Why are those beautiful villas on campus used for housing senior administrators?  Wouldn't it be much more beneficial for the University community if they were used to promote the University's academic mission?  There are enough apartments on campus for administrators to occupy. Mansions such as the Pink House or Dean Hajj's house could be used for departments and other academic units.
     An  example of good management of such University buildings is the AUB Art Gallery opened recently in the old Lee Observatory Building.
     Opening the campus for  wider public use is another step that has to be done. This is the proper way to optimize the use of AUB's resources.
     But AUB's resources are restricted neither to buildings nor to the campus.  They also consist of human resources on both  the student and faculty level. All around the world, governments, industrial companies, research centers and non-governmental organizations resort to universities to hire their advisors, experts and managers. Even the Lebanese state is not an exception.
     We all know that several ministers in the current and past cabinets are or were AUB professors. The only exception to the international rule is AUB itself. We have never seen AUB professors taking part in development initiatives for AUB. We have not even heard of AUB professors being consulted on such issues.  The University should make the effort of using its own human resources instead of resorting to external consultants or technicians. As one professor from the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture puts it: "They like to spend money!"
  I think College Hall is pretty ugly: it might be suitable for the headquarters of a bank in downtown Beirut, but certainly not for the main building in an academic institution certainly not in AUB. Although I am not an architect, I feel the work done is comparable to modern structures in Saudi Arabia where the effort is concentrated on conveying a certain fake prestige to the building. Look at the palm trees on the main plaza, look at the "white hats" in the space separating College Hall from Jafet Library. 
     What role did the Architecture Department play in that respect? Was anyone from the department ever consulted on this issue? We all know that the University launched recently a new project, a master plan for the campus.  Was the opinion of our professionals taken on that matter? 
And the list goes on. Where are professionals from the Faculties of Engineering and Health Sciences in dealing with the issue of the AUH incinerator and the polluting power plant on lower campus? What is the role played by engineers and computer scientists in the PC support unit? What about business and economics professors?  Do they have a say in setting the financial policies of the University?
I understand that there is a matter of liability in this respect: contractors or external auditors can be held responsible for any failures in the accomplished job, whereas faculty members cannot. But should an advisor be held responsible for his consultations? Why doesn't the University appoint an advisory committee of faculty and students for every project on campus? Yes, students! Are graphic design students unable to present better designs for the latest University catalogue, the one that didn't have any margins?
     Such involvement would encourage students to participate in developing their institution and provide them with employment opportunities surely less expensive for the University. Can't nutrition students work and learn in the non-privatized AUB cafeterias? Isn't the experience of the Visitor's Bureau a successful one? 
     Taking the issue the other way around, I think that faculty members have a responsibility in that sense too. To what extent are relevant examples from our campus or community taken into account in the academic curriculum? Are nutrition professors, for example, encouraging their students to study food services on campus? Do such initiatives need a central policy to flourish?
     This is how the sense of belonging is forged; this is how we form a community for our University.
 In modern societies transparency and joint governance is the key for improvement. Encouraging students to consider development strategies for the University and stimulating faculty members to give their opinions as professionals and not only as scholars will promote the academic role of AUB and will build a coherent community. I hope in the future we won't fail to meet the slogan,"Let us all build AUB," as we failed to meet the slogan, "Let us all rebuild College Hall".