The California town of Turlock–home of California State University-Stanislaus (CSUS)–and the West Bank city of Jenin are far apart both geographically and politically.
But despite their differences, educators from both communities are steadily at work on the founding of an Arab-American University–a school whose creation both groups hope will play a role in facilitating global peace.
“The Arab-American University was looking for a partner who was interested in educating all ages, creeds and races in an area so recently stepping out of turmoil,” said Maher Fareed Irshied, one of the new university’s founders.
CSUS, with an enrollment of 5,900, is about 80 miles south of Sacramento in a town with a population of about 42,000–exactly what the Palestinians wanted, said CSUS’s Dr. Thomas O’Neil. “A number of the Palestinian founders are graduates of CSU and are attracted to CSU’s practical, rather than research, approach to education. The size of the Stanislaus campus also suited their purposes–not too large. They didn’t want to be a cog in the wheel,” O’Neil said. The California climate also was a deciding factor, he said.
Initial discussions about the creation of the Arab:American University began during the summer when Dr. O’Neil, CSUS’s director of regional and continuing education, was in the West Bank conducting an education program with emigres.
Later, he and CSUS president Dr. Marvelene Hughes met in Amman, Jordan, with Maher Fareed Irshied and other founders of the Arab-American University for further discussions.
The partnership received an official endorsement from the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization Yasser Arafat in September. In Washington to sign the peace accord with Israel, Arafat met with Hughes and several other CSUS officials.
