News Highlights
Author:
Maha Al-Azar,
Media Relations Officer,
Office of Communications,
ma110@aub.edu.lb
 President Peter Dorman's remarks
Professor Makhluf Haddadin's speech
First-prize winner Zeina Koreitem's essay
Second-prize winner Mohammed A. Ramadan's essay
Timmy Malkoun and Rita Harbie's essay (3rd place)
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For its 143rd anniversary, AUB embraces diversity and tolerance
Formal procession, led by Chief Marshal Samir Makdisi, opens the ceremony |
Embracing and enhancing diversity on campus was the theme for this year's Founders Day ceremony, which was held on December 7 at Assembly Hall.
The ceremony, which marked the 143rd year since the University's founding in 1866, also proved to be an opportunity to promote a number of AUB's prominent scholars as well as announcing the winners of the student essay contest on tolerance and diversity. |
 | [L-R] Dorman, Dallal, Dagher, Mkalled, Nuwayhid, and Makdisi
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Led by Chief Marshal Samir Makdisi, a formal procession of professors and deans in academic regalia inaugurated the event which was attended by VPs Steve Jeffrey, Steve Kenney, and Samir Maamari; Provost Ahmed Dallal, Deans Iman Nuwayhid and Maroun Kisirwani, as well as Dean Emeritus Nuhad Dagher, and Associate Dean Fadl Moukalled.
Introducing the ceremony, AUB President Peter Dorman said, "Such occasions afford us an opportunity to both celebrate our history and reflect on our plans to build on this storied past and enhance our reputation as the premier destination for liberal education in the region." |
 | Essay contest winner Zeina Koreitem says diversity should go hand-in-hand with tolerance
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He added that the University is committed to building a community that "thrives on collegial discourse, encourages freedom of thought and expression, and fosters tolerance." In order to promoted diversity in the student body, the University will work on expanding international representation on campus and its financial aid program to attract a wide range of students, said Dorman.
Essay contest winner Zeina Koreitem did not mince her words on diversity and tolerance on campus. "Exposure to ... different cultural and social experiences ... enriches a person, helps create a better awareness of the world, and encourages empathy for other people," said Koreitem. "On campus, students seemed to naturally congregate into distinct groups, whether by their educational background, socio-economic conditions, religious beliefs, music taste, or political affiliations." |
 | Keynote speaker Haddadin: AUB is the result of cooperation between East and West
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But fostering social tolerance for diversity enriches students and helps them contribute more to the betterment of the world, said Koreitem.
"Fostering social tolerance for diversity entails...[nurturing] people who realize the strength of difference, their common aspirations, and who are aware that political choices and religious choices form only one part of their identity," she said, before concluding that the University has an institutional role to play in encouraging different social groups to mix.
Meanwhile Keynote Speaker Makhluf Haddadin, a former AUB dean and vice-president for academic affairs, paid tribute to 14 different scholars who were affiliated with AUB.
"The unique nature of AUB is best demonstrated in its being a collective concern where the people of the United States of America and the people of the Middle East, especially this great tolerant host country, Lebanon, have been working effectively together for over 143 years to propagate this jewel of higher education, based in Beirut, with its fame spread over the entire Globe," he said.
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 | Second runner-up Mohammad Abdallah Ramadan receives his prize
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Haddadin, a renowned chemist who co-discovered the Beirut Reaction--a chemical reaction that has helped develop hundreds of anti-bacterial and anti-cancerous drugs--highlighted the achievements in science, medicine, and the humanities of the following scholars who contributed to AUB's academic history: Dr. Cornelius Van Dyck, Al-Muallem Butrus al-Bustani, El-Sheikh Nassif al-Yazighi, Professor Emeritus Kamal Salibi, Professor Khalil Hawi, Professor Emeritus Costas H. Issidorides, Professor Emeritus Edward (Ted) Kennedy, Professor Emeritus Abdul-Mun'im Talhouk, Professor John Batatu, Professor Emeritus George Fawaz, Professor Emeritus Sami Fuad Haddad, Professor Vasken Derkaloustain, and Professor Charles Abou Chaar.
The top three essay winners received $750, $500 and $250 cash prizes. |
 | Rita Harbie, one of the two students who grabbed the third prize
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In second place, Mohammad Abdallah Ramadan, a fifth year architecture student, won for his essay, "AUB Campus: A Tolerant Space."
Sophomore students Timmy Malkoun and Rita Harbie landed third prize for an essay in which they likened diversity on campus to tabbouleh, the Lebanese salad.
Malkoun was absent from the ceremony.
Koreitem's name will be inscribed on a plaque in the entrance of Assembly Hall. |
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