Sunday's New York Times kicked off a series on the internationalization of American universities, with a picture of our students on (I hear) the front page! U.S. Universities Rush to Set Up Outposts Abroad. Yesterday's installment in the series was specifically about Education City and featured quotes from many of our students and staff: In Oil-Rich Mideast, Shades of the Ivy League.

Each of these articles also featured an online Q&A, the first with our dean and the second with one of our students. Chuck has already responded to readers' questions here and Dana is still accepting them here. (EDIT: She's now answered them very nicely here.)

Reading through the questions posed to Chuck made me surprisingly angry. When I first heard about the branch campus I voiced some concerns about the enterprise, and the same concerns were raised by various people I knew. I think the top four of these concerns were:

• Does providing a Western education overseas constitute cultural imperialism?
• Are we being used to put a happy, liberal face on an oppressive regime?
• Will the campus discriminate against GLBT employees?
• Is it really possible to reproduce the Carnegie Mellon experience in Qatar?

The people asking questions on the NYT webpage ask some of these same questions. But another concern I'd never heard before was raised repeatedly: why are we educating foreigners when there are Americans who need educations? "EDUCATE OUR OWN CHILDREN FIRST." says one commenter. "The American taxpayer is subsidizing education and job growth overseas while they are being priced out of an education for themselves and their children," says another, who seriously misunderstands the capital flow involved in a branch campus in the Middle East. A third raised concerns about how America will maintain its competitive advantage in "knowledge-based industries" if "critical masses of graduates with a US degree can be found in any emerging market." Educational protectionism? What a lousy reason to oppose providing American-style education in the Middle East.

There's been some controversy on the Pittsburgh campus about plans for CMU to cooperate with the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia's answer to Education City. I haven't yet decided how I feel about that. Obviously my four big questions about the wisdom of establishing CMU-Q were answered to my satisfaction, or I wouldn't be here. But I'm less sure they can be answered positively when it comes to Saudi.