Saudi Arabia's Shura Council has passed a new university law that allows the formation of student unions at the kingdom's universities, Arab News reported Jan. 23. Under the law, the unions will have representatives on university councils and will be funded by university budgets, donations, gifts and revenue from their activities. Members of the unions will be elected by secret ballot and can serve for more than one term. Allowing the formation of student unions in the kingdom's academic institutions is just the latest in a series of extraordinary but cautious reforms that King Abdullah has been spearheading. The key concern for the Saudis has been how to manage the reform process so that it does not trigger an adverse reaction from the country's ultraconservative Salafi-Wahhabi religious establishment. Thus far, Riyadh has been able to get the country to adjust to the societal reforms, which come not just in response to international pressure but also from the government's desire to effect change so the kingdom can move beyond its image as an authoritarian state and intolerant society. The Saudi government’s philosophy is that it needs to get ahead of the inevitable — change — and manage it before it takes on a life of its own. The move to allow students to form unions, however, carries a significant risk to stability in the kingdom. The government's calculus is that because there are no formal groups in kingdom, Riyadh can manage student unions just as it has maintained oversight of the Shura Council — by keeping government loyalists in these groups in order to have inside information and the ability to manipulate the organizations. The idea is that only vetted individuals who are Saudi nationals will be allowed to run for office on campuses, so there is no danger that unions will become powerful enough to cause concern. Students outside the Western world — especially in the Middle East — usually play a critical role in political activism. Until now, Saudi Arabia's monarchial state and ultraconservative religious society have prevented the student activism other Arab states have experienced. Ontologically speaking, student groups — which are usually very politically active — precede unions, which the state can use to control student activism. The Saudis are approaching this issue from the opposite direction, hoping they can prevent student activism from becoming a challenge to the state. However, they are not very likely to be able to prevent Saudi students from emulating the culture of activism popular among their counterparts elsewhere in the region. Even in the absence of formal political and social groups, Saudi Arabia's party-less student union elections will become a forum for the various ideological currents in the kingdom. Most of these are Islamist-oriented, because for the longest time Saudi youth had a disproportionately rigorous religious education rather than a secular one — a situation that has only begun to change in the last few years. Though the Saudis have been very successful at degrading jihadist capabilities, the ideological battle against the forces of religious extremism has only just begun. Student unions could become forums that radical Islamist forces can exploit to combat the government's moves toward reform — and there is no doubt that many within the kingdom are unhappy with the major changes Riyadh has made thus far. The week of Jan. 13 the government announced that women are now allowed to stay alone in hotels, and on Jan. 25 the first women's soccer match reportedly was held in the eastern city of Dammam. Conservative forces are trying to use state-sanctioned institutions to try to stem the tide of changes that Riyadh is making. The religious establishment has been able to get its representatives elected to many of the limited number of seats on the Shura Council that are open to elections; it will only be a matter of time before it gets representatives elected to the student unions. Compared to the Shura Council, students are more susceptible to not just radical impulses but also to militancy. Assuming the Saudis can keep the militants out of the unions, these elected bodies eventually can spawn organized student groups, which in turn can lead to the formation of political groups. If Riyadh cannot keep militants out of the student unions, those unions will be a powerful tool the jihadists could use to reverse their currently dwindling fortunes. The success that Saudi internal security and intelligence apparatuses have had in limiting jihadists' ability to operate is something of an indication that Riyadh can prevent jihadists, traditionalists and liberals from exploiting the unions. Riyadh might even resort to banning the unions at some point should things get out of hand. But it is one thing to deal with militants, who are a minority, and another to deal with students, the majority of whom would not want to see their unions disappear. The permission to form student unions is perhaps riskier than any other move the Saudis have made toward social openness — one that also is the most significant, in terms of its implications for political stability.