The 1,688 students comprising the graduating class of 2005 will go down in AUB history as the second largest class-outnumbered only by the 1,730 graduates of the class of 2004. This year’s graduates included the sons and daughters of several prominent Lebanese personalities. Speaker Nabih Berri was there to see his daughter Amal receive her BBA in marketing. Interior Minister Hassan Sabeh attended to watch his son Mohamad Khaled, receive his BS in biology. Former Industry Minister Leila Solh swelled with pride as her daughter Haya was handed her MD degree. And although he did not attend the commencement exercises, Taymur Walid Joumblatt was also listed among the graduates, as he had completed his BA in political science in February. As the commencement keynote speaker, renowned journalist Ghassan Tueni chose to spotlight the presence in the audience of Nobel Prize laureate Ahmed Zewail, as a living example of what constituted the theme of his address: working for progress and the future, instead of staying imprisoned in the Arab world’s “unexploited resources and achievements” of the past. Both Zewail and Tueni, who is also an AUB trustee emeritus, had received honorary doctoral degrees from AUB earlier that day. Tueni described Zewail as a “prototype of this new culture,” which allows a man to rise from modest beginnings to become recognized internationally without losing his cultural identity. “I propose that we turn this ceremony into a solemn occasion: the proclamation of a cultural revolution,” Tueni said. “I am speaking of a revolution that does not destroy our culture nor affect our national character, but will valiantly liberate us from servility to the past and take us, through basic reform of education, learning, and religion to the ultimate horizons of globalized scientific knowledge and creativity.” Tueni also paid tribute to the memory of Basil Fleihan, the former minister and AUB alumnus who died from the injuries sustained in the horrendous car bomb that killed former Prime Minister Rafic B. Hariri and twenty others in February. Tueni spoke of Fleihan’s lifetime fight against the brain drain, when he “invested his learning in his country… and sacrificed personal interest and security for the common good.” Tueni urged the graduates not to consider their diplomas as “exit visas” and their homeland as “a hotel,” where they can reside for reasons of tourism or business, then leave or return when the quality of service became more welcoming. In his commencement address, President John Waterbury also expressed the fear of student “migration” after graduation, but persisted with a message of hope, despite the tragic losses of the year, which included the premature death of senior student Khalil Yaghi, as well as those of Hariri and Fleihan. University Student Faculty Committee Vice President Elie Malhame, who gave the class speech, first expressed thanks to the University and to the parents. “To every father, mother, or guardian,” he said, “…we offer you the noblest verses of thanks and gratitude, and we pledge that we will be forever indebted, as long as the sun rises and sets. He then turned to politics and reminded government officials of the young generation’s demands of safeguarding sovereignty and fighting corruption: “We tell officials: ‘Enough. Enough toying with us, our future, and the future of our nations…We will not emigrate. We will not subscribe to the game of blind cronyism… And we will not despair. We will keep on fighting and rejecting subjugation.”
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