By Emily GlazerThe Daily Northwestern

A team of Northwestern officials is currently in Qatar working on a contract to open a journalism and communication school by this fall, NU President Henry Bienen told The Daily on Tuesday.

Medill Dean John Lavine, Communication Dean Barbara O’Keefe, a budget director, senior legal counsel and other NU administrators are spending this week meeting with officials in the Arab state, where several other American universities already have schools.

Bienen said Qatar’s Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned wants NU’s school to open by Fall Quarter, but nothing will be done until a contract is signed.

If a contract is signed, NU will open a school in Education City, a complex of campuses located in the Qatari capital of Doha.

The Daily reported more than a month ago that plans were being finalized for an NU school to join schools sponsored by Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgetown, Texas A&M and Virginia Commonwealth universities, which are all funded by the Qatar Foundation, a private nonprofit organization founded in 1995.

But with Fall Quarter four months away, Bienen said he is “agnostic” as to whether NU can meet the deadline. The communication half of the school in Qatar has a better chance of being established in time than does the journalism half, he said.

“It seems to me it’s very tight,” he said. “But I knew Her Highness (the Sheikha) wanted it in September.”

If the contract is signed by the end of May or the beginning of June, administrators can start enrolling students, but NU’s admissions offices still must approve those students first, Bienen said.

Bienen said there also have been requests from current NU students to study at the Qatar campus. They likely would not be able to do so until Winter or Spring quarters, he said.

Reach Emily Glazer at [email protected].