A Day in the Life of a University President:

Shadowing President Waterbury

An early riser by habit, President John Waterbury woke up at around 6:00 a.m. on Thursday October 12. Since his agenda was booked up for the day, he worked awhile in the morning before breakfast in his Marquand House office, going over necessary statements and papers.

"I take advantage of my time in the morning to prepare for my meetings of the day." On the days when he teaches PSPA 238, International Political Economy, he prepares for his lectures in the early hours of the day.

By 6:30 breakfast is served. Frequently, he has houseguests from New York and elsewhere who join him for breakfast, but today his houseguests overslept.

All around the year, he has predictable activities he participates in, such as the Senior Staff meeting each Tuesday, the Board of Deans meeting each Thursday, and the monthly USFC meeting. Travel plans can range from predictable, such as the three Board of Trustees meetings every year in New York in November, March and June, to unpredictable, which involve fundraising and visiting alumni associations. President Waterbury will be going to Chicago at the end of May for the 50th anniversary of the Alumni Association of North America.

He usually spends his holidays in Cape Cod, a coastal area in Massachusetts. He puts on his swimming trunks and takes a relaxing vacation away from the daily hustle of work. Since one of his hobbies is bird watching, he goes out on the local river in his rowboat to watch birds. "It is a very relaxing habit."

Another activity he pursues in his free time is photography. He produces photographs of nature, birds, and city scenes, some of which decorate his office.

As for family, the President is divorced and has a daughter in her early 30s. Trishka Waterbury is practices law in New York City.

During the weekends, he visits his office to sort it out. If he has some free time, he tries to see every corner of the country. "You've got a very beautiful country over here," he commented. "I try to seize the opportunity to take a break. I went last weekend to the reserve of Ehden with our new Dean of Engineering, Ibrahim Hajj, and his wife. I may try to go to Ammik this weekend, since it's the season of migration of the birds, many of which pass over the Bekaa Valley."

Usually at 7:45 a.m., he heads over to his office situated in College Hall. However, before he goes to any destination he has to call security and inform them where he is heading so that someone will escort him.

8:00 a.m.:

On the day Outlook shadowed the President, he began work in his College Hall office at 8:15.

Both the President and Outlook headed towards College Hall to start his official workday. Captain Shalak met the President at the gate of Marquand House and escorted him to his office, talking to him along the way about the events of the day.

At College Hall Annie Kasparian, his administrative assistant, updated him on items on his agenda and gave Captain Shalak information on who should be permitted to enter AUB and College Hall so that he could inform the guards.

The President insisted on taking Outlook on a tour of the senior administrative offices, so Outlook strolled down the corridors of the fifth floor of College Hall. Usually everyone is in his or her office early, but not on the day of our visit: nearly everyone was late. "This is bad for our image," joked President Waterbury. "Is today a holiday?"

Back in his office, he showed us the daily routine he goes through. He has two trays to classify his papers: one is for urgent matters and another is for non-urgent matters. "I usually check on the urgent tray first." In the urgent tray was the file for the Board of Deans meeting, which he had to attend later on that day.

He then checked his e-mail. "I receive a lot of e-mail, so what I try to do is search for things I can delete straight away." After deleting the unnecessary e-mails, he ended up with 53 messages in total, quite normal for his inbox he told us.

"I should stop replying to e-mails because they only initiate new ones," he said. Since a lot of paper is used in the President's Office, President Waterbury thinks that e-mailing is a better means of communication.

A quick look into his office reveals many of the oriental influences in President Waterbury's character. On a shelf was a round blue eye fitted on a plastic beige hand. According to oriental beliefs, the blue eye keeps away the evil eye, "I got this from Turkey," President Waterbury said. "I am indeed superstitious."

Another look around showed a personal photo of the President with former UN Secretary Boutros Ghali. "We took this in Lindos, a city on the island of Rhodes off the coast of Greece," he confessed. "It was taken just before President Sadat went to Israel."

But also in his office you will find a picture of him with AUBites on a hiking trip, some books related to events that happened in AUB such as the Fazal Al Sheikh exhibition, blow-ups of the checks he has received from some AUB committees, and some framed writings in Arabic.

9:00 a.m.:

At 9 a.m. sharp President Waterbury abandoned Outlook for the BOD meeting, a meeting which students can not attend because it frequently deals with delicate issues and decisions. The meeting included Provost Heath, Vice President Tohme, Vice President Bernson, the deans of the different faculties and schools, and Dean of Student Affairs Kevlin.

The agenda covered such issues as the revised housing policy, faculty consultations with AUB lawyer Me. Fadi Moghaizel, use of athletic facilities by outside groups, items for voting, and if time permitted, other business.

11:00 a.m.:

President John Waterbury met with donors from the Arabia Insurance Company Limited, an international Arab firm, in his office at 11:00am sharp.

The company donated $50,000, $25,000 for the Arabia Badr Al-Fahoum Memorial Scholarship and $25,000 for the Arabia Bassim Faris Memorial Scholarship.

Fortunately the donation will relieve the AUB budget and allow for more financial aid for other students.

Following group photographs, the visitors left, and the President went back to his desk to file away minutes of the meeting held with the deans and the provost an hour before. In another half hour, the President was ready to rush off to another meeting, all in a day's work.

12 noon:

President Waterbury had to attend a meeting on visiting student programs with Dr. Peter Heath, Dean of Student Affairs Dean Kevlin, Director of Admissions Salim Kanaan, Co-Ordinator of the International Student Services Office Michael Lyons, and Admission's Office Consultant Betty Vermey.

On his way to the conference room, his administrative assistant stopped him to update him on an urgent matter. He advised her on what to do and continued on his way, stopping en route at Vice President Bernson's office to check on his sick wife.

1:00 p.m.

President Waterbury took a break in Marquand House to review some of the notes he had on a coming event.

2:00 p.m.:

President Waterbury attended a meeting held at Issam Fares Hall for senior managers on the Service Quality Initiative.

"The one mission that the University stands for is to provide the best education for our students," stated President Waterbury.

President Waterbury believes in providing the best service quality and has personally endorsed this initiative. He advised, encouraged, and challenged all the senior managers attending the meeting to improve the service quality of AUB. "Be fair, and consistent with subordinates in order to deal with clients in an effective way. Monitor your subordinates and yourselves."

President Waterbury was given the honor of presenting this year's President's Service Excellence Awards to four candidates who have dedicated years of quality service.

3:00 p.m.:

From three in the afternoon until four was a free hour for the President. In hours like this, President Waterbury clears his inbox of folders that keep coming in constantly during the day.

Since transparency is the President's motto, he had no problem in telling Outlook the content of almost every file he was reviewing. He examined requests for hardship cases and for introducing a new unit in the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences named Environment and Sustainable Development.

He also read a memorandum addressed by AUB varsity athletic teams to him personally. The teams complained about the "abysmal condition" of the track. He read, "It is causing our athletes to suffer."

President Waterbury successfully cleared his inbox and moved to another box with very important and urgent files. He attempted to clear this box confidentially.

An hour passed quickly, interrupted by a two-minute chat with the Provost who politely asked the Outlook team to step out of the President's Office.

4:00 p.m.:

7:00 p.m.:

The President jogged around campus. "I run to release the stress of the day."