A new liberal arts college opened on Sept. 8, 1999. Stretching over several city blocks, it has classrooms, laboratories, and sports facilities—including an Olympic-sized pool. There’s an 800-seat auditorium, a cafeteria, state-of-the-art library, computer center, and a house of worship.

Groups of students in jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers lounge in the cafeteria, laughing and chatting. In class, they discuss education, psychology, science, English, and computer technology; after class, they spend time in the library, the pool, or on the basketball court.

Sounds familiar—a little like Swarthmore? Except that here, the entire student body is female. Some ride to campus in college vans; others are driven in family cars; some live on campus. The college is surrounded by walls, into which rooms have been built to accommodate male visitors including the students’ fathers. (Mothers are allowed on campus.) All the faculty and staff members are women. Until they enter the gates of the college, students, administrators, and faculty cover their clothes with ankle-length, black abayas and their heads with matching scarves. The campus house of worship is a mosque.

This is Effat College in Jeddah—the first liberal arts college in Saudi Arabia. For Marcia Montin Grant ’60, working to help found Effat College and act as its first dean was the job of a lifetime. “Starting what I call an Islamic liberal arts college drew on everything I learned at Swarthmore,” says Grant.

Islam dominates life in Saudi Arabia, home to two of the religion’s three holy places. Saudi society has changed rapidly in the last half-century as a result of being the “keeper” of these holy sites, on the one hand, and one of the world’s richest nations because of petroleum, on the other. At every turn, modernization and affluence are negotiated with Saudi cultural traditions and Islamic law.

The role of women in Saudi society is different from other Muslim cultures, says Grant, and women are frequently portrayed in the West as oppressed. It is true that Saudi women may not drive cars, cannot be in the company of men unknown to their families, and must cover their hair and wear an abaya in public. But, Grant points out: “Saudi Arabian society is constantly changing, and the role of women within it. There are many business women in Saudi Arabia, women can inherit, and they have the right to divorce. Although they seem to be more limited than women in some other Islamic societies, they have more rights in certain areas. It is simplistic to think that women are oppressed simply because of Islam.”

Within a culture where women have traditionally had a preeminent role only within their families, opportunities for Saudi women in both education and employment have been increasing. Queen Effat, wife of the late King Faisal, was a staunch advocate of education for women. In 1955, before Faisal became king, Princess Effat created Dar al-Hanaan, a private K-12 school for girls. The modernization of Saudi Arabia under Faisal, who ruled from 1964 until his assassination in 1975, included a national education program for women. By the early 1980s, public education was available to all Saudi girls.

According to Grant, Queen Effat always dreamed of starting a private women’s college. Currently, 15,000 women attend the public King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, but they are taught in separate rooms from the male students, where they watch the professors (also male) on closed-circuit televisions. Queen Effat, seeing that this distance from the professors put the female students at a distinct disadvantage, imagined a college environment where women could interact directly with their teachers.

Yet until 1997, when a royal decree permitted the establishment of private nonprofit universities, the queen’s vision could not begin to be realized. When it became possible, she was granted the kingdom’s first license to start a college. She put her daughter Princess Lolowah al-Faisal in charge of the project. Funding for the college would come from Queen Effat’s personal fortune.

Princess Lolowah, educated in Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, inherited her mother’s vision and also brought her own educational concerns. She had struggled to find appropriate teaching methods in Saudi Arabia for one of her children who is dyslexic.

“Because of the way our children are brought up in Saudi Arabia, many have learning problems, but I am convinced that everyone can learn,” she told Grant.

Disagreeing with the traditional methods of rote memorizing, listening, and silent note taking practiced in Saudi public universities, she wanted female students to think for themselves, question, communicate, and discuss. Women, she thought, should be enabled to receive an education that instilled a sense of independence and confidence. Her goal was not only to ensure successful careers for women (currently, the Saudi workforce is approximately 7 percent female) but also to give them as mothers the tools to raise confident and independent daughters.

In searching for educational models, Princess Lolowah visited the American women’s colleges Mount Holyoke and Smith as well as Columbia and Harvard universities in early 1999 and was impressed by what she saw. Her greatest challenge lay in finding leadership for Effat College—a dean (women cannot be “presidents” of institutions under Saudi law) who would be able to work with cultures of both American academe and Saudi Arabian society. During the visit, she met Grant’s friend Dr. Alice Ilchman, former president of Sarah Lawrence College and chair of the board of The Rockefeller Foundation, and invited her to Jeddah. Ilchman asked Grant to go with her.

“I have always enjoyed consulting in cultures different from my own and was thrilled to have the opportunity to visit Saudi Arabia,” says Grant. She had studied African and Latin American politics and held seminars in Egypt on the nonprofit world. “But,” she says, “both the obvious hurdles and the immense opportunity involved in creating a Western-style college for women in Saudi Arabia drew on everything I knew—or didn’t know I knew—how to do.”

Grant was clearly a good match for the task. “I developed an early sensitivity to non-American perspectives from childhood stays in Colombia and Mexico,” she says. As an honors student at Swarthmore in political science, she undertook projects in Peru; Cuba; and Cameroon, Africa. Subsequently, she obtained a Ph.D. in political science from the London School of Economics. She began her variegated international career as a professor of international politics at Oberlin College. When invited to Jeddah, Grant was living in Barcelona, Spain, directing the Institute for North American Studies, a private, nonprofit organization aimed at promoting mutual understanding between Spain and the United States.

After two days of consultation in Jeddah, Grant and Ilchman submitted a formal proposal. “We thought that wonderful things could be done with a liberal arts education and that they should take a year to set up the college,” Grant says. She wrote to thank the princess. Returning to Spain, she learned that her thank-you note had generated more enthusiasm than the proposal. “No one on the staff could even read a formal, American-style proposal,” says Grant. “But they saw from the personal language of my thank you that I understood Effat’s vision for a liberal arts college.” Invited back, Grant returned to Jeddah for one week the following June.

Grant learned that Princess Lolowah was unwilling to wait a year—she wanted the college to open in September, just three months later, partly because of the elderly queen’s failing health. Grant set to work. “I only had the one week, and I still had obligations in Spain,” she says, “so I drew up an application form and set up a small admissions office.” Tuition was set at $10,000 a year, and financial aid was made available for needy students.

In August, Grant moved to Jeddah to continue the project full time. Waiting to find a house in a Westerners’ compound, she settled into a hotel. Part of her success, she believes, is that she was a complete anomaly in Saudi Arabia—a professional woman, functioning without American government, petroleum, or military interests. “Everyone was very helpful,” she says, “although they thought I was a little crazy at the hotel. Normally, women do not stay alone in hotels in Saudi Arabia. I’d send faxes in the middle of the night or be on the phone to South Africa or the United States or wherever I was trying to recruit faculty or staff. One morning, a fax machine appeared in my room.”

“Everything had to be reorganized or built from scratch,” says Grant. When she went to look at the campus, the phones were not working. “I went down to where the telephone operator sat, and the phones were all ringing, but her desk was empty. I looked for the operator and saw that she was praying in the corner. I had to figure out quickly how to set institutional standards within a culture where work and religion had to co-exist. And on top of that, I wanted to hire an entirely female staff and faculty. My goal was to hire as many excellent women from the Middle East as possible but also people who understood the importance of a liberal arts education.” Grant says she searched worldwide, looking especially for women who could fill more than one job.

The fact that everything was being done for the first time was both difficult and exciting, Grant says. “We were defining what an Islamic liberal arts college would be. There was a lot of talent involved in the project, but, in many cases, it hadn’t been recognized.” Among the clerical workers, Grant discovered a woman from the Sudan who was pursuing a doctorate in computer science. “She got the Computer Science Department started with the help of the head of computer science at Smith College,” she says.

Looking for staff, Grant turned to her daughter, Alexandra ’95, who recommended her Swarthmore basketball teammate Kerry Laufer ’94. Then a French teacher at Penncrest High School in Media, Pa., Laufer had also taught English as a foreign language. Grant and Laufer talked on the phone. “Marcia offered me a job right then and asked how soon I could come,” says Laufer. “Ten days later, I was on a plane bound for Jeddah. My title was registrar of the college, but we did everything.”

Laufer’s interest in the Arab world comes from being part Lebanese. She focused her studies at Swarthmore on North African literature influenced by French colonialism. But she never expected to live and work in Saudi Arabia. “I wouldn’t have sought it out were it not for this Swarthmore connection,” she says.

With so little time, Grant and Princess Lolowah decided to open the college with only two majors: early childhood education and computer science, which they considered to be the most crucial areas of training for women in Saudi Arabia.

Building a curriculum was exciting. “The question was how to teach in a way that will promote critical thinking,” Grant says. “I wanted the women to get the intellectual tools to be able to understand both their own culture and Western traditions, so that they could study whatever they wanted while understanding the limits of both Islamic and Western traditions. But we had to begin at the beginning: calculus and writing. This is what makes Effat College like any school, anywhere.” They were required by the Ministry of Higher Education to teach Islamic studies and Arabic.

Grant insisted that the curriculum also include physical education. “Women in Saudi Arabia don’t have regular physical activity,” she says. “They don’t work out or move a lot—they send maids to get them glasses of water. So I found an American woman of Navajo ancestry in Jeddah to teach gym.” Initially, the students were unwilling participants, but Grant accepted no excuses. “They would have needed a note from a government hospital to get out of gym,” she said. In the end, the Effat College basketball team ended up being one of the most popular extracurricular activities among the students. (Last year, the college staged a basketball tournament, which Laufer refereed, playing teams from several local educational institutions and a charity organization, and they held the first women’s basketball banquet in the kingdom.)

One of Laufer’s first tasks was to interview the students. She found most of the students’ English skills insufficient for college courses, all of which were taught in English. On the spot, Grant and Laufer decided to create a preparatory English-language curriculum, hiring the American consul general’s wife to teach English.

Laufer’s role expanded, soon corresponding to the American equivalent of assistant to a college president. To write a student handbook, she used Swarthmore’s as a guide. When Grant needed an academic policy or an administrative procedure, she says she “just pulled it out of her head.” Alexandra, who visited the college, observes: “My mother says that creativity is translating an idea to a new place. In the case of Effat, the idea of a liberal arts college, so familiar to us, was taken and planted in Jeddah.” She adds: “I think that Swarthmore was present at all times in its founding. Both Kerry and my mother demonstrated incredible ingenuity because of the values and ideals inculcated in them at Swarthmore.”

Princess Lolowah had given Grant complete authority to make the college happen. Grateful for not having to deal with the Saudi bureaucracy, Grant says: “We worked in a way that cut across any lines. It’s amazing how much you can get done in a short time under those circumstances.”

As opening day approached, Grant realized that they had not planned an orientation event for the students and their parents. Then, it occurred to her that they could invite only the mothers. Despite this, she says, “I was amazed at how very much the fathers wanted this education for their daughters.” A large assembly was arranged, including a lunch with the princess for the mothers, a tour of the campus facilities, and meetings with the teachers.

Effat College opened in September 1999. There were 37 students from 17 to 29 years old. They were single, married, divorced, and some were mothers. Most were Saudis, but there were also students from Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, and Kenya. When the Class of 2003 was asked to stand, there was a moment of intense emotion, Grant says.

“Our goal,” said Grant in her opening remarks, “is to prepare these students to cope with the world’s rapid changes, to be educated wives and mothers, in addition to getting them ready for careers.” Mindful of where she was, she added, “We must also keep in mind Islamic values and traditions.”

Princess Lolowah relayed an inaugural message from Queen Effat. “She asked me to tell you that although she has been concerned about the education of Saudi women for more than 50 years, she is now handing this mission to the students of Effat College. It was one of her dreams to provide a unique college for girls, and now, her dream has come true.”

Aware that Effat’s leadership must be in the hands of a Saudi Arabian woman by mid-2001, Grant began the task of finding a replacement for herself. “I was very fortunate to find and be able to work with Dr. Haifa Jamal al-Lail,” she says. The first woman in Saudi Arabia to hold a Ph.D. (in public policy), which she completed at the University of Southern California, Jamal al-Lail is a member of the college’s original development team and was Grant’s first consultant at Effat. In summer 2000, she and Grant attended a seminar on higher education administration for women at Bryn Mawr College.

Now in its fourth year, the college has 200 students. Eighteen new faculty members were hired this year, bringing the total to 40. The current curriculum, approved by the Ministry of Higher Education, includes information systems, educational psychology, and linguistics and translation in addition to early childhood education and computer science. Courses are offered in mathematics, chemistry, biology, history, and economics, and there are electives in art and decoration as well as a course on child musical expression. Although Western philosophy may not be taught under that name, philosophers may be referred to as “thinkers” and their ideas and teachings integrated into the curriculum in ways that do not conflict with Islamic values.

Laufer says, “As the organizational structure has taken shape, and as we continue to find increasingly qualified individuals to fill key positions within that structure, we now have time for more long-term projects and strategic planning.”

The college has established relationships with the science departments at Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Bryn Mawr colleges. In January 2001, a physicist from Bryn Mawr and two chemists and a biologist from Mount Holyoke were invited to Jeddah to consult and hold a panel discussion for an audience of local high school teachers, the press, Effat students and parents, and women from greater Jeddah. The American scientists discussed science education for women, including the formation of an integrated science program. Elizabeth McCormack, an associate professor of physics from Bryn Mawr, says of her visit: “One of my strongest impressions was the remarkable collaboration of the American and Saudi women. There is an incredible feeling of common purpose and energy.”

Grant is proud that Effat College has developed a college culture similar to that of American institutions. McCormack observed this as well: “One of the best parts of our trip was a casual conversation with a group of students,” she says. “My gut reaction was ‘They’re so like the young women in our country.’ They’re excited and bubbly and enthusiastic about their potential to change the world. At the same time, they’re very different. The diversity was amazing. And they were all so interested in science—just like our students.”

Laufer stresses the development of well-rounded individuals at Effat College. “It’s all about communication, leadership, and self-confidence,” she says. “Effat professors use ‘questioning techniques’ to encourage students to participate in class and let them know that it’s fine to express their opinions.”

As it continues to evolve, Effat College faces several challenges. One is the expense of running the college—particularly as parts of the campus still need refurbishing. Upon Queen Effat’s death in February 2000, a third of her personal fortune went to create the Effat Foundation, which now funds not only the Dar al-Hanaan school and Effat College but many other projects as well. Responsibility for all projects is shared by all nine of her children, including Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister.

With the uncertain international situation, Grant and Dean Jamal al-Lail are concerned about recruiting good faculty, but applications were actually stronger this year than in past years. The college also needs to increase student enrollment.

“The real test will come,” says Laufer, “when we graduate our first class and send them out into the world,” which will happen in June 2003. Saudi parents are still waiting to see how well the students of Effat College will do.

Now an established institution in Saudi Arabia, the college is seeking international accreditation through the Middle States Association.

“This will take several years, but we’re setting the foundations now and talking to the right people,” says Laufer, who is in charge of the project. Currently dean’s assistant for institutional development and quality control and a member of the college’s senior management team, she reports to Jamal al-Lail and has worked on drafting most of the college’s procedures for the implementation of the Saudi Ministry of Higher Education’s academic policy. Detailed and demanding of accuracy as this work is, particularly as the ministry is known to make unexpected visits and demands for documentation, Laufer says that it has been helpful in setting up systems and upholding standards. “It helps prepare us for the much more rigorous standards we will face with international accreditation,” she says. The Ministry of Higher Education looks to Effat College as a model for liberal arts colleges in the country, reports Grant.

“By establishing Effat College, we were able to open a door in Saudi Arabia to thinking about nonprofits and philanthropy,” says Grant. Earlier this year, Grant and Jamal al-Lail were panelists in the first two meetings held in Saudi Arabia on nonprofit organizations. “They were coed meetings,” says Grant, “which is amazing because there really are no conferences including both men and women in Saudi Arabia, except in the medical field.”

Alexandra adds: “Seeing Effat allowed me to understand that the future lies in building cross-cultural institutions, where exchanges are made that create trust and opportunity for members of all cultures involved. My mother and Kerry have both given a face to the idealism of Swarthmore and, more generally, of the United States—our educational values. And, truly, none of this would have come to pass if my mother were not so daring, so willing to see potential, where others would just see a foreign, impenetrable culture. Swarthmore gave her the tools to do it.”