Overseas, a joint venture
corporation will represent
the interests of the foun-
dation and Saudi Arabia,
Rodriguez said.
Anyone working as a contractor or a faculty member
in Saudi Arabia through this
deal would report to the
joint venture corporation.
Morrie Barembaum, professor at Santiago Canyon
College, says that by bearing
its name, the foundation
represents all members of
the district.
Barembaum criticized the
deal for not having gone
through the board where it
would have been debated by
elected officials.
Rodriguez said the project
had been mentioned to the
public many times before,
and he wonders why people
are speaking out now that
the deal is to be finalized.
“This government dis-
criminates with harsh punishments against women,
non-Muslims, members
of the LGBT community
and Israeli citizens,” wrote
Melinda Womack, professor
at SCC, in a statement read
at the board meeting.
After spending and hiring
costs, the district should
make about $8 million in
profit, according to early
estimates released at the
board meeting.
Similar deals between Canadian community colleges
and Saudi Arabia have all
failed, Barry Resnick, counselor at SCC and president
of the Faculty Association
for RSCCD said.
For example, in its deal
with Saudi Arabia, Algonquin College of Ottawa,
Onta ɥ