President
Waterbury and Prince Alwaleed signing the Memorandum of Understanding
establishing the Center for American Studies and Research at
AUB. US Ambassador Vincent Battle, AUB's Director of Information
and Public Relations Ibrahim Khoury, and the prince's aid are
looking on. |
A long-existing
gap in the curriculum of AUB was closed in early June with the announcement
of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdalaziz Alsaud Center for American
Studies and Research (CASAR) at the University. In the presence of
US Ambassador Vincent Battle, Saudi Ambassador Fouad Mufti, representatives
of the Lebanese government, and a number of AUB trustees, administrators,
deans, faculty members, and students, Prince Alwaleed and President
John Waterbury signed a memorandum of understanding establishing the
center.
Prince
Alwaleed presented President Waterbury with two checks, one for
five million dollars and a second for $238,000. The five million
dollars will be used as an endowment fund to support the ongoing
operation and maintenance of the center and its activities. The
$238,000 will be used as seed money to set up the center and make
it operational.
In
accepting the generous gift President Waterbury praised the "foresight
and boldness" of Prince Alwaleed which allows AUB "to do something
it has long dreamed of" in its endeavors "to be a bridge of understanding
between the Middle East and the United States." The center, he said,
while fostering "teaching, research, and conferences, focuses on
the dynamics of American history, society, and politics and . .
. will become a focal point for debate and careful analysis."
In
an eloquent address to the assembled educators and friends of AUB,
Prince Alwaleed deplored the lack in Middle Eastern universities
of "viable centers of European studies, or South or Southeastern
Asian studies, or Russian studies," or American studies.
"The
truth of the matter," HRH continued, "is that there is scant knowledge
in the Arab world about the United States." He hopes that the establishment
of such centers as CASAR will deepen Arab "understanding of the
United States, as well as bridge the gap that emerged between the
United States and the Arab world on the heels of the tragic events
of September 11" through "the systematic study of American history,
civil society, governmental institutions, law, politics, economics,
political parties, interest groups, and much else."
CASAR
is the second American center in the Middle East funded by HRH this
year. In January he established a center for American studies at
the American University of Cairo.
Prince
Alwaleed's commitment to closing the gap between the Arab world
and the West works in the West-East direction as well. He recently
endowed a scholarship fund at the Institute of Arab Studies of the
University of Exeter to enable students from 15 European Union countries
to travel to the Arab world for further study and research. He is
simultaneously promoting the establishment of centers for Arab and
Islamic studies at several universities in the United States.
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