By Lama Tassabehji---

Issac Newton once said, ÒI can see as far as I do because I stand on the shoulders of giants.Ó Well I ask you this, if we keep relying on these giants to see as far as we do, wonÕt our weight on their shoulders soon sink us both down into the ground, shortening our sight with each extra day of added weight? Metaphorically speaking our problems weigh us down, or so we hear, therefore, weighing our giants down. LetÕs refer to reality. If AUB donot employ a Dean of Student Affairs for a long term position today, then the entitled position will only be gathering more and more unfulfilled long term plans leading to a heavier load on the Ògiant.Ó If AUB doesnÕt employ a brighter system that allows for professors to teach and research at the same time, then the burdening common lecture will only be adding to shrinking eyesight of the students that are standing on their professors the Ògiants.Ó Lectures are becoming so pointless. For example, the CS 203 lecture given in Issam Fares Hall for the past two weeks due to the hallÕs Òbetter accommodations of slides,Ó could not accommodate places for all students much less professors to sit down in seats, leaving them to sit down on the floor. Another blinding factor for you, if you were a student much keen on taking notes so that later on you could understand the handout given at the beginning of the lecture, were the turned of lights for the slide show. Another added weight on the giantsÕ shoulders is the Financial Aid Department that has recently been linked to the Admissions Office with a common director, Dr Salim Kanaan. This ÒbondÓ was made to make things easier for students seeking financial aid. ÒPutting both offices under single leadership will allow better utilization of background information received about students through admissions to asses financial need,Ó said Provost Peter Heath in an article published in the AUB Bulletin. But according to Kanaan, Òit is still based on the same formula as before which depends on the need of the applicant,Ó therefore not changing much for the applicants. Instead, this ÒbondÓ adds more of a burden to Salim Kanaan who was only able to ÒskimÓ through the applications for continuing students this year. Maybe the new associate director for financial aid will help things more, but correct me if I am wrong, wonÕt he/she be added weight in the form that he/she will have to be taken under wing and taught and has to settle in and everything else? In Outlook we will depend on the levels reached in the past to prosper and grow in the present, just like NewtonÕs statement suggests. But if we never look up from the giants we are standing on I guess we will never be able to let our giants fulfill their purpose, to help us reach the top, without holding us down, never mind being future giants ourselves.