Missouri Journalism School Considering Mideast Campus

By: For nearly a century, the University of Missouri School of Journalism has carved a reputation far beyond the state's borders. That international influence could soon translate into a Persian Gulf campus.

The nation's oldest journalism school, founded in 1908, is negotiating with a government-backed foundation in Qatar to add a branch campus in the capital city of Doha.

Missouri would join existing campuses of Cornell, Texas A&M, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Commonwealth and Georgetown at Education City, a sprawling desert complex overseen by the wife of Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the country's ruling monarch.

"This is a part of the world where freedom of the press is sorely needed," University of Missouri-Columbia Chancellor Brady Deaton told The Associated Press.

A Missouri School of Journalism in the Middle East could emerge as a "beacon of light and hope for freedom of expression and human rights," added Deaton, who along with University of Missouri system President Elson Floyd will meet next week with Abdulla Al-Thani, vice president of education for the Qatar Foundation.

The AP learned of the meeting through a public records request for the monthly schedules of Deaton and Floyd.

The journalism school founded by Walter Williams has long sought to strengthen its international ties, hosting Chinese journalists soon after its creation and quickly helping to build Western-style journalism programs in former Soviet bloc nations after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

But unlike those efforts, a Qatari campus would be a full-fledged branch of the University of Missouri, with Columbia maintaining control of admission standards, tuition rates, curriculum and graduation requirements, said Dean Mills, the journalism school dean.

Efforts to lure the university to the wealthy Middle East nation - home to both the Al-Jazeera television network and one of the world's largest natural gas reserves - began in late 2004 after U.S. Sen. Jim Talent visited American troops in the region, said Talent spokesman Rich Chrismer.

The tiny, pro-Western country, a neighbor to Saudi Arabia and home to just 800,000 residents, hosts a U.S. military base used to fly air operations into Iraq.

"Sen. Talent believes strongly that successful democracies are dependent on a free press," the spokesman said.

Missouri is competing with two other American journalism schools, said Chrismer, who was unable to identify those schools. Officials from the Qatar foundation could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

As with the other American universities it has lured to Doha, the Qatar Foundation for Science, Education and Community Development would cover all construction and operating costs, including salaries.

Students would be primarily drawn from Qatar and surrounding Arab nations, said Mills, with faculty recruited from both Qatar and the United States. Fees would likely be paid to the home campuses.

Should the deal go through, Missouri could also expect a sizable gift in return - published reports peg previous donations to American schools in the $10 million to $50 million range.

Cornell is being paid $750 million, including management fees, over 11 years to operate the overseas branch of its medical school - excluding a seven-figure gift.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill though, rejected an offer in 2002 to bring a business school to Qatar. The school sought a $35 million gift, while Qatar offered only $10 million, according to The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C.

Mills emphasized that the Qatari inquiry, including any donations, "is all very preliminary at this point."

"We haven't started the discussions, so I don't know what they have in mind," he said.

The journalism school already has a working relationship in Qatar. Retired professor Roger Gafke has conducted training workshops for the Al-Jazeera network, a global news outlet best known in the U.S. for broadcasting messages from Osama bin Laden and other terrorist groups.