Activists are criticizing The University of New Haven for partnering with a college in Saudi Arabia that is the “premier training institution for security studies.”
The University has worked with King Fahd Security College in Riyadh since 2016.
Stanley Heller, with the non-profit group, Middle East Crisis Committee that fights oppression in the region, said the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi should be a wake-up call to the University of New Haven, which has ties to Saudi Arabia.
“There’s been this appalling murder and any institution in the United States that takes money from Saudi Arabia should be reevaluating and almost certainly cancelling its associations with anything that can help the Saudi regime,” Heller said.
The Hartford Courant reports that the forensic scientist who Turkish officials believe dismembered Khashoggi may be the same man who sits on the board of the Saudi security college.
The university, in a statement issued Tuesday, said it will maintain relations with the Saudi security college.