News Highlights
Author:
Ada H. Porter,
Communications Director,
New York Office,
porter@aub.edu.lb
 Link to Charlie Rose Interview
Podcast of InsideHigherEd.com interview
Podcast of InsideHigherEd.com interview
Link to Council on Foreign Relations interview
Link to the Diane Rehm Show (NPR) interview
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Spreading the word about the role of American universities in Mid-East
 | (L-R) Thompson, Jabbra, Waterbury & Arnold join Dean Lisa Anderson (ctr) from Columbia University
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President John Waterbury, President David Arnold (American University of Cairo), President Joseph Jabbra (Lebanese American University) and Chancellor Winfred Thompson (American University of Sharjah) were on a joint trip to the United Sates recently to discuss the state of liberal arts education in the Middle East. The four presidents traveled to Washington and New York to shift perceptions and increase understanding of the mission of these universities in the Middle East.
"The purpose of the trip is to deepen awareness, understanding and support of these goals in the United States," said the four leaders just before leaving the region. "Our common institutional goal is to educate future leaders and citizens who understand and share the values of liberal arts education and who function effectively in an interdependent world. Our universities are also a creative force for culturally sensitive social change, both locally and regionally. American-style liberal arts higher education in the Arab world is a vital and insufficiently understood component of America's long-term commitment to a peaceful and prosperous Middle East." |
During their trip, the four university presidents met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and with senior officers of the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development. They also spoke to members of the Council on Foreign Relations, the premier U.S. venue for discussion of issues and ideas in international relations, in both cities; and met with the editorial boards of The New York Times, The Washington Post and Newsweek and with other national broadcast and print media. In New York, they met with the Arab Bankers Association of North America. The trip ended with a public forum on American university higher education in the Middle East at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs on March 30.
"The American public is seeing nothing but bad news stories coming out of the Middle East," said President Arnold in a meeting between the four leaders and editors of The Chronicle of Higher Education. "But there are some good news stories out there ... and these four institutions represent the best aspects of American education, society and culture." |
With a combined enrollment of more than 22,000 students and annual operating budgets totaling more than $450 million, the four institutions have thrived, through years of both peace and strife, as American institutions that are valued and respected throughout the Arab world.
The four universities have 320 years of collective institutional experience dealing with difficult regional issues. They sponsor and direct research centers focused on health care, regional development, migration and refugees, civil society and other pressing social concerns, and they also play a crucial role in women's education and in promoting gender equality throughout the region.
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