Despite the threatening instability that has been pervading Lebanon ever since the assassination of PM Rafic Hariri, many schools did not hesitate to send their students to participate in AUB’s Annual School Fair, a seven-day event that was held in early April. “The fair was a success, in spite of the circumstances,” said Nadine Naffah, associate director of admissions and chair of the AUB Fair Committee. “Initially we invited 163 schools and 80 of them accepted, so we were expecting around 5,000 students to attend. But because of the troubled security situation, only 67 schools actually participated, lowering the number of students attending to 3,532—which is still a high number, considering the circumstances. The schools that didn’t show up were mostly those situated in remote areas of Lebanon.” This year’s school fair was slightly different from that of last year. The committee decided to replace the separate faculty presentations by an informative all-inclusive and interactive movie, which was produced by the Office of Information and Public Relations and the Office of Admissions and directed by Phillip Bejjali. The movie, shown for the first time, received positive response from the audience, according to Ibrahim Khoury, a member of the committee and the director of the Office of Information and Public Relations. “By showing the movie instead of having faculty presentations,” said Naffah, “we had time this year to take the students on campus and faculty tours. This way, the students were able to visit the various faculties themselves, meet the professors, ask questions, and thus arrive at a much better understanding of the academic activities that go on.” To identify the students and keep the tour groups intact, the fair committee gave them colored scarves to wear, which also helped the Protection Office keep an eye on who was entering the AUB campus. The AUB Visitors Bureau, meanwhile, provided a total of 50 guides to accompany the students on the campus and faculty tours.
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