Winter 2009 Vol. VII, No. 2

AUB Reflections

If You Love Lebanon

Two days after being named dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) in 1974, Elie Salem (BA ’50), was kicked out of his office by occupying students. Today the president of the University of Balamand, Salem admits that he loved teaching, hated grading papers, and that his difficult years as dean of FAS (1974-82) made for an easy transition to deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Lebanon in 1982.

As soon as I knew I had the AUB job, Phyllis came and we were married in the village. We were determined to stay at AUB, to live in Lebanon, and to make our careers here. I loved the new department—working with John Adams, a really liberal character, and Fred Bent, but I taught for only two years before returning to the United States in 1956, when Johns Hopkins offered me an assistant professorship at double my AUB salary.

This time we stayed in America for six years, from 1956 to 1962, when AUB’s president, Norman Burns, offered me a job at AUB.

When I returned to AUB, President Burns didn’t want me in political science, but in the new Orientation Program (UOP) designed to attract students from the Gulf. After two years of setting up the UOP in the middle of a dispute between the dean, Farid Hanania, and the president, I went back to political science, where I taught courses I liked, including Cultural Studies, was chair of the department, and later assistant dean under Terry Prothro. In 1974 I became dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).

MG: What was AUB like when you returned in 1962? Were there any big differences?
Oh, yes. AUB had grown considerably. At that time with the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union growing over influence in developing nations, a lot of money was channeled to AUB through AID (the Agency for International Development). Congressmen came, took pictures, and went back to report on what a good job this American university was doing.

MG: Do you still keep in touch with your students?
Not really. But later on, when I visited the Gulf States, I often met my students, many of whom were in prominent positions in government and business. What impressed me most was their telling me how much they had benefited from Cultural Studies (now the Civilization Sequence Program). It was the course they hated most while at AUB, but it was by far the most useful to them when they returned to their own countries. It stayed with them. Cultural Studies opened up their minds.

I really enjoyed teaching, although I hated grading papers. But somehow I found my career taking me toward administration without my choosing this direction.

MG: Your time as dean coincided with the civil war. What can you tell us about those years?
Well, it was also a period of much student unrest. I was appointed dean on Tuesday and was kicked out of my offices by occupying students on Thursday.
When I was still teaching, I had frequently served as adviser to students and to the student council, so many of the radical students were friends of mine. When they wanted, for example, to hold a demonstration at the American Embassy, I would agree that they could go, but that they should stop at such and such a place and then return. “Don’t embarrass the University.” I had some influence over them at first.

But when I became dean the conflict became larger and the political parties really dominated the scene. I lost the influence I’d had. By then, when I told the students something, they would go and do the opposite. The Palestinian movement had taken a different shape in Lebanon, and in the vanguard were some political parties and students at AUB. The occupation of buildings on campus was going hand in hand with the occupation of streets in Ras Beirut. That the students were no longer coming to my office was a big shock. I realized that it was not the students talking, but leaders from outside who were telling the students in West Hall what to do from one day to the next.

My deanship came at a very difficult time. The University was at its most unstable period. Some Americans were leaving; others were kidnapped. When rumors suggested that the trustees wanted to close the University or move it to Morocco or Jordan I began sending out papers to all faculty members saying that the University would remain in Lebanon, that we might have to teach for free, but that under no condition would we allow the University to move, even if no salaries were paid. Although it was a very difficult time, I’m proud of that period.

MG: You left AUB to become deputy prime minister and foreign minister in 1982. Was it difficult to adjust to leaving academia for administration, first as FAS dean and then as part of the government?
No. In fact, I did not find much difference at all. I found that being a professor at a university and being a dean handling human problems daily fully qualifies you to deal with matters of state in a completely rational, intelligent manner. I felt very confident in the role, very much at ease.

MG: Did you ever go back to AUB?
No, but in 1985 I was asked by a delegation of trustees if I would serve as president, with residence in London, Paris, or New York. Under no condition could I accept: it would not have been fair to my colleagues nor would it have been fair to Lebanon where there was so much to do. And then in the mid-’80s with all that was going on in Lebanon—the situation in the government, the attempts to get Israel out of the country, the conflicting Arab positions, the radical divisions—all made the delegation’s suggestion seem so far from the work I was doing that I didn’t think it was realistic for me to assume a job at AUB at that time.

I haven’t really been back to AUB. Things have changed so much that I no longer know anybody at the gate and very few people inside. I was once even stopped at the gate, and that hurt. I rarely go to Beirut and don’t socialize at all. I have returned to my village, and I’m happy there, seven minutes by car from my office at the University of Balamand.

MG: What has been the effect of AUB on your life?
Oh, everything. I consider myself to be totally formed by AUB—my mind and my personality and my friendships. I must admit that I have no real friends except the ones I made at AUB.

Everything I do has come from my AUB experience. My entire life was formed at AUB. Much of my work at the University of Balamand is influenced by my experience at AUB. I have only one criticism, which came out of my work in government. I made it in a speech to the alumni in 1997. AUB so emphasized the regional aspects of its influence that it did not emphasize Lebanon enough. It took Lebanon too much for granted. I think my colleagues at AUB and in the administration never really fully grasped the problem of Lebanon as it should be grasped. If you love Lebanon, you love the Arab world, not vice versa. It was a very positive critique, but somehow it was never understood. I never got any reaction. I wanted the University to emphasize Lebanon, but not to ignore the region. I wanted my colleagues at AUB to look with two eyes, to look at the region through Lebanon and not at Lebanon through the region.

—J.M.C.

Elie Salem (BA ’50)
President of the University of Balamand since 1993
At AUB: taught public administration, political science, and cultural studies; directed the original University Orientation Program; served as chair of the PSPA Department, acting president, and dean of FAS (1974-82); deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs (1982-84); adviser on foreign affairs to the president of the republic (1984-88).