One cannot but question the recruitment policy of AUB especially after  "Kevlin Gate" and several other cases of faculty members leaving the University. The whole AUB community is now aware that instability has been the major characteristic of employment in administrative positions of the University. The positions of Deputy Vice President for Development, Director of the Medical Center, the Comptroller and  the CAMES director are clear examples of that instability on the administrative level. Unfortunately, research shows that the issue of recruitment on the academic level is similarly catastrophic leading us to the same conclusion: high turnover and instability.
    When asked about the recruitment procedure, Mr. George Tomey, Vice President for Administration explains, "AUB is an equal opportunity employer. Each position is advertised with all its requirements. A search committee is appointed, conducts interviews and recommends the hiring of applicants." Procedurally, everything seems to be OK, but the reality is far from being satisfactory. In fact, employment figures of academic personnel reveal a totally different situation. Ever since 1996, AUB has witnessed an extremely high turnover in employment of faculty members in all faculties. The number of those employed and those who leave the University is considerable. Most of the faculty members who leave the University have spent less than two years in service as the figures show!
    For a total number of approximately 625 faculty members in AUB, as given by the "unrecognized" AUB Faculty Association web-site (last updated June 1999), the year 2000 has witnessed the employment of 62 faculty members, 10% of the entire academic body.  Since 1996, the yearly number of faculty members employed has never dropped under 38, the peak of 62 having been reached in the year 2000. The number of those who left AUB was at its minimum of 16 in 1997 and reached a maximum of 45 in 1998. In the first two months of the year 2001, 13 professors were employed and six left. As you can see, a considerable number of faculty members enter and leave AUB each year.
    Looking at the division of those numbers among faculties, one cannot but notice the great fluctuations in the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture and the Faculty of Health Sciences. For a total number of 47 professors in Engineering in 1999 (again according to the Faculty Association), the year 2000 witnessed the employment of ten professors (20% of the teaching staff) and the departure of five. The same applies for the Faculty of Health Sciences: of a total of 35 professors in 1999, ten were hired and seven (20% of the total) left in the year 2000. Can a faculty sustain the change of 20% of its academic personnel in a single year?
    The turnover in faculty positions at AUB is incontestably high. But one might say: "this comes under a general policy of bringing new blood to the University after the war years." Unacceptable justification according to the tables! Taking the year 2000 figures, you can notice that in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, for example, from a total of 23 professors who left in that year, 12 stayed in AUB for less than two years! In Engineering four out of five stayed for the same period, whereas the number in Health Sciences was five out of seven! If you take the figures for the first two months of 2001, three out of four professors who left Arts and Sciences stayed for less than a year. Also, the only professor who left the Faculty of Health Sciences stayed for one year only. It is needless to remind you that this year the Office of Student Affairs witnessed the departure of its head after a period of exactly one year and four months. Incidentally, he was already seeking another job as early as six months after his appointment in October 1999! On the other hand, knowing that the civil war ended in 1990 and taking a look at the year 2000 figures, one can easily identify the inconsistency of the argument that the turnover is all about changing the crew: from a total of 42 professors who left AUB in that year only four served the institution for a period of ten years or more. So there is definitely very litle new blood coming in.
    Concerning that point, we can easily state that those who are leaving are new faculty members but still, we cannot but mention that in the last few years AUB lost several of its senior big names. For example, the History Department lost Dr. Kamal Salibi, one of the most prominent Lebanese historians, as well as Dr. Tarif Kahlidi, now in Cambridge University, another loss to the same department. Also, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering lost Dr. Shehwan Khoury, now Dean of Engineering in Notre Dame University (NDU).
 "Foreigners don't stay long in a single institution; they seek career advancement in several places" says Mr. Tomey. Even without pointing out foreigners among those who leave AUB, no academic program can sustain a change of faculty members every two years. What stability are we students getting out of these recruitment policies? What quality of education are we receiving if most faculty members stay for less than two years in service? Some fellow might say: "Foreigner faculty members come to AUB, don't like the environment, which doesn't suit their families so, they leave." But shouldn't our administration take that possibility into account when employing foreign faculty members? 
    "Such a high turnover characterizes most American universities around the world." Do we have to answer this? American universities, unlike AUB, get the stability of their academic programs from the research and development they invest in, from their graduate and PhD programs.  They don't have our financial difficulties; they have a wide choice of faculty members to recruit from and are not restricted to those who agree to work abroad in a "hostile environment" such as Beirut.
 It doesn't matter how much one tries to play the devil's advocate; the recruitment policy of our University is not working; one has to begin by admitting it. No decent recruitment policy should result in newly appointed professors leaving an institution within less than two years. No decent recruitment policy should result in a turnover of 10 to 20 percent of the faculty in a single year. No decent recruitment policy should result in such large numbers of professors entering and leaving AUB "comme dans un moulin" as they say in French.
    Besides admitting the failure of its recruitment policy the Administration should reconsider the status of those faculty members who stay in AUB. A comprehensive investigation of that matter should be initiated as soon as possible. Faculty members are insecure; they are demoralized; they are being demoted; their contracts are being renewed on a yearly basis; their positions are advertised each year... What quality of education are we receiving from insecure professors? How does the administration expect academics in AUB to improve if professors are in such a bad position?
    Possible remedies to this situation would be to recognize the Faculty Association, to restore professors' tenure contracts. We students need secure faculty members to teach us.  We need a strong academic body.  We need more transparency in recruitment; in a word we need joint governance of the University by the three bodies: the administration, the academic faculty and the student body