Winter 2008 Vol. VI, No. 2

Waterbury Years

In His own Words

The goals of a presidency and the events that have defined a country, a university, and the lives of its graduates.

Freedom of Expression
The Daily Star, October 20, 1997
AUB… can afford to have people expressing their views, political and otherwise, if they accept the legitimacy of their rival’s particular opinions. But this can work only if the life of the University itself is not disrupted… If we can operate within those guidelines, which I would defend rather firmly, then AUB can live up to considerable freedom of expression and representation of opinion.

Education for Life
Opening Exercises, 1998
Inherent in our educational values is choice. Our students are young; we do not expect and we do not want them to commit themselves to specialized training without first examining all options, without learning to understand themselves better, without being exposed, no matter how superficially, to all the realms of knowledge and creativity that constitute the core of true learning. When one speaks of education for life—a concept in which I firmly believe—one is saying that no choice is forever… We want to offer you choices, and we hope that throughout your lives you will always dare to choose.

Renewed Hope
College Hall Ceremony, 1999
Nine years ago, on November 8, 1991, College Hall, which had stood since 1873 as a beacon to all Beirut, was brought down by a powerful explosion. It was a time of sadness and disbelief for a University and a nation groping their way toward recovery from the ravages of a long civil war… We salute this evening all those, great and small, who contributed to the reconstruction of College Hall.

With your help, we put this old lady back together stone by stone.Tonight is a time of renewed hope and of new beginnings. This University looks to the future, and with all your help and devotion I am confident that future is bright.

In Praise of Diversity
Opening Ceremony, 2000
A great University must foster diversity… It is by its nature and in its mission, diverse. It is also embracing and tolerant… It must be diverse in order to promote learning in the broadest sense. A big part of learning, whether for students or for faculty, is to be confronted with the different, the unusual, and on occasion, the disturbing… Interaction in dormitories, student clubs, classes, the athletic fields, in Ras Beirut, or in the classroom is where we all learn how to deal with diversity, sometimes to find joy in its discovery, and sometimes to understand better our discomfort. Our task as a community of intellectuals, students, and teachers is to welcome diversity, embrace it, and make ourselves better human beings for having done so.

After 9/11
Opening Ceremony, 2001
The beginning of a new academic year should be a time of excitement and high expectations. This new academic year is no exception… Yet we all feel, in varying degrees, uncertainty, confusion, anger, sorrow, and even fear. And well we should. But, my friends, my message today is that it is precisely in such times as these that the University must rise to meet the occasion, to assert itself as the place to seek understanding, to examine and debate the issues, to explore the bases of our fears and apprehensions, to try—above all to try—to bring clarity of thinking and some sense of moral order to a world that sometimes defies comprehension.

Women at AUB
Opening Ceremony, 2002
It is my policy, and until I am told otherwise by the Board of Trustees, it will remain my policy to increase the number of women in our student body, in our faculty ranks, and in our senior administration. In only one other domain is the University actively trying to change its complexion, and that is in endeavoring to attract students from beyond Lebanon’s borders so that we regain the regional prominence we once enjoyed. In my mind, these two kinds of affirmative action are far more important than worrying over the sectarian composition of our community.