Opinion-Here is your alumni corner

Here is your alumni corner

By Hussain Abdul-Hussain---

News from the AUB Alumni Association is scarce. The administration is almost going out of its way to make up for the AAAÕs inefficiency in attracting the UniveristyÕs greatest asset, its worldwide alumni. The alumni, if properly hooked, could turn out to be a great source of finance, a sweet daddy that might bring AUBÕs finacial difficulties to an end. But what is the AAA doing? 2001 elections were concluded a short while ago. So what? What happens if an AAA Òexecutive committeeÓ was elected or not? Does anyone in this university know anything about this association? As a matter of fact, my journalistic curuiosity pushed me - a couple of months ago - to pay AAAÕs reelected President, Mr. Abdallah Mashnouk, a visit to his office in the associationÕs main building just next to AUBMC. Being an alumnus myself, I wanted to discover what my to-be association looks like. In that buildingÕs third floor, Mashnouk occupies the mos spacious office IÕve ever seen on AUBÕs premises. We knocked at MasnoukÕs door. His voice commended: Òenter.Ó As we entered, the man politely minimized the active window on his two-year old Macintosh and stood up to shake our hands. A charismatic white haired gentleman, who made me concentrate to recall where and when I have seen this guy, introduced himself: ÒAbdallah al Mashnouk.Ó The man was certainly familiar, I started recalling. I could never relate this guy to any AAAÕs activity since, even after five years of my studentship at AUB, nothing of AAAÕs news struck me as being remarkable. Eventually, my memory came back to me. Oh yes. I know the guy. He had even posed for me to take his picture as I covered the different graduation ceremonies (in his capacity as an AAA president, Mr. Mashnouk is a trustee with a reserved seat on the graduation podium) . The only difference is that during graduation ceremonies you see all those people with a funy regalia on them that once they take the regalia off, you can barely identify them. Mr. Mashnouk was welcoming us when I recalled everything about him. He ran for elections, at least for a couple of them, and how could I forget? IÕve seen his picture during the 2000 electoral campaigns posted all around Beirut. IÕve heard about his probabilities in succeeding or not to the Lebanese parliament. Being the AAA relected president, Mr. Mashnouk has at least ran twice for presidency. Mr. Mashnouk, and IÕm guessing here, is a man of elections. Whenever you say elections, I remember Mashnouk. But the words AAA and Mashnouk have never been coupled together inside my head before I had stepped into the gentlmanÕs huge office. I introduced myself as the former editor-in-chief of Outlook and proposed to volunteer some journalism activity in favor of some AAA publicity. ÒIndeed, we used to publish al-Kulliya to which both AUB faculty and Alumni used to contribute some written pieces,Ó he said. I was impressed. ÒBut al-Kulliya is different from Outlook,Ó he added. Mashnouk explained to me how al-Kullliya caters to different subjects and targets different strata of the AUB community. By the time Mr. Mashnouk had concluded his argument, I had understood that al-Kulliya will only be revived if it will have pictures of smiling people who are always celebrating, dining, and rewarding each other on its pages. Those people would normally be alumni, particularly the elected ones among them. It is their publication after all. So here we go. All alumni who want to express their opinion on issues pertaining to the AUB community, who want to share some of their AUB memories, or who even want to publicize their support to their University, please do not hesitate to contact me. My friends and former colleagues in Outlook promised me an Alumni Corner. Here it is.