In compliance with its mission to expand students’ skills and provide them with multidisciplinary perspectives, AUB installed a Reuters Newsroom for use by the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business. The aim was to offer its students professional training in journalism with the world’s most recognized news agency, which is “a global information company providing indispensable information tailored for professionals in the financial services, media, and corporate markets.” Since its establishment in January 2002, the Reuters Newsroom has been very active in holding workshops and offering professional journalistic skills to businessmen and journalists in the Middle East. Establishment of the Reuters Newsroom, which is located in Ada Dodge Hall, resulted from a mutual agreement signed between George K. Najjar, vice president for Regional External Programs and dean of the School of Business and the Reuters Foundation, represented by its director, Maureen Marlowe. As Dean Najjar described the agreement, “the Reuters Foundation would offer practical training to journalists from the region and would promote the highest professional standards in cooperation with a recognized academic institution, while AUB would be ready to offer a certificate program in journalism through its Continuing Education Center for students from Lebanon and the region.” Usually students majoring in business administration are given access to the Reuters Newsroom. Nonetheless, when the newsroom is holding a workshop or specialized training classes, AUB students from other majors are welcome to participate. “One of the main objectives of the newsroom is to conduct workshops on diversified topics, such as international business and the environment, or organize TV workshops for journalists from the Middle East region,” says Dean Najjar. The IT department of the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business operates the Reuters Newsroom, whose computers are connected to the Reuters News agency through a dish and a lease line, with services including 24-hour world news and stock market exchange information. Since its establishment, the Reuters Newsroom has been very active and has focused on holding workshops. So far, six workshops have been conducted by the Reuters Foundation for journalists from all over the world. One workshop was administered by the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA) on business writing and another by the International Center for Journalists on banking and international finance. The Suliman S. Olayan School of Business, on its part, conducted workshops for Lebanese journalists on writing business news. Its latest workshop, held on December 13, 2004, was conducted by Sir Geoffrey Owen, former editor of the Financial Times and Graham Watts, deputy editor of Financial Times Magazine. The newsroom is also used as an ideal environment for teaching courses in corporate finance and banking. “The Reuters Newsroom will be the backbone teaching facility for the AUB certificate program in business journalism currently being prepared by the Continuing Education Center. It is also part of our building excellence in finance,” says Dean Najjar, in talking about the newsroom’s future plans.
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