Class of 2009 Graduation Ceremony Full of Optimism Despite Economic Crisis

Class of 2009

The global economic crisis could not put a damper on Graduation Day for members of the class of 2009, who hung onto optimism, despite some real concerns about the current job market. Some 1,811 students graduated from the American University of Beirut on June 27, after spending up to four years on campus, learning, debating, making friends, and simply growing. About 1,670 graduates actually attended the ceremony. The class of 2009 had to grapple with many challenges during their student years, from wars, to political tension, to terrorism. Yet, the message delivered by graduating student Lina Kanso was hopeful.

And the pink balloons carried by many graduates reflected this insistence on optimism. “Although the picture seems quite gloomy,” Kanso said, “this does not discourage us graduates, from facing our challenges with confidence. The AUB experience not only gives us the knowledge and the analytical ability to help us understand our environment but also builds our communication skills, develops our spirit of initiative and adaptability, and teaches us to value diversity and creativity.”

Kanso, who earned a master’s degree in financial economics, is a member of the University Student-Faculty Committee.

In addition to embracing hope, Kanso prodded her classmates to be “agents of change,” not followers of faulty social constructs. Challenge “power structures that breed politics of fear, racism, chauvinism, sectarianism, and clientelism,” she told them. Kanso also invited her classmates to reject social stereotyping of women regarding “their interests, their looks, or most importantly their roles . . . It is about time for us to cross the bridge to gender equality,” she said.

Recalling the memories of the years spent at AUB, Kanso told her classmates: “Today, . . . as we are sitting waiting to receive our diplomas, memories flash back into our minds: of good friends we have made, of many overnights we have spent studying till the last minute, . . . of the successes we have enjoyed and the failures we have learned from.” Concluding, she said, “Today . . . let our new journey begin, an open road with no frontiers.”

The Commencement speaker, outgoing chair of the Board of Trustees Thomas Morris, also told students to consider their graduation day as a beginning. “Your education has just begun. Keep your mind open. Rather than graduation, a better description of the ceremony might be the old fashioned term, commencement, a beginning,” he said. Morris left students with three messages. Volunteer and serve the less fortunate. Stay connected with the AUB community. Never stop learning or wondering.

“Your diploma will be recognized throughout the world . . . as a mark of distinction and accomplishment . . . because you will bring to your future pursuits not only a vast fund of information, but also the qualities which are the hallmarks of AUB . . . tolerance of others, freedom of expression, and the capacity to think analytically and to wonder,” he said.

AUB President Peter Dorman, who handed out diplomas along with faculty deans, congratulated the graduates, telling them that their AUB degree would be their passport to a remarkable future. “The diplomas you are about to receive will do more than simply certify that you have completed a degree in the program of your choice,” he said. “Behind each diploma lie historic generations of men and women who have left their significant mark in the world, and whose ranks you are about to join.”

Dorman concluded with much optimism: “You are graduating at a time when soft new winds of change are beginning to blow from east and west alike.”

Among those attending the ceremony were MP Bahiyya Hariri, representing President Michel Suleiman; MP Michel Musa, representing speaker Nabih Berri; and Minister Mohammed Qabbani, representing Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

A number of AUB Board of Trustees members also participated in the ceremony. They included Farouk Jabre, former Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri. The AUB choir, led by Director Paul Meers sang a selection of music during the ceremony.