Spring 2011 Vol. IX, No. 3 No. IX, Vol. 2011 Spring

BEIRUT MainGateAmerican University of Beirut Quarterly Magazine

Departments: Letters 2

Inside the Gate Views from Campus Tackling neighborhood traffic and pollution; honesty, courage, and 6 imagination: performing Tea with Biscuits in Prison; Ras Beiruti roof gardens; student teaching in Beirut’s schools; FEA final-year architecture projects reimagine the city Reviews Le Hezbollah à Beyrouth (1985-2000): de la banlieue à la ville by Mona Harb (BAR ’93); Horizons 101 by Jala Makhzoumi

Beyond Bliss Street

Alumni Profile Managing Beirut: FEA Professor and Mayor Bilal Hamad (BE ’76) 46 Legends and Legacies The Principled Polymath: Cornelius Van Alen Van Dyck (1818-95) 49 Reflections Lessons of War: speaking with Rashid Khalidi 50 Alumni Happenings WAAAUB’s Second Regional Meeting; 2011 elections 53 Class Notes Leila Tarazi Fawaz (BA ’67, MA ’68) named director of Harvard University’s 58 Board of Overseers; Bana Hilal (BA ’72) honored with the East-West Bridgebuilder Award; Ziad Mazboudi (BE ’87) receives American Society of Civil Engineers Citizen Engineer Award In Memoriam 67

MainGate is published quarterly in Production American University of Beirut Beirut by the American University of Beirut for distribution to alumni, Office of Communications Office of Communications former faculty, friends, and Randa Zaiter PO Box 11–0236 supporters worldwide. Riad El Solh 1107 2020 Photography Beirut, Lebanon Editor Tel: 961-1-353228 AUB Jafet Library Archives Ada H. Porter Fax: 961-1-363234 Director of Communications Ahmad El Itani Hasan Nisr New York Office 3 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Responsible Director Nishan Simonian 8th Floor Nabil Dajani New York, NY 10017–2303 Contributing Writers Tel: 212-583-7600 Art Direction and Design Maureen Ali Fax: 212-583-7651 Office of Communications Najib Attieh Susanne Lane Zeina Tawil Sierra Millman [email protected] Printing Tomoko Furukawa Barbara Rosica www.aub.edu.lb Lane Press The Heart of Beirut MainGate Spring 2011

Reaching Out, Taking Back AUBMC residents learn to help those who 26 need it most in Hay el Gharbeh

Green Dreams 28 A rallying cry for Beirut’s public spaces

Just Imagine 32 Exploring a forgotten corner of Beirut

Walking. . .and Talking. . .Beirut The city’s own Pied Piper tells you its tale 35

Beyond Buildings 42 An uphill fight to save Beirut’s heritage President's view

In this issue dedicated to Beirut, As a major urban employer and have so many students and staff who MainGate speaks to President as a center for education and come to campus every day, which is Dorman about the challenges facing research in Beirut, what is AUB’s inevitable. We try to provide as much our neighborhood and AUB’s role in role in confronting some of these parking as we can, but it is woefully making Ras Beirut a healthier and challenges? inadequate. One thing we have done more vibrant place to live. The Neighborhood Initiative is looking is to pull the concrete barriers off the at the flow of traffic and the ques- Corniche that used to block the park- MainGate: What do you see as tion of pedestrian spaces, especially ing lane in front of faculty housing, major challenges confronting spaces that are amenable to young the biology building, and the Hostler Beirut and more specifically Ras kids, to older people, to people who Center. We have been talking to IC Beirut? are impaired in terms of their mobility. and ACS about their traffic patterns Overdevelopment—the unbridled It is looking at ways that traffic can as well. One reason we removed the growth of large apartment buildings be rerouted to keep the flow going, barriers is so the public that do not allow for green spaces. ways to create appropriate desig- could use those The challenge mainly has to do with nated cross walks for safety, and also areas until redeveloping Ras Beirut as a livable pedestrian-friendly roads that link Bliss 2 pm, neighborhood: the preservation of with Hamra, especially with Abdul Aziz historic buildings, historic homes; and Jeanne d’Arc streets. if possible, pedestrian access—the This of course is not something division between pedestrian and AUB can do on its own, so we have vehicle spaces; and parking. On top also been talking with representa- of that, how does AUB interact in a tives from the municipality and with productive and engaging way with the new mayor of Beirut, Bilal the people who live in Ras Beirut, Hamad, who is a member of our and how do we improve that kind engineering faculty. We have of engagement? It is challenging also started touching base with because our immediate neighborhood Ziad Baroud, presently the is very much a commercial district [caretaker] minister of the inte- and it is ephemeral, in the sense that rior. It is a problem on which Bliss Street is not inhabited by busi- you have to rely on multiple nesses where people spend much levels of government, so that time. Just a block or two away you makes it more complex. have restaurants developing where faculty and students go, and you Is there anything that you see them having long lunches, but are doing on campus to most of the shops are either fast deal with traffic congestion, food or produce stores. Apart from parking problems, and those restaurants I mentioned, there pollution? is nowhere that you can see an intel- It’s a systemic problem on lectual community finding a home. campus that has as much Even bookshops on Bliss Street have to do with the lack of proper disappeared over the last couple of public transportation as it has years. The [intellectual] community is to do with individual choices. developing again but further away. It We contribute to con- should be just outside our gates. gestion primarily because we

2 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate President's view

after which they would then be used been discussed as a possibility, such What do you think will be AUB’s as bus lanes for the two schools. as some sort of parking arrangement main contribution to Ras Beirut If we go along with the munici- for renting space at the Charles Helou in 2011 and what would you like pality in trying to figure out traffic Bus Station. Students coming from the the contribution to be in the years patterns along Bliss Street, we will be north would drive in, park, and take a ahead? adding pullover areas for taxis on our bus to campus. But when you develop I am hoping that all these initiatives side of Bliss and maybe even pushing that kind of a commuter system, you reaching out into the neighborhood back our boundary wall to provide a need several buses and a frequent will have a positive impact. I hope that little more space for the public. schedule. Then the question arises, do AUB can take the lead working with you operate your own buses or do you the municipality to reconfigure the Would it make sense to look at engage companies, and once you do streets and sidewalks and ultimately the idea of AUB buses coming that there are liability issues in terms of to reintroduce a system of public and going at given insurance. Then, of course, you would transportation simply because it is times? need to have a viable system coming going to improve life uniformly, not This has from the south. So it is very clumsy. In just for us but for everyone who lives actually essence we would be trying to create here. I hope also that building the new our own public transportation system. medical center will have an impact It’s a possibility, but it does not seem to in this respect as well, since we will be very viable in terms of how people have to look at how traffic flows would make use of it and it would add around the medical center. This is a to their commuting times. huge challenge and it is going to be an opportunity for people to take a The demand for properties broader look at how traffic is directed overlooking campus and the through Ras Beirut. sea has led to a develop- ment boom in Ras Beirut You knew Ras Beirut as a young- and dramatically escalating ster. What are your strongest prices. What can AUB do memories of the neighborhood to address this issue that and the relationship between affects the affordability of the University and its environs, housing for faculty mem- between “town” and “gown”? bers, staff, and students? I was at the age when I was not con- We are aware of the problem scious of the town/gown separation. and we are giving it our con- To me they were all just family friends. sideration. We are definitely It seemed to be one large community, looking at places on campus a natural melting pot of many different that would not impinge on peoples and languages. So I am not the central green space but sure I have memories of how AUB that could provide significant as an academic community impinged amounts of new housing, on Ras Beirut and probably that’s a especially for faculty. We’re reflection of how well it did. also looking at spaces where —M.A. we could provide additional student housing.

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 3 from/to the editor

We often make the distinction that we are the American University of Beirut—and not the American University in Beirut. Why? Because AUB is not just physically located in this city; we are an integral part of the social, economic, and cultural fabric of Beirut, Lebanon, and the region—and have been for a long, long time. In preparing this issue, we discovered just how much our university community both contributes to and learns from the city: our students are teaching in Beirut schools, reimagining Beirut’s architectural landscape, and working to make the city a healthier place to live. Our alumni and faculty are just as dedicated to Lebanon’s physical and cultural heritage and its rare urban green spaces. There is valuable give and take involving the Medical Center as well: the profile of the Tahaddi Clinic is an example of one of the increasing number of AUBMC local partnerships that enable us to deliver excellent health care to disadvantaged communities while broadening the experience of our medical residents. On another topic, over the next six months MainGate staff will be reevaluating both the content and design of the magazine. As part of this effort, I’ll be sending alumni a short survey to gather their thoughts. I also welcome feedback from our non-alumni readers as well. We want to do the best job we can of connecting alumni and friends worldwide with the University while also informing you of the interesting and noteworthy work being pursued on campus. Please fill out the survey or send us an email at [email protected]. We need your help to make MainGate a better magazine. Ada H. Porter Editor, MainGate [email protected] write us [email protected] write us [email protected]

I recently turned 88 and I still have vivid Sunday evening service, singing the memories of my AUB years. I remember hymns at Bliss or Fisk Hall. I equally FUTURE ISSUES our class tour with Professor Charles enjoyed attending the service at Do you consider yourself an Abu Chaar of the campus studying its the AUB Chapel and listening to the entrepreneur? flora and his description of every tree. choir and the huge pipe organ. Those Tell us your story. I am Muslim by faith and still and other social activities at the cam- remember how much I enjoyed the pus are still vivid memories. Family time: we want to learn Long live AUB and my best more about AUB families. wishes. Have several generations of your Zuhair Annab (BS ’48) family attended AUB? Are you an AUBite who Competing Milk Bars has written a memoir about your Jane Coppock thinks that she is family? the person facing the camera in the Did you—or your parents, center, seated. If so, the photo is from aunts, cousins, grandparents, 1963-64, when she was a sophomore etc.—meet a future spouse at student at AUB. Her parents led the AUB? first Great Lakes College Association We’re looking for love sto- group to AUB. Yusef Shalabi (BE ’63) ries… Send photos! also wrote to say that the photo must have been taken in 1959 or 1960 and that the woman at the front is Nural Abu Dabbe (BA ’62), now deceased, Errata then a close friend of his wife at AUB. Winter 2011, Class Notes: Rada K. He adds that the man serving behind Dagher received her BS in 1998, not the bar is Elias who later moved to the 1988 Milk Bar at FEA.

4 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate [email protected]

Join your fellow alumni back on campus for three days lled with activities for you and your family.

Details: http://www.aub.edu.lb/alumni/reunion/Pages/classreunion.aspx For registration or if you have any questions, email us at [email protected] Viewfinder AUB's varsity soccer team takes a lap around the Green Field before a match during the AUB President's Club Second International Sports Tournament March 23-27.

6 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 7 presented as a result of research the Seen and Heard Neighborhood Initiative supported on traffic congestion and barrier free design around campus. Working with AUB faculty members from civil engineering, urban design, the social sciences, and landscape design and ecosystem management, the Neighborhood Initiative and the Hamra is booming with new places to AUB Center for Civic Engagement and eat, drink, and be merry opening up every Community Service (CCECS) are piec- ing together the first components of a month. Recently established (mostly off- multi-pronged approach that includes campus) soon-to-be favorites include tackling traffic problems head on, turning Jeanne d’Arc’s sidewalks into a pedestrian and wheelchair friendly 1 - Bread Restaurant: Relocating from Gemayze, next door to popular café Bread Republic, alleyway next to conduit between Bliss and Hamra, Radio Shack, off Hamra. transforming the ambiance of Bliss 2 - Brick’s: Brand new bar-restaurant on the corner of Street between the Medical and Bliss Makdissi and Sadat. Gates, and exploring ways to mitigate 3 - Burger Nation: High-tech stainless steel burger joint on pollution problems in the neighbor- the corner of Hamra and Sadat. hood through greening local buildings 4 - Café Hamra: Range of cuisine served in retro-chic sur- (see p. 12). roundings or spacious garden. Hamra Street. 5 - Caribou Coffee: Newest addition to the café society “We have had remarkable response scene. Campus Cafeteria and Hamra Street. from stakeholders in the area,” says 6 - Cow and Apple: Butcher/baker . . . and restaurant— Myntti, “starting with AUB and its emphasis on burgers and apple pie. Hamra Street. neighbors, business owners, develop- 7 - Cru: Bar-restaurant on Makdissi Street opposite the per- ers and government decision makers, ennial favorite Le Rouge. including the mayor. We have the 8 - Gloria Jean’s: Excellent coffee and favorite hang-out for privilege of using AUB’s amazing intel- working on assignments. Makdissi Street. lectual talent, first class thinkers trained 9 - Los Primos: Tex-Mex bar and grill. Hot stuff opposite Olio off Makdissi Street. all over the world, to try to solve our 10 - Soto: Branch of the Gemayze Japanese restaurant local problems.” Among those work- newly established next door to Los Primos, off Makdissi ing directly with Myntti on congestion Street. problems are civil and environmental engineering professors Isam Kaysi and Maya Abou Zeid and Professor Neighborly Activities crosswalks for pedestrians filtering left Robert Saliba, an urban designer in As she surveys the view from her and right through the Main Gate, and the Department of Architecture and “eagle’s nest” office overlooking Bliss wider sidewalks complete with cafés Design. Street, AUB Neighborhood Initiative trottoir (sidewalk cafés) between Abdul Over at CCECS, the center’s director dynamo Professor Cynthia Myntti does Aziz and Jeanne d’Arc. It sounds like Mounir Mabsout describes a final year not see what the rest of us see. In her a utopian vision, but in reality what project of five civil engineering students mind’s eye she visualizes new pick up Myntti envisions are some of the key who are designing urban rainwater and drop off points near AUB gates, recommendations that have been harvesting systems for neighborhood

8 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate greening. Under the supervision of needs individuals, wheelchair users, Professor George Ayoub, the pilot and the visually impaired. A meticu- project focuses on Makhoul Street lous survey of the sidewalk reveals an around St. Mary’s Church, school, and intricate obstacle course of miscel- adjacent buildings. In the initial study laneous obstructions from metal pipes phase, students have interviewed local to trees to parking ticket machines President Dorman inhabitants and presented their reports. and street signs. Kanafani’s moving at the opening “Stakeholder participation is essential,” video following one wheelchair user’s ceremony of the Civic says Mabsout. “We needed to get progress—or lack of it—from AUB to and Volunteering the community on board and identify Hamra provides an eloquent testimony Fair, organized by participants and buildings which lend of the challenges they face. Kanafani’s themselves to this scheme.” Catchment job description is to conduct stake- the Center for Civic design models will follow. holder interviews, but she soon real- Engagement and Also based at CCECS, landscape ized that her film-making skills could Community Service design and ecosystem management be put to work as a visual advocate for at AUB: (LDEM) lecturer Rabih Shibli has just the “excluded.” She is already working finished meeting with two LDEM final on another film with a member of the year students who are working with Youth Association for the Blind (YAB). “We are him and social scientist Samar Kanafani In coordination with YAB, the team has also succeeded in introducing menus constantly in braille in certain Hamra restaurants looking for A survey of the Jeanne and cafés, with more to follow. More On-line ways in which d’Arc sidewalk reveals we can provide an intricate obstacle course of miscellaneous Tough Times for innovative and obstructions from Arab Revolutions effective ways metal pipes to trees to Bringing down the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt was tough, but the hard to engage the parking ticket machines tasks are yet to come, said Professor community and street signs. Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at beyond our Columbia University, during a CAMES campus walls." on the Inclusive Neighborhood proj- lecture on March 16. Khalidi warned that ect. Their pilot focuses on improving the “forces of repression and reaction” the pedestrian experience along the supported by powerful interests inside —The Daily Star length of Jeanne d’Arc Street with and outside the Arab world could still particular attention given to special provoke chaos in Tunisia and Egypt.

Common Abbreviations found in MainGate (MG): AUB: American University of Beirut FAFS: Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences IFI: Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy AUBMC: American University of Beirut Medical Center FAS: Faculty of Arts and Sciences and International Affairs CAMES: Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies FEA: Faculty of Engineering and Architecture KSA: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia CAMS: Center for Advanced Mathematical Sciences FHS: Faculty of Health Sciences OSB: Suliman S. Olayan School of Business CASAR: Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud FM: Faculty of Medicine PSPA: Department of Political Studies and Public Administration Center for American Studies and Research HSON: Rafic Hariri School of Nursing REP: Regional External Programs CCECS: Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service Ibsar: Nature Conservation Center for Sustainable Futures WAAAUB: Worldwide Alumni Association of AUB

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 9 He pointed out that although peaceful revolutions demanding From the Faculties democracy and rule of law are not new to the Arab world, the demand FAS for both individual and collective dig- nity distinguishes these revolutions Tea with Biscuits in Prison from their predecessors. What is your definition of prison? Noting that the Arab region is the How do you visualize your own only region in the world that has not personal form of confinement and Jad Melki, assistant witnessed democratic transforma- how would it feel? These were key professor of journalism tion in the last 40 years, Khalidi said questions triggered by a close read- and media studies at a that the claim by Arab police states ing of Nawal El Saadawi’s “Memoirs WAAAUB panel on May 3: (and some western countries) that from the Women’s Prison” by a Arabs are not mature enough for group of Fine Arts and Art History democracy is being challenged. (FAAH) students. “Today’s social and He went on to say that western The exploration of Saadawi’s nar- audiences watching the revolutions rative under the supervision of theater digital media are to have noticed that the demands of director, Lina Abyad, inspired the stu- activism and social Arab revolutionaries are no different dents to write their own memoirs. From from the demands raised during these, they created theatrical texts in movements the the American Revolution, the French Arabic, English, and French for a col- equivalent of the Revolution, and recent revolutions in lective performance: Tea with Biscuits eastern Europe. in Prison. Staged in the Penrose Hall AK-47 in the 60s Despite the fact that the slogans basement, especially adapted for the and 70s to guerrilla of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolu- purpose (where tea and biscuits were tions are spreading to other Arab served to the audience), the perfor- warfare; they are countries, Khalidi says that each mance was made possible by a recent portable, resilient, country is markedly different: Tunisia grant from the Mellon Foundation and and Egypt’s relative homogeneity the Anis Makdisi Program in Literature ...[and] make a lot of is in stark contrast to the sectar- in coordination with FAAH, the Office noise, but unlike the ian and tribal tensions and external of Communications, and the Office of and regional interventions that afflict Student Affairs. lethal AK-47, they other Arab countries. For one student, Saadawi’s noncon- are tools of peaceful While Khalidi acknowledges the formism, even in prison, induced a tirade difficulties that Tunisia and Egypt against the suffocating constraints of protest.” face, he is “confident they are on society; for another, prison became the right track” as they realistically an intricate, fluffy white spider’s web, try to solve one problem at a time. a velvet trap where she lives, caught The diversity represented by the like a fly and subjected to the spider’s revolutionaries makes it difficult for abusive and erratic “love.” For another, supporters of the old regimes to it was life constrained in the body of a undermine them. Khalidi said this bulimic. One tortured soul, unable to is a “world historical moment we are speak throughout the performance, lucky to witness.” finally conveyed his agony with an outburst on the affliction of stuttering;

10 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate New On-line

www.youtube.com/AUBatLebanon

Beirut Graffiti Directed by Carol Mansour and produced by CASAR and the Mellon Foundation, this video on Beirut street art features art historian Henry Chalfant.

Engaging Change in the Middle East View six videos documenting the panel discussions hosted by AUB on One student's prison engaging change in the Middle East. another revealed his former hell as a way to cope with mental abuse. recovering drug addict. There was These revealing prisons, as much unrequited love; the stress of living group therapy as theatrical perfor- with an obsessive-compulsive mother; mance, were imaginatively presented Adventures Theatrical and the pain of failing to attend a dying each within its own space. Alice hid Political and Sometimes Both mother at her bedside, and an “Alice behind her Mad Hatter’s table laden CASAR hosted in Wonderland” world of escape as a with tiny teacups and teapots; the a lecture by bulimic swung precariously from a Kathleen Chalfant, high stool reaching out protectively a founding “Rarely have I had the towards her comforting toilet bowl; member of chance to be part of an unable to escape the confines of the Women's artistic project which unrequited love, another hesitantly Project, who sits provoked and inspired picked her way through a tangled on the boards so much introspection, snare of twigs and branches. of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids and truthful discussions, The performances, which were the New York Foundation for the Arts. She designed to gain momentum over and which ended is a member of the Board of Advisers of the course of a week, culminated MSF/Doctors Without Borders, an adviser to with liberation from in a cathartic finale. The heady Theaters Against War, and a signer of the so many demons and mixture of honesty, courage, and Not In Our Name statement of conscience. fears.” Lina Abyad, imagination was augmented by after director, Tea with performance discussions with the Biscuits in Prison audience.

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 11 Live Poets Society Hot Competition Tarek El-Assaad and Adnan Behlok Every first Wednesday of the month, The sense of expectation preceding (LU). in the cozy (if noisy) gallery of the AUB’s First Undergraduate Organic AUB has launched an initiative to popular Café Younes off Hamra Chemistry Competition was infec- fund two $500 annual cash prizes: Street, a group of dedicated poets tious. Organized by Associate the Haddadin Award for Outstanding meets to read and share their love Professor Bilal Kaafarani to mark Undergraduate Student and for of the art. Under the watchful eye UNESCO’s 2011 International Outstanding Graduate Student. of AUB English Professor Michael Year of Chemistry, the competi- Dennison, with his departmental tion was open to all students who FAFS colleague Rima Rantissi in charge had completed Organic Chemistry of proceedings, participants unveil I and II. A total of 42 two-member Green Offensive their latest works or read some teams from AUB, Balamand, Beirut The menacing brown layer of pol- favorite verses. Arab University, Hariri Canadian lution that habitually hangs over The March gathering was an University (HCU), Lebanese Beirut sends shudders down the opportunity for two nervous initiates American University (LAU), and spine. What is it doing to our bodies to make their debut; for a seasoned Lebanese University (LU) tested and what can we do to mitigate their knowledge by answering a series of multiple choice questions. Once the battle commenced, the answers came fast and furious, often even before Kaafarani had finished reading the question. While the audience waited in suspense for the announcement of the winning teams, a “surprise” was unveiled—a touching film tribute to renowned AUB Professor Makhlouf Haddadin on the occasion of his 75th regular, it was a time to revisit some birthday. No one was more surprised of his favorite—sad—works; a “double than Haddadin, who accepted this fait act” followed with a poet reciting his accompli along with a plaque in his parody, “To His Shy Concubine” in honor from AUB President Dorman response to Dennison’s rendition of with humor and grace. Andrew Marvel’s “To a Coy Mistress.” As to the winners—two dead heats There was a reading in French, some added to the thrill of the competition, rap lyrics, and a moving prose piece but even they did not resolve the from a short story about war. One issue. Having run out of questions, frustrated poetess, whose laptop had Kaafarani declared that the AUB team crashed, consoled herself by narrating of Tarek Barbar and Ziad Al Adas and two of her favorite Dennison poems. LAU student Jad Abdul Samad, who If you are a budding poet, Dennison had performed solo after his team- and Rantissi urge you to head down mate dropped out at the last minute, to Café Younes on the appointed would share first prize. In third place Wednesday; if you just want to listen, were Wissam Itani (HCU) and Salma you are also welcome. Yassine (AUB); fourth prize went to The AUB Greenhouses

12 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate its effects? Ban cars and turn off turning their barren roof spaces editorial team that plans to do more the generators? Or fight back by into a haven for nature, birds, and in-depth investigation and analyses of launching a green offensive? That insects as well as plants and, at the current business and business educa- is what faculty in the Department of same time, helping improve the air tion trends. Subscribe at Landscape Design and Ecosystem they breathe. www.alignwithosb.com Management are trying to do. In conjunction with the Neighborhood OSB Initiative and the Center for Civic Student News Engagement and Community Service Time for Re-ALIGNment It has been a productive year and Open All Hours an interesting learning curve for the No more excuses! In an effort to provide Ras Beirutis will have editors of ALIGN, OSB’s on-line maximum back up for hard-pressed the option of turning news site. Although it’s off to a AUB students facing exams, for the their barren roof respectable start with a monthly first time ever Jafet Library opened its spaces into a haven average of 1,000 hits, editor-in- doors 24/7 between January 21 and for nature, birds, and chief Tony Feghali and editor Emily February 2, 2011. Students clearly insects as well as enjoyed taking advantage of the quiet, accessible environment to get down plants and, at the same to some serious last minute revising. time, help improve Jafet remained more than half full well the air they breathe. into the early hours with over 300 students still at work at 3:00 am, and a hardy 100 seeing in the dawn at 5:00 (see p. 8), a team of faculty mem- am. The all-night sessions were made bers and students led by Professor possible by the good graces of library Salma Talhouk and George Battikha personnel who agreed to work 12-hour are engaged in research into “exten- shifts. The high student numbers and sive” roof gardens. their obvious gratitude to library staff

Designed to offset CO2 and encour- made the long days worthwhile. Given age biodiversity, these shallow, rain fed, how popular the service turned out to sustainable roof gardens, planted with native species, are destined to modify Align's new design the urban fabric of Ras Beirut. First, however, the scientists have to devise Abuatieh are planning some big the best soil composition and species changes. They’ve drawn up a sig- mix, which is why Talhouk and Battikha nificant “to do” list that ranges from are busy assessing the suitability of beefing up content and sprucing up planting mediums and monitoring the the site’s appearance to improving durability of local species planted in the graphics and, crucially, inte- boxes to simulate rooftop conditions. grating ALIGN with social media Soil depth, plant survival, and regen- outlets. erative properties are all under study In addition, OSB professors will in the quest to identify the optimal be submitting "trade" articles based combination. Once this is found, Ras on current academic research to bol- Beirutis will have the option of ster the newsletter’s mostly student Reading room in Jafet Library

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 13 be, University Librarian Lokman Meho in response to the needs of the Arab social categories and within various has promised to offer late hours every world.” living arrangements. While there fall and spring semester. So, books are cultural differences in defining, open and heads down, AUB students A Man for All Seasons diagnosing, and quantifying abuse, can now enjoy optimum study condi- AUB scholars Tarif Khalidi and John hard data is needed to convince tions when all too soon those end of Meloy, both affiliated with the Center policy makers of the seriousness semester exams come around again. for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies of this issue. The current dearth of (CAMES), have been honored by the information hinders planning, policy, Secretariat for the World Prize for and assessment; there is much work Faculty News the Book of the Year of the Islamic to be done.” Republic of Iran for their contribution Close Cooperation as editors to Al Jahiz: A Muslim The Department of Health Promotion Humanist of Our Time. Jointly AUBMC and Community Health (HCPH) at edited with German scholars Arnim FHS recently became the third AUB Heinemann and Manfred Kropp, the Art Therapy department to be designated a World book explores the work of Al Jahiz The brightly colored murals of Health Organization Collaborating (781-868 AD) described by Khalidi zebras, a pelican, fish, and birds Center (WHOCC). The two others as a “thinker who was infinitely curi- that now adorn the walls of are the Department of Nutrition and ous about the social and natural AUBMC’s Department of Pediatric Food Sciences and the Division of world.” Meloy said, “It’s . . . gratify- and Adolescent Medicine can’t Dermatology in the Department of ing to see that the achievements of help but fire children’s imagina- Internal Medicine. Al Jahiz, a great humanist, are still tions and transport them to another One of the main terms of refer- being recognized nowadays.” world far away from pain and fear. ence of this collaboration is to serve Donated by the Foundation for as an information center for health Defending the Elderly Hospital Art through the Rotary promotion and to provide WHO with Abla Sibai, FHS professor of epide- Club Beirut Cosmopolitan (RCBC), resources such as health educa- miology and population health, was the inspirational gift was arranged tion promotion materials, networking recently appointed as the Middle East by Christina Asfour to bring com- among NGOs, evaluation of materials and North Africa regional representa- fort to patients and their families. and programs, training of health care tive for the prestigious International The vibrant, multisquare canvasses practitioners, and providing research Network for the Prevention of painted by Barbara Banta were in health-related subjects. Although Elder Abuse (INPEA). Sibai, who recently installed in the presence there are 800 WHO Collaborating has striven to put elder issues at of a distinguished delegation from Centers worldwide, AUB’s HPCH is the forefront of both national and RCBC led by former President Tony the first in the region to become a regional agendas for the past 15 Asfour and Mona Jaroudi, the wife WHOCC for Health Promotion. years, says she is deeply honored of current RCBC President Subhi Commenting on the WHOCC, by the appointment. She notes that Jaroudi. Senior AUBMC admin- HCPH Associate Professor Jihad “Elder abuse was only recently dis- istrators were on hand to receive Makhoul says, “The WHO designa- covered by the public. Evidence the gift and thank the donors. In tion. . .recognizes the significance is accumulating to indicate that it his remarks, Asfour stressed the of health promotion as an important is an important public health and important contribution that AUBMC field of public health and that there societal problem that manifests itself makes to the community. This is the is an academic unit in the region in both developed and developing second time AUBMC has received which is capable of both collabora- countries. . . Women are more vul- a donation from the Foundation for tive research and community service nerable than men to abuse across all Hospital Art that disseminates art

14 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Benchmarking; E= Education) IMPROVE is the outcome of a three- year initiative led by the Department of Health Management and Policy at FHS to develop a hospital balanced score- card system in Lebanon. It includes 40 indicators enabling hospitals to benchmark and compare their per- formances to national, regional, and

IMPROVE includes 40 indicators enabling hospitals to benchmark and compare their performances to national, regional, and international averages and stimulate continuous quality improvements.

international averages and stimulate continuous quality improvements. IMPROVE will eventually become its own nongovernmental organization. As the founder of IMPROVE, which was three years in the planning, Assistant Professor Fadi El-Jaraldi says, “IMPROVE has started an important process of transforming the culture in hospitals by stimu- lating quality improvement through Murals at AUBMC’s Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine measurement and benchmarking. I strongly believe that IMPROVE to a network of hospitals across the health care administrators to will provide valuable and essential United States and the world. accurately assess performance and information to policymakers, hospital quality in Lebanese hospitals. All managers, and health professionals FHS this is set to change with the recent which will enable them to make launch of IMPROVE: (I= Indicator; M= evidence-informed decisions to Vital Statistics Measurement; P= Performance; R= upgrade quality of care and patient Until now, it has been difficult for Report; O= Observatory; V= Valid- safety.”

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 15 FEA

Visions of Beirut All AUB students majoring in archi- final-year projects on a wide range final-year architecture students who tecture spend much of their fifth of interesting and compelling issues decided to focus their projects on and last year proposing, devel- related to the built environment. We Beirut this year. oping, and presenting individual want to introduce you to some of the

Student: Antoine Atallah Project: Architecture, Archaeology, and Beirut: A Scenario for Dialogue I parked in the Martyrs Square lower parking lot on the sea side and then headed to the Virgin Megastore to get a gift for a friend’s birthday. My gaze wandered and I looked at the empty square, at the three or four lone buildings on its sides, and that statue that no one looks at anymore. I looked back again at the landscape I just walked through and it seemed lunar, surreal, a mess of holes and mounds and bits and pieces . . . The absolute value of remains from the past is nowadays taken for granted and has led to an attitude of conservation and renovation that sacralizes archaeological remains and elevates them as invaluable testimonies of past ages. This is a complete break from the way people have dealt with ruins in past centuries when the remains of old buildings were used to construct new buildings. Archaeology was always a part of architecture and didn’t lose its architectural potential. . . Current strategies too often turn archaeological remains into objects to be observed . . . I imagine something different: a new paradigm for archaeology and architecture that allows for contact and embrace by individuals—that allow visitors to archaeological sites to embark on a more experimental and subjective journey. Adviser: Mona Harb, Associate Professor Antoine’s architectural investiga- tion is noteworthy because he is able to “play” joyfully with archaeological lay- ers, extracting from them a range of mean- ings and recreating them into different spatial situations in response to the site’s opportunities and constraints. He does so neither by objectifying archaeology’s historical stance nor by underestimating its socio-spatial values.

16 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Student: Zeina Koreitem Project: White Labyrinth in a Cube I began with an interest in immateriality as a means of identifying various experiential potentials that contribute to the way in which we conceive of space. I searched for a site in Beirut with mutilated structures dissolving within the city’s fabric and ended up with two iconic structures in downtown Beirut: the remains of the previous Beirut City Center (also known as “the egg” or “the bubble”) and the relics of the St. Vincent de Paul Church (also known as Mar Mansour Church) that powerfully face each other. The virtual void and deep pit between them illustrate a fascinating tension between two opposite boundaries. These two structures present an opportunity to explore an architecture of absence and incompleteness in the city of Beirut. The goal is to inject life back into such structures while making use of what is lacking and not simply of what is there. To do this, I propose a space programmed by the void itself: a media and cultural center that applies modern technologies to art and information and is a place of exchange where masses come together and acknowledge one another. The generation of such a program along with other auxiliary use of space interweaved within it (such as a library and a theater) will encourage the rebirth of the site and its contextual setting. Adviser: Karim Najjar, Assistant Professor Zeina is reinterpreting iconic architecture and demystifying the era of “glamorous” Beirut by understanding the city as a transforming organism. She questions the meaning and function of iconic ruins in Beirut without romanticizing them, exploring them as found objects, and setting them in a new context. She is applying a surgical design methodology by carving, injecting, and bridging, constantly linking to the urban fabric on the ground. Zeina is challenging profoundly the architectural discipline on many levels: void versus mass, subtraction versus addition, style versus service.

Student: Carla Saad Project: Under Observation: Geometry of Space I was originally inspired by the drama therapy program that actress Zeina Daccache introduced to the Roumieh prison. I was interested by the way this program helped the prisoners to reconcile with each other and with the prison. This

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 17 led me to reflect on how art can change how people relate to one another and to their surroundings. Architecturally, my challenge was to design a structure that caused a shift from an internal to an external focus. Because I wanted to place this structure in an urban context, I chose an area between [the] Gobeyreh and Chiah districts along the green line, which was a major segregation and observation line between east and west Beirut during the war and continues to be a focus of tension. I designed a community center that will be a hub for the arts with an urban theater where the two communities can come together and engage in shared activities that will help them change their perceptions of each other. Adviser: Robert Saliba, Associate Professor To produce an architecture that absorbs the tension on site while also having this effect of changing the perception of the “other,” Carla located her project on two empty lots that face each other along the green line. Her project engages the two communities that live behind the invisible barrier represented by [the] Old Saida Road within one community space that presents artistic investigations and theatrical performances. Carla's project is challenging both contextually and programmatically. She chose to address a strategic and controversial site while articulating a program that mediates between political confrontation and cultural integration.

18 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Student: Sarah Naim Project: A Learning Space: The City as Classroom, Child as Educator My project will reclaim the overlooked Barakat Street in Hamra and make it the site for a public building that provides children with dedicated learning spaces integrated into the city. At the ground level, the 350 square meter plot and the public internal street are treated as one. The street becomes an active trail where children can run and play and the ground level of the plot becomes an open space. This enables children to experience the city on the ground freed from a built up mass—a rare open area. The street then extends vertically, providing new opportunities on multiple platforms for play and exploration. The street extends as a cross-over bridge that city pedestrians can pass through with ease. At the very top of the street is a sheltered, internal space still open to the city. Inside, there will be a children’s library full of creative zones that can host a variety of activities. Adviser: Carole Levesque, Assistant Professor Sarah’s project challenges the current domination of developer-led land develop- ment in the city. She is proposing that we imagine alternative scenarios where some lots are kept open for public uses. In addition to linking to larger issues related to the importance of public spaces, Sarah’s project is also very site specific and addresses the heart of an urban block, the tight space between buildings, and a small alley now used to park cars and generators. Sarah is sug- gesting that the city happens in those places too and that these minor spaces can be integrated in the life of a neighborhood even if their scale is small.

More On-line More Beirut projects and images on-line, including… Rana Haddad’s project: “Invisible City Brains: Defining a New Archival System for the City” and Wassef Dabboucy’s “Footbridge”—a pedestrian bridge over the highway linking the Beirut Airport and the Lebanese capital.

When alumna Dima Boulad (BFA '07) and fellow illus- trator Nadine Feghali had enough of the lack of green space in Beirut, they decided it was time for a green intervention. The pair set up nine installations around Beirut like the one shown here to call attention to the city's lack of green space. The signs have now been shelved, but they just launched a website dedicated to the cause in preparation for their next intervention marking World Environment Day on June 4, 2011.

beirutgreenproject.wordpress.com

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 19 What matters most: With the rapid My approach will prioritize commu- R&D rise in building densities in Beirut, the nity participation while addressing challenge is to develop sustainable strategies that use energy and water Nametag: Sandrine Samaha, MA, greening strategies that can be inte- resources wisely. urban design, projected 2011. grated into building law and applied city-wide. This is especially important 10 am Tuesday, 10 am Saturday: Life before MA: I spent most of my in a city like Beirut that has so few On Tuesday, I’m either meeting childhood in Belle-Vue, Awkar, next to green spaces. with my adviser, Professor Jala the American Embassy. Before coming Makhzoumi, or at work in my office in to AUB, I studied at Université Saint Research: Rapid urbanization Starco, an international development Esprit Kaslik (USEK) where I obtained requires that we think holistically company. On Saturday morning, I’m my undergraduate and master’s about how to transform our cities into probably working on my thesis or degrees in architecture. My hobbies environmentally sustainable settle- trying to catch up on my freelance include reading, watching movies, and ments that promote quality urban work with my partner and fiancé traveling. One of the best experiences lifestyles. Although planners world- Roland Nasr. of my life was swimming wide are proposing greening with dolphins at incentives, in Lebanon we Most admires: Although I admire the Atlantis are continuing to experi- anyone who chases and realizes his Hotel in ence rapid deterioration dream, I’m very much interested and Dubai. in the quality of our built fascinated by architects who create environment. I am using works of art in the city. I enjoy Frank Corniche al-Mazraa as Gehry’s work and especially like his a case study to criti- Dancing House in Prague. cally review greening strategies worldwide to Why this topic interests me: assess their suitabil- Although we hear about sustain- ity to the Lebanese ability all the time, it is still difficult to context. pinpoint exactly what it means in a particular situation. I am interested in I will also be propos- exploring sustainability in the context ing practical imple- of urban design in Lebanon. mentation strategies that could be inte- grated into munici- pality guidelines.

20 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate FAS Every year, 40-60 students graduate Community, and St. Mary’s Orthodox from AUB with not just an under- College (SMOC). graduate degree but also a post-BA In addition to the opportunity to teaching diploma. In the last five years, refine their teaching skills, Wellspring 314 students have earned teaching Learning Community School head diplomas in one of four areas: elemen- Marj Henningsen reports that AUB tary education, secondary education, interns “also sometimes ask critical special education, and educational questions that get us thinking and management and leadership. reflecting on what we are doing.” At In addition to specializing in a par- SMOC, where they have been intern- Lama Katoul (BA Education, ticular subject area such as Arabic, ing since 1994, AUB practice teachers Diploma in Special Education) English, math, science (physics, chem- are welcomed by students who often The first time I walked into the classroom istry, biology), history, geography, psy- identify with them as fellow students. as a teacher, I felt terrified and scared. chology, and health, students enrolled Principal Father George Dimas notes I wondered why I had chosen this in the teaching diploma program must that many SMOC teachers also enjoy major and if I had made the right complete 21 credit hours in education the opportunity to “transmit the fruit of choice. But, after a few weeks, I began and a one-semester internship. At their experience” to the next genera- to feel comfortable. any one time, dozens of AUB students tion of teachers. My biggest challenge is to reach are practice teaching in classrooms We asked some of the young men every single child in the classroom, to at schools throughout Beirut such as and women earning teaching diplomas fulfill each child’s needs, and to meet ACS Elementary and Middle Schools; at AUB to tell us what sparked their each child’s requirements. It is not an IC Elementary, Middle, and Secondary interest in teaching and what they have easy job especially when you have Schools; the Ahlieh School, Hariri II; learned—about themselves and about students from different backgrounds, Rawdah Elementary and Secondary teaching—while interning in Beirut with a variety of interests who are not Schools; the Wellspring Learning classrooms. all at the same educational level.

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 21 Ihsan Ghazal (BS Biology, Diploma in Layla BouKhaled (BA Education, and not shouting at us to “sit down” Secondary Education) Diploma in Special Education) or “hurry up.” I enjoy entering the classroom every When I think about the type of teacher Because she respected us and day and feeling the interaction with the I want to be, I remember one of my treated us like responsible adults, it students. I believe the biggest chal- favorite teachers. She used to come really had an impact on me. She was lenge is to know how to connect with into class with a big smile on her face, always ready to answer any question, the students and make them grasp the say “good morning,” and sit down at be it about math or about anything else. curriculum properly. In the past, teach- her desk. During this time we would She cared deeply for each and every ers focused on strict memorization be packing up from the last class and one of us. In fact to this day, we don’t and lectured students. I use classroom getting ready for our math class with know who her favorite student was discussions as a way to get students her. Just her presence in the classroom from our class. She to me is an excel- interested in what I want to say. I made us get ready much more quickly lent teacher. She is my role model. did not always consider teaching as than for any other class—and it was a career. Now, however, I feel very not just her presence, but the fact that comfortable as a teacher. she was just sitting there and waiting

22 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Ziad Dallal (BA English Literature, teacher has given me a new perspec- Lina Kadi (BA Education, Diploma Diploma in Secondary Education) tive on my time as a student there. in Educational Management and I have always enjoyed the process When I was a student, I used to won- Leadership) of relaying information that I have to der why teachers would take time at Both my parents are school owners and people who need or want it. I teach the beginning of the class to review principals, so you can say that my life using class discussions, which enable quickly what we had already cov- has always revolved around education. me to connect closely to students’ ered. I find that now I do this too. The more I study education, the more lives and experiences. I make constant Also, I now appreciate that there fascinated I have become. I think that reference to popular culture figures are times when teachers need to be educational psychology, the mechanics such as Lady Gaga, Bob Dylan, Pulp quite serious—for example, when of writing a lesson plan, figuring out Fiction when applicable. I find that the class is getting out of hand. how to explain a particular topic well is when I do this, students are more Being in the role of the teacher has very worthwhile. I find that children are eager to participate. definitely made me appreciate the complicated in interesting ways and that I am doing my teacher training at profession more. working with them is always a challenge. IC, which is where I graduated. Being a I think it’s a very powerful and influential thing to be a teacher.

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 23 Reviews

Le Hezbollah à Beyrouth (1985-2000): de la banlieue à la ville (Institut Français du Proche Orient - Karthala, 2010) Mona Harb (BAR ’93)

Why do you think Hezbollah has been successful in becoming what you describe as “a grounded stakeholder in the social and political history of Lebanon”? Since 1985, Hezbollah has managed a network of organizations responsible for the delivery of urban and social services to the Shi’a community. Via this network, renowned for its professionalism and efficiency, Hezbollah works closely with public agencies, local govern- ments, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and donors—and in the process “grounds” its policies within the larger social, economic, and political domains.

Do you think the Shi’a community that has traditionally been the foundation of Hezbollah’s support in Lebanon will identify less closely with the party as it assumes a larger role on the national stage? This “Lebanonization” has been ongoing since Hezbollah’s participation in legislative elections in 1992. Although there are surely risks, through subtle strategic adjustments and justification discourses, Hezbollah has been able to maintain its legitimacy among its constituency.

You write that Hezbollah’s success in fostering a sense of collective consciousness within the Shi’a community has allowed its members to acquire access to Beirut that they did not enjoy in the past. Can you give some specific examples of this? Hezbollah’s institutions have created a middle class that actively participates in the urban politics, governance, and spatial production of the city—inclusive of its suburbs. For example, the Ghobeyri Municipality, which is led by a prominent member of Hezbollah, encourages the development of high-end residential neighborhoods and leisure services: cultural centers, malls, shopping centers, amusement parks, sports facilities, restaurants, and cafés. The Shi’a community is thus an integral part of Beirut’s urban landscape.

How did you—a professor of architecture—get interested in this topic? While studying architecture at AUB, I became interested in urbanism and later on in urban politics. I wanted to understand the role of political institutions—and of power—in the production of urban spaces. Hezbollah’s role in south Beirut was the case study I chose to investigate for my PhD in politics. Today, I share this knowledge with students in AUB’s graduate programs in Urban Planning and Policy and Urban Design.

24 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Horizons 101 (Dar Onboz, 2010) Jala Makhzoumi In Horizon 101, a bilingual Arabic/English book and art folio, Jala Makhzoumi meditates on the changing horizon of life in Beirut and the AUB campus through poetry and landscape aquarelles. Professor Makhzoumi is the coordinator of the Landscape Design and Eco-Management Program at AUB.

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 25 Reaching Out, Taking Back

“At Tahaddi, we have an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of people who need our help.”

“When we began visiting people in 1996 in the shantytown of Hay el Gharbeh,” Dr. Agnès Sanders recalls, “little did we know that we would open a Gharbeh are the primary beneficiaries of this partnership, dispensary in 2000, acquire new clinic facilities in Saab says that AUBMC also benefits. “At Tahaddi, we 2009, and develop a partnership with AUB in 2010.” have an opportunity to make a difference in the lives Sanders, a French physician, is referring to Tahaddi, the of people who need our help,” he explains. “Because organization she cofounded with Swiss teacher Catherine patients at the Tahaddi clinic present with different Mourtada that now includes two community health health conditions than in a typical private clinic, AUBMC centers, an educational center, and an outreach program residents are also gaining invaluable experience.” in a women’s prison. (Learn more at the Tahaddi website: Nisrine Makarem (BS ’03, MD ’07), one of three http://www.tahaddilebanon.org/index.htm.) AUBMC residents who see patients at the Tahaddi Dr. Bassem Saab (BS ’79, MD ’84), professor of clinic each week, agrees with Dr. Saab. She says that clinical family medicine and director of the AUBMC- in addition to gaining experience from diagnosing and Tahaddi partnership, supervises third-year family treating diseases such as TB and skin conditions that are medicine residents who make three visits a week to prevalent in overpopulated and underprivileged areas the Tahaddi clinic in Beirut’s western suburbs not far such as Hay el Gharbeh, she is also learning to practice from Sports City. The AUBMC residents see an average family medicine with limited resources. “Sometimes I of 12 patients a day, more than a quarter of whom are have to make a diagnosis without ordering important under the age of five. Although the inhabitants of Hay el tests like x-rays simply because they are not affordable.

26 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate The Tahaddi Clinic is just one of a growing number of AUBMC outreach initiatives in Beirut. In the last six months This has caused me to sharpen my medical skills,” of 2010, AUB doctors saw more than 100 patients at Najjar, she explains. Although the three AUBMC residents Fouad Khoury, and Mount Lebanon Hospitals in Beirut. working at the Tahaddi clinic are “well-trained doctors” These arrangements, which are detailed in memorandums according to Dr. Saab, he is also very involved at the of understanding (MOUs) that Medical VP/Dean Mohamed clinic supervising their work and makes his own regular Sayegh signed with Najjar Hospital in February 2010 and with weekly visits to the clinic. Fouad Khoury and Mount Lebanon Hospitals in July 2010, are part of a broader commitment to increase patient access to Samira Ibrahim (BSN ’03) has been working at AUBMC medical care in Beirut, Lebanon, and the region. Tahaddi for the last two years and has come to know the neighborhood and many of its residents well. “Our patients value the fact that they are now being seen by some of the best doctors in the country,” she says, will be especially adapted to our context and needs.” “which gives them access to other services at AUBMC’s The AUBMC-Tahaddi team is also working to expand Outpatient Department and the chance to participate in the clinic’s vaccination program and to meet Joint clinical research.” Commission International standards for ambulatory The AUBMC-Tahaddi clinic partnership is not care. Although Saab recognizes the challenges, he is limited to medical care and minor surgery. Nadia Khouri enthusiastic about the future of the AUBMC-Tahaddi Accad, who directs all of Tahaddi’s health programs, partnership saying, “This type of initiative is at the core explains that AUBMC is also “assisting us with the of our commitment to reach out and increase transition to an electronic medical records system, which patient access to AUBMC’s medical services.”

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 27 Green Dreams A rallying cry for Beirut’s public spaces

28 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate As I strolled through Beirut early one morning, I was (nearly a hundred according to AUB Professor Rami reminded of some haunting lyrics from a long time ago: Zurayk)—it also exemplifies many of the challenges and “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”* (Actually, contradictions of “public” spaces in the city. Despite the what they have done in Beirut—as residents who complain fact that urban planners worldwide have long recognized often about how hard it is to find a place to park will tell the importance of public spaces, Shayya says they are you—is pave paradise not to “put up a parking lot,” but to neither a priority for, nor an integral component of, the put up one more high-rise apartment building.) agenda of public policy or spatial design at the Lebanese But, despite the number of high-rise apartment municipal and national levels. He goes on to point out buildings, if you look—really look—you can still see signs that the closure of the Horsh “is a deviation from the of “paradise”: in the plants spilling out over balconies norm of modern states and societies…” of many of those same high-rise apartment buildings, a It may be a deviation from the norm in other bush clinging to life along a crumbling brick wall, and in places, but it is not unprecedented in Beirut, where a glorious gnarled tree that someone has clearly gone out there are other “public” spaces that are off-limits to the of his way to protect from the bulldozers that threaten public such as the Ghobeiri Municipal Garden in Jnah nearby. These are just a few of the indications that not far from Sports City. In this case it was the residents although there are some people who are trying to cram in the luxury apartments surrounding the Ghobeiri as many buildings within the city limits as they possibly Garden who successfully lobbied local authorities to can, there are others who are working hard to protect close the garden to keep away the people from the and promote green and public spaces in Beirut. People much poorer Bir Hassan neighborhood who used to like Fadi Shayya (MUD ’07), an urban planner, architect, visit the garden and have barbecues. Not surprisingly, writer, and social advocate, who founded and coordinates similar sentiments are a factor in the decision to keep DISCURSIVE FORMATIONS. Shayya is also the editor of the public out of the Horsh. In his wide-ranging, At the Edge of the City: Reinhabiting Public Space Toward the entertaining, and informative blog, “Land and People: Recovery of Beirut’s Horsh Al-Sanawbar. A Source on Food, Farming and Rural Society,” Zurayk At the Edge of the City, a multi-media volume recounts an encounter he had with a journalist and her about Beirut’s parks and public spaces, focuses on Horsh partner during a visit to the Horsh with his students Al-Sanawbar, Beirut’s pine forest located in southern Beirut. in December 2008. When asked by the journalist if he In a wonderful series of images in the book and on the visited the park often, Zurayk responded that he would website (www.discursiveformations.net), Shayya documents do so only when the park “opened for the rich and the the evolution of the Horsh from 1696 when the pine poor alike.” The journalist’s partner responded that he woods measured 1,250,000 square meters to 1996 when it hoped this day would never come because “they will measured only 330,000 square meters—the size it is today. come in and ruin it.” It is not just the size of the forest that has changed over the Those advocating for green spaces in Beirut must years, it is also its accessibility to the residents of Beirut. battle not only these types of prejudices, but also with For most Beirutis the park is actually a good deal the forces that are driving construction in the city. AUB smaller than 330,000 square meters since 66 percent Publications Manager Randa Zaiter was part of a citizen of it is closed to the public. Municipal authorities give initiative to oppose the municipality’s plans to build several reasons for restricting access to the Horsh: parking lots under the popular Sanayeh (also known the public will harm the plants; its proximity to the as René Moawad) Garden in summer 2009. “If these predominantly Shi’a Ghobeiri and Chiyah areas, spaces go, the campus of AUB will be the only green the Sunni Tariq el Jdideh district, and the Christian space left in the city. The Sanayeh Park is the only Badaro neighborhood means it will become a sectarian affordable breathing space for many underprivileged battleground; the risk of fire; and the inability to hire Beiruti families who take their kids there because they sufficient security guards to guarantee public safety. can’t afford to take them to pricy entertainment centers, While the Horsh is a unique space in Beirut—both playgrounds, and restaurants,” says Zaiter. In explaining in terms of its size and the large number of tree varieties her opposition to the municipality’s plan, Zaiter noted

* These are the words of singer songwriter Joni Mitchell who wrote “Big Yellow Taxi” in 1970 lamenting similar changes she observed from her hotel room window on a visit to Hawaii. www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 29 that the garden had also provided refuge for displaced Commentary on Beirut Souks persons during the 2006 war. Beirut Souks is a transitory space for express consumption; it is As an urbanist, Shayya distinguishes between what not public space anymore but rather a space that attracts the public. The old Beirut souks were street markets spatially dispersed German sociologist Jurgen Habermas calls “a public over the center of the city, accommodating everyday practices, sphere” and public spaces. He notes that although Beirut and reflecting a certain spontaneity through the crowds, traffic includes different social and political groups, encourages and bustling dirty streets. On the other hand, the new Beirut a free press and freedom of thought, and has a “rich and Souks is a single, centralized, brightly clean spatial entity—a mall dynamic public sphere,” it has very few meeting and accommodating the consumption of more clothes, accessories, mass gathering places. “We only see people in masses and food. The reason I make this comparison is not to romanticize during protests when they are all of the same “color” history, but to expose the spatial and semiotic shift of Beirut souks from socio-economically interactive urban streets to a consumption- (either March 14 or March 8; either poor laborers or driven, architecturally-historicized mall space. elitist heritage preservationists; etc.),” says Shayya. The transitory character of the new souks space is evident Engaged citizens and professionals like Fadi Shayya in the way internal streets are conceived. On a regular street, and others continue to advocate for public spaces in urban scenery alternates between shopping windows, buildings, Beirut—places where everyone is welcome and where landscape, emptiness, different human activities, and vehicular people from different socio-economic, religious, traffic. People either utilize or appropriate the urban streetscape— and political backgrounds can come together. practices that indicate signs of public space. The new souks� internal streets are pedestrian routes that encourage continuous movement leading either to shops, restaurants, cafés, bathrooms, or the parking lot. One can barely find a bench for sitting and people are driven to roam nonstop window after window; private security guards are always on the watch to ban any kind of spatial appropriation. Today, Beirut Souks is a giant, private, commercial space— owned by the real-estate company SOLIDERE. The souks might become more vibrant one day, but it is unlikely that they will be public again. —Fadi Shayya

Read On-line: IFI Research and Policy Memo #2, March 2011 “Partisan Urban Governance Restricts Access to Public Space” by Fadi Shayya

http://www.aub.edu.lb/ifi/public_policy/rapp/Documents/ ifi_rapp_memo_02_shayya_horsh.pdf

30 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate At AUB, 2,980 students received financial aid in 2009–10. Can you help one more?

AUB Dean Emeritus Nuhad Daghir (BS ’57) studied agriculture at AUB on a full scholarship before going on to Iowa State University where he earned both a master’s degree and a PhD in poultry nutrition. Although he retired as dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences in 2007, he is still conducting research and is involved in university activities, serving as vice chair of AUB’s Human Research Protection Program. “AUB has been my life and it will continue to be my life. It is unique, because its professional schools try to produce a complete individual, rather Supporting than a technician or an expert. You become an expert, but also a person with culture, wide interests, and sensitivity to the ideas of others. All of these values I acquired from AUB.” Students Hear more: www.aub.edu/ development/scholarship_initiative of Today and Tomorrow

To speak to someone about supporting financial aid, contact us at [email protected] Can you help support an AUB student?

See what’s possible! www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 31 The tiny area of Beirut known as Bachoura lies wedged between Solidere and Sodeco. Hemmed in and transected by busy roads, it is a hidden corner caught between an elegant past and a challenging future, resonating with nostalgia. Who takes the time to stop to ponder Bachoura’s history or consider its future? Or, more challenging still, find inspiration among the abandonment and dereliction? Enter Carole Lévesque, a dedicated city walker, who discovered Bachoura perchance—as a failed shortcut between Sodeco and Solidere. What she found, Lévesque writes, was “A state of in-between, without a future other than the eventual tabula rasa that will make way for developers and a present overwhelmed with the weight of the recent past. Bachoura appears, for now, as one of the few remaining neighborhoods in central Beirut where finding an imagined other is possible and where differentiated fragments can be projected…” Captivated, Lévesque returned to Bachoura time and again, drawn by its possibilities and the incongruities of what she found there. The majestic but dilapidated St. George’s Church on Tian Street became the site of an architecture class project. With colleague Hala Younes, Lévesque negotiated access for temporary installations. The students cleared over 100 bags of refuse before work could begin. Their installations included a raised walkway negotiating the overgrown garden and providing better access; hundreds of empty cans strung up in the bell tower so that it could once again resonate with sound; the entrance to the church re-aligned by a Just bamboo room; and a machine-like bottle panel recreating the main entrance of the church. Facing the church are two stunning apartment blocks representative of some ten or more 1930s and 1940s buildings included in Lévesque’s walking itinerary. In any other circumstances these noble buildings would surely be safeguarded as national treasures. Here, Imagine the gaping lots punctuating their surroundings are a testimony to their fate. “There is a plan for 17 residential Assistant Professor of Architecture Carole towers already to the north of this neighborhood,” Lévesque says. “Unless someone takes an interest in this Lévesque explores a forgotten corner of Beirut part, I think they will all go.” in search of “imagined spaces”… and finds On an empty lot where the wrecker’s ball has already done its damage Lévesque takes in the panoramic countless wonders and endless wealth.

32 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate view of Solidere. It is a favorite spot where she enjoys the irony of this prestigious site having been commandeered as a playground by Bachoura’s youngsters. Lévesque knows it is temporary, but for the time being she celebrates the spontaneity of this and other nearby spaces where she creates (or imagines) what she calls “fugitive and transitional personal infrastructures.” These have become the inspiration for a series of “rooms” which encapsulate the story of her chance encounters between people and architecture. “I try to develop projects from site specific pockets in the neighborhood, to really work from the materials of their stories, trying to grasp their essence in terms of their locale, their materials and ambiance, to capture these moments architecturally and then build these little transient spaces.” Exploring a raft of architectural and philosophical theories focused on “the latent potential of derelict sites windows, and there was this little girl who just popped [that] act as imaginative devices and can be seen as her head out and said in French, ‘Bonjour Madame.’ I places of differentiation, places of informal reinvention,” was just so startled, and she was laughing and giggling. Lévesque has developed five such “spaces” that Then she disappeared and reappeared at another window, investigate “the possibilities hidden within the real in and said ‘C’est toi la plus jolie.’ She was laughing and it between the events and places of the ordinary.” was so funny to see her little head bobbing up and down Explaining their evolution during the recent IASTE at different windows… that’s one of the little stories of (International Association for the Study of Traditional the rooms. Environments) conference at AUB in December 2010, “I like to think that a ‘room for sharing coffee and Lévesque said, “Stemming from found situations and other essential things’ or ‘a room for carrying stones’ events, the rooms grow to be invented places without or ‘for going where you don’t need to be’ will show, definite locations. When Bachoura becomes a newer when further developed or perhaps even built, that the version of Solidere, pieces of ‘bachourian wonderful found city embraces in its streets countless wonders and realness’ will stroll through the new landscape.” endless wealth and that they might produce spaces for a Introducing her “room for sharing coffee and other resilient and possible future.” essential things,” Lévesque says, “As its name suggests, Concluding her walk, Lévesque mused about her this transitional personal infrastructure is meant to act fascination with Bachoura. “You can go round this area as a place of mutual exchange, where one walks essential in 10 minutes if you don’t stop everywhere. You can go stories and artifacts to meet with others. Belonging to from the busy market street to the empty lot overlooking soon-to-disappear places, the room for sharing coffee and Solidere, to the empty buildings where for now no one other essential things carries part of the everyday, most is willing to live, to the other ones crumbling, alongside basic yet most important rituals.” (See following page). beautiful spaces like the church. There is such a rich Another transient space is the “room for hiding diversity within this tiny little lot. It is so well defined by the shadows of a room,” which evolved from a chance its boundaries that you can easily draw a line around it encounter on a sunny afternoon. “There was an opening and say all these things happen in this one small space from the street and I was just looking at the scenery and right next to Solidere, where a completely different story the light. It was really hot that day, but the light was just is happening, which is what makes it so fascinating.” perfect, and there was so much texture on the buildings,” Lévesque explains. “There was one building with broken —M.A.

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 33 A room for sharing coffee and other essential things. Here is how it began: The old woman is all smiles. I don’t understand what she seems so eager to tell me, but it is clear that she is happy to see I am paying attention to her humble house. She lives in a tight alley, which comes from the busy market street up the gentle slope, and leads into the inner block compound.

She lives in the corridor.

Yet, her house is the most inviting: a simple opening along this long, otherwise uneventful concrete wall, decorated with six potted plants, three on either side. There are two clotheslines on top of each other, both filled with the day’s laundry, mostly dark colored dresses. At the end of the corridor, a large, faded painting of a boy hangs above an archway. An air conditioner is leaking its water a bit further. The sky is a spotless, flat, blue surface and there is no air to be felt. Sketch: Carole Lévesque

The large metal door is wide open and reveals, behind a small passageway, a room, dimly lit by its single window in the far corner and what appears, to my eye, to be Christmas decorations.

She invites me in.

The room is her life story: wedding and baby pictures, news clippings, random objects, a bed, a table, a chair, a gas stove, a radio. This is where she sleeps, she eats, she reads, she waits for the days to go by. The ceiling is surprisingly high and reveals its dark wooden structure. I reach the window which looks out onto a tight concrete yard to realize it has bars on it; the brightness of the midday summer sun shining in makes them disappear.

She looks at me looking at her house, she points to a bowl with a few dusty candies in it, I smile back.

It is nearly 40 degrees outside but here, the air is cool.

She offers coffee.

That’s all one needs really.

34 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Walking. . . and Talking. . .

Beirut www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 35 1

On most weekends reveals a wealth of information about the city, starting with 1 3 in Ras Beirut a group AUB’s iconic banyan tree at the Medical Gate. 2 4 of tourists can be seen trotting two by two along the city sidewalks or perched BANYAN TREE and BLISS STREET attentively on a ledge beside “I always ask if people know what this tree is and why it the Holiday Inn. They are following Beirut’s own Pied is here. If they are really new to the country, they may Piper, aka Ronnie Chatah, creator of the popular Walk suggest it is the cedar, so then I produce the Lebanese Beirut historical tour of the city. flag. Not many know that the banyan trees outside 1 (and A self-styled storyteller, former AUB student Chatah inside) campus are grown from seeds from the national enraptures his audience with a dizzying succession of tree of India—the “Tree of Knowledge”—acquired for the riddles and facts that keeps them on their toes, or rather new Syrian Protestant College in 1866.” their feet, for up to five full hours. Taking his inspiration “I tell them that nearby Bliss Street is equally from his “muse,” the late Samir Kassir, Chatah’s Beirut walk important and rather than having something to do with happiness or joy, it is named after the founder of the

36 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate 2 4 3

Place des Cannon with Martyrs Statue, Manoug Collection, 1976

American University of Beirut, Daniel Bliss, the Protestant during the Ottoman Empire, the French Mandate, and missionary who established the ‘center of knowledge’ right recent pro- and anti-Syrian demonstrations. Who were the behind where he planted the banyan tree.” original martyrs? Why were they hanged right here when the square went by the name of the Burj? Why do the people in this statue look more Italian than Arab? Why was HOLIDAY INN and MARTYRS SQUARE the place called Place des Canons before it became Martyrs “I know I have really got their attention when the Square? Who shot the statue full of holes? Then I show Blackberries disappear into the pockets. It usually them pictures from before 1975 and after the war. They happens at the Holiday Inn or Martyrs Square. The can’t believe it is the same place until I point to one of the Holiday Inn 3 overawes people. They don’t know that few remaining original buildings there—the Opera, now a it is still the largest building in Beirut, why it is in the Virgin Megastore.” 2 shape that it is, or what happened here. Many don’t even know who Yasser Arafat was!” “I use the story of the statue in Martyrs Square 4 to explore the history of the country: its use as a rallying point

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 37 5 6 5

Tramway 1950

SAMIR KASSIR along to look at the synagogue. She “We always take a break next to Samir Kassir’s statue. 6 He used to tell people, ‘Hello, hello, I 6 8 5 2 is one of the reasons I do this walk; his story is the story of am Jewish.’ I have seen old pictures Lebanon. I summarize the story of Beirut and try to bring of the synagogue before the war and it to life through visual storytelling, but Kassir’s writings the restored one looks identical, it is on Beirut’s past inspired me to create the tour. He was impressive.” Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, French; his very identity is the story of Lebanon; his life and death capture its history.” KHANDAQ AL GHAMIQ “I take people here just so that they can understand what THE NEWLY RESTORED SYNAGOGUE happened to the downtown area 5 and how much it has Chatah’s unfinished CAMES thesis is on the Jews of changed. Just a few steps from Solidere, this is a remnant Lebanon, now but a handful of people who keep a very of the Green Line that was never brought back to life. I low profile. “There was one lady who used to live in Wadi run into Lebanese filmmakers here when they are shooting Abu Jamil and who always used to wave when we came movies about the war because it still, in many ways, looks

38 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Place des Canon with people on bicycles and bus, 1950 5 8

7

like a war zone. There are empty buildings all around much history must be seen in comparison to the rest of except for one where one man lives. I explain the way the the city. In many ways, Solidere is now one of the few old rent laws and abandoned property disputes complicate areas of Beirut that has, in fact, been largely preserved and renovation and indicate why there are so many derelict brought back to life—in some parts stone-by-stone—since buildings. Then we continue on a short way and we are in the civil war. However, I leave it to walkers to judge for Monnot, the party street.” themselves.”

SOLIDERE CENTRAL BANK 8 “During the tour, I do not like to enter into the debate “When we pause here I begin by asking why when you go about Solidere 7 and the criticism surrounding the to the bank you can choose between Lebanese currency project’s handling of restoration. Rather, I let people judge and the US dollar. I produce a one lira Lebanese note for themselves, while criss-crossing the downtown and and from there we take the roller coaster ride of the lira popping into Khandaq al Ghamiq… As time goes by, through history.” the criticism leveled against Solidere for destroying too

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 39 9

9 10

THE DOME 9 “We discuss what it was, why it is still here, and what might happen to it. I tell them about the different events that take place here these days, from parties, to shows, to exhibitions. How it has become something of an icon and may be included within the new Beirut Gate development. I remind people that in the early 1970s Martyrs Square was briefly in the Guinness Book of Records for the greatest number of cinema seats in a given location.” “I am committed to this tour, 10 largely due to Samir Kassir’s passion as a Beiruti storyteller, but also because I am actually seeing the history of Beirut change before my eyes. Better to tell the story of the city now, before too much history is erased forever.”

—M.A.

40 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Lana Mahmoud (BA ’95) looks back, with a change of scenery. People used to schedule times like every AUB student, with fond to meet their friends there before heading off to watch a movie or go out partying at one of the clubs. It was a memories of her time spent on that street that brought friends together. Bliss Street had everything from shoes at the Red most iconic of Beirut streets, Bliss. Shoe to photocopied books at Malik’s Bookshop. You could have a harakiri sojok sandwich at the sweet old I first heard about Bliss Street from my father, Dr. Junaid Armenian man’s sandwich shop and then grab a Tahiti Mahmoud (BS ’64, MD ’68), long before I actually stepped desert at the juice shop. If sandwiches and Tahitis did not onto it. He used to tell me stories about Faisal’s Restaurant suit your fancy then you could eat a jacket potato with opposite the Main Gate and how his dorm and later healthy toppings from the Lunch Box and then a frozen apartment building overlooked it. He also mentioned how yogurt from the Tex-Mex place next to it. he used to meet friends and socialize on Bliss all the time. I will never forget the bakery on Bliss, Al Makhabez I expected things to have changed dramatically Alwataniyeh. It was open till late at night and I remember since those days, but when I got to Bliss Street in 1991, I running to it, after having spent an evening at Jafet quickly realized that it was basically the same . . . except studying, to get a manouche and then quickly down Bliss for a few new restaurants and bookstores such as Malik’s. to YumYum’s to buy a few essential items before making Every memory of Bliss is special in its own way. We my way to Bustani Dorm via the Medical Gate. Phew! used to watch young motorcyclists show off by doing What a run that was especially when it was pouring rain. wheelies or chat with friends about upcoming AUB events Bliss was never a boring place and I do not believe such as the water fight between the upper and lower that it ever will be. This street has seen everything from campus schools. It was always a laugh standing in front of tramcars to automobiles, barbed wires and checkpoints Abu Naji’s mini-mart drinking coffee and getting to know to motorcycles and scooters. Every AUB graduate has many students who later became dear friends, or running fond memories of this special street. From the time of my back and forth from one bookstore to another to find the grandparents’ graduation to my sister’s recent graduation cheapest international rates to call our parents. from AUB, shops have opened and closed, local residents After spending time studying for finals or searching and international students have come and gone, but Bliss for books to write a term paper or even just chitchatting remains there for everyone; never changing, ever loyal. It with friends at the Oval, Bliss Street provided everyone was and still is truly bliss.

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 41 An uphill fight to save Beirut’s heritage

42 No matter how you look at it, youth is key to the of opponents. Even with pivotal government support, mission of Save Beirut Heritage, whether it’s the group’s the group’s work will remain piecemeal without the founding in March 2010 on Facebook, the vital fervor passage of a national law. of its young members (including many AUB students), Salam, Alamuddin, and others have criticized the their broad ignorance of the past, or their skeptical existing draft law— languishing in parliament for some appraisal of their elders. time now—in part because it favors the protection of One of these elders, architect and part-time AUB individual buildings over the preservation of the urban instructor Hana Alamuddin, is a former executive fabric. “It’s one step forward, but it’s not enough,” Salam committee member of the Association for Protecting says. More than that, it won’t be effective, he explains, Natural Sites and Old Buildings in Lebanon. The because it would require compensating the owners of organization, better known as APSAD, pushed hard heritage buildings for what could be built on the land, in the mid-1990s to protect Beirut from rampant for instance, a 10-story building. development but now concentrates on villages. The new movement’s success, then, depends on “If they [Save Beirut Heritage] are able to do a fragile alliance of friendly yet mercurial government something, fine, that’s good,” Alamuddin says matter- agents, potentially fickle foreign and local media, and of-factly. “But I don’t think it’s going to be long-lived, the elusive allegiance of a public shattered by war and because really legally they don’t have a leg to stand on continuously buffeted by political turmoil and economic and economically, it just doesn’t make sense.” What’s hardship. more, she continued, it’s not financially fair to freeze Even as the group has been celebrated on Facebook development of some properties and not others on the (about 7,500 members) and in many media reports for same street. its efforts to identify and protect historic buildings, it Assem Salam, who cofounded APSAD in 1962 and must persuade the public that the heritage it seeks to also helped to establish the School of Architecture at protect is so much more than individual properties and— AUB, also praises the enthusiasm of Save Beirut Heritage perhaps more difficult in a country where everything is but characterizes it as “a bit of a Boy Scout action.” contested—that these properties belong to everyone. Salam has practiced architecture since 1954 and served “We’re not Save Beirut’s Buildings, we’re Save Beirut as president of the Order of Architects and Engineers in Heritage,” says Giorgio Tarraf (BS ’08), a spokesman for Lebanon from 1995 until 1999. the movement. “We want more green spaces, we want He points to the staggering complexity of the proper zoning, we want a limitation on the height of political, economic, and social issues that heritage buildings in traditional districts—very basic stuff that preservation touches upon including the confusion you find in just about any semi-developed country, but surrounding the existing legal framework on land use that seems unachievable here today.” policy and how to define architectural heritage. “There Tarraf’s role in Save Beirut Heritage began after his is no government agency that is really responsible for family gave in to considerable pressure and sold their the preservation of [this] heritage,” Salam says. In other historic building on Rue du Liban in Gemmayzeh. He later words, even when there is a functioning government, the saw an advertisement for the recently formed group and issue of heritage tends to slip between the cracks, that is, called its founder, 23-year-old interior designer Naji Raji. when it’s not actively being shoved out of view. “I said, ‘Naji, this is my building; it’s an art deco, Before the recent government collapse (January and…I want to save it. You know, I still want it to exist, 2011), Save Beirut Heritage had stopped dozens of because I love it so much.’” Tarraf’s voice brims with culturally significant and historic buildings from emotion even though it’s a story he must have told many being demolished by lobbying the Ministry of Culture. times before. “And Naji said, ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s The apparently rock solid partnership of powerful been taken care of’… This was the first time in my life politicians and real estate tycoons—what Salam calls that I actually cried tears of joy.” “a complicity between the developers and the political Raji understood Tarraf’s feelings completely because leadership”—however, makes for a formidable coalition his family had also been forced out of their home on

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 43 the same street. He says that many of the group’s core the restoration of what will become the Beit Beirut members once lived in old houses and this shared sense of Museum and Urban Cultural Center in Sodeco. history is a powerful bond. He periodically advises Save Beirut Heritage and is “When I opened the Facebook group, I thought encouraging them to focus their efforts on educating maybe nobody will care about what I’m thinking,” the young. “I’m part of this generation who lived the Raji says. “Then people started coming and saying ‘I’m history of the city through the stories of others,” he interested too, I want to be with you, I want to help you. says, recalling his first visit at the civil war’s end to Maybe we can do something. Maybe we can change the Martyrs Square, a place that fascinated him and his situation.’” peers long before they set foot among its ruins. The group learns about endangered properties via “It was like a huge exercise among all the Lebanese frequent neighborhood walks, the Facebook page, and gathered there trying to remember,” he says. “It was very their 24/7 hotline (71-319167). They then press the easy to speak to one person; then someone else would Ministry of Culture to put a hold on demolition permits come, interfere, and correct your information, saying and investigate the buildings’ historic value. If they can’t ‘This was not this, this was the pharmacy or that was save all of a property, they try to save part of it. [such-and-such]…’” Save Beirut Heritage’s mission may seem idealistic, The brief dialogue among generations but its tactics owe much to hardheaded pragmatism. inspired by that first occasion didn’t last The group is now working to become an official non- nearly long enough, Haidar says. In his governmental organization in the hope that it can then own parents’ fading memories, the gradual more effectively lobby the government and appeal to the transformation of their way of talking, he sees public. the remnants of a critical missed opportunity. “First Buildings may not be their only concern, but they of all, you would remember where you came to buy a are particularly tangible markers of heritage—or are they? tie when you were 16,” he says. “This is what my father Not if they remain invisible, Alamuddin says. “I think was remembering, but after five years, he would just for me what’s important is for people to start looking at say, there was this café here, something more general, architecture and really for them to formulate a judgment whereas now he just switches to the new references, about it, because most people don’t see buildings and, even perhaps to the new names.” in Lebanon, it’s becoming critical because buildings are For Samir Khalaf, a professor of sociology and taking over.” the director of the Center for Behavioral Research at Assam Salam goes further. He says, “This question of AUB, this dialogue cut short also has implications heritage should be introduced in secondary schools and in for the family, the cornerstone of Lebanese society. universities.” To that end, Save Beirut Heritage is working “To me what’s even more poignant is that with the European Union to prepare for a first wave of parents are becoming tech-savvy seminars they will hold in schools. “We want it to be more interactive than just us sitting on a stage and talking,” Raji says. Lebanese history is no stranger to real estate booms, but the buildings the war didn’t topple are now vulnerable to the accelerating pace of construction, says Mazen Haidar, an architect specializing in restoration who is teaching the AUB theories of conservation course this spring. Haidar moved back to Beirut from Rome to work with Youssef Haidar Architecte DPLG (no relation) on

44 MainGate Spring 2011 irrelevant to their children,” he says. The wide scale preservation of heritage may be one way to begin to repair the damage. “You have to start with, as I’ve suggested in some of my writing, elementary school,” he says. “It’s children who ought to become ecologically smart. It’s too late for me. I hope it’s not too late for [them].” Paradoxically, it may be the youngest who have the best chance of reclaiming the memories that have slipped away from their parents, Haidar muses. “I think this is why, since they are very young, they are much more active than people from my generation. We would be concerned about upsetting something… I think you just need people like this. I don’t know if they’ll succeed or not, but at least you can hear them much more.”

—S.M. Beyond Bliss Street alumni profile

Getting hold of Beirut Mayor Bilal Hamad (BE ’76) is the first challenge. Securing an interview is the second. Holding his attention under a barrage of phone calls (which he courteously does not answer) is the third, and trying to ignore the people knocking on his door is the fourth. ManagingBeirut MainGate was lucky enough to have “wasta” because Mayor Hamad is also an AUB professor of civil and environmental engineering who can occasionally be found in his office on campus. As students waited (mostly) patiently outside his door, the ebul- lient Hamad shared some insights into the challenges facing the man people are hoping will solve some of Beirut’s myriad problems. The neat list of questions carefully structured to pin down the mayor on issues that we all care about—traffic, the environment, the sidewalks, noise, pollu- tion, and the practical interface between the mayor and his alma mater—was soon abandoned as Hamad dived into a passionate exposition of his first six months in the hot seat.

Culture shock: Stepping into the mayoral office after AUB was a com- plete culture shock. “There were five or six computers between 50 people, not a single scanner in the whole building, no working printers,” Hamad explains. “I said how do you people get any work done, then I broke all the rules, and went ahead and bought comput- ers, scanners, and printers.”

Hidden agendas: The prevailing sys- tem of cronyism and political favors

46 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Beyond Bliss Street alumni profile

defies description, though off the record committees and Hamad recounts hair-raising stories. It say, here is my is an open secret that inappropriate plan, if you do not pressure is brought to bear on every like it, feel free to issue and that nothing is untainted by bring me another politics or special interests. “We come version.” from an academic background where we try to play by a code of ethics,” Voluntary work: Hamad says. “Even if we have prob- Hamad has asked lems at AUB, we have quarrels, we the council to form have conflicts, it is nothing [compared] a [voluntary] com- to what I face every day.” The enormity mittee of urban of his task is leveraged by his engaging planners from sense of the absurd. Lebanon’s top uni- versities including AUB, the Lebanese to establish a private public transport Politics-free zone: “From day one in American University, St. Joseph, and system for the city of Beirut.” the municipality, we agreed amongst the Lebanese University. Other com- ourselves that politics had no place in mittees for traffic and the environment Parking solutions: “Without decent the office,” Hamad says. “We decided will follow. “People are happy to volun- public parking (and by that I mean that all decisions are taken by con- teer because they are helping to shape providing properly built parking lots), sensus. If any one of the 24 council the future of [the] city. I am working you cannot solve the parking problem. members says “no” to something, I voluntarily. I have a salary, but I am So this year we will be acquiring by postpone the issue for more discus- using it to cover the costs of consult- law several empty lots in Beirut. We sion; we need to agree because we are ants. I am happy to do this because will pay a fair price for them because trying to shape the future of the city.” it is bringing proper knowledge and experience to the office.” “Even if we have Tackling the urban nightmare: To give some idea of the magnitude of Priorities: Presiding over an area that problems at AUB, we Hamad’s task, close your eyes and forms a circle starting at the Beirut have quarrels, we imagine the beautiful city of Beirut Forum in the north, the Beirut River, circa 1954. Now take in the reality of Badaro, Chatilla Tunnel, and the Sport have conflicts, it is the concrete jungle rapidly spreading City stadium (which includes the bas- across the city. “Can you believe that ketball court but not the football sta- nothing [compared] to the last urban plan for Beirut was dium!), Hamad has identified several what I face every day.” drawn up in 1954?” Hamad splutters. priorities including public transporta- “There is no urban plan. In my office tion, parking, and civic spaces. we deal with urban planning; there is this is the only way to do it. And I ask no urban planner. We deal with traffic, Traffic congestion: “All road construc- all the politicians, if I identify a piece of but there is no traffic analyst. I am not tion is executed according to the 1954 land and the owner complains to you, an urban planner, I am a concrete and Urban Planning Law,” Hamad explains. don’t expect me to change my mind steel man, a structural engineer, so I “Can I do anything about that now? because [the selection of] that piece of come to my friends here in the [FEA] Not really, but without a public trans- land is based on good urban planning faculty and I tell them there is a prob- port system you cannot sort [out] traffic studies. Once I choose and pay for the lem, please help me out. This way I do congestion. So in coordination with land, I will use a BOT [Build Operate my homework. I can go back to my the Ministry of Transport, I am trying Transfer] system to construct and

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 47 Beyond Bliss Street alumni profile

manage these parking lots. It is now meetings. I go to the people. I hold “Can you believe that or never. I have money from taxes and town hall meetings. I was elected to building permits. I don’t want to pile the Council of Beirut by the people of the last urban plan for up the money. When I leave this office, Beirut, and we should decide by con- Beirut was drawn up I don’t want to leave a penny behind. sensus. I invite anybody to challenge I want to leave ten good projects for these projects.” in 1954?” Beirut. This is what I am planning.” Next on the list is the Hippodrome, which sits on 210,000 square meters action will be taken. True, the side- Public spaces: A native Beiruti from of land and is used only by a handful walks have not been well maintained,” Tariq el Jdideh, Hamad is painfully of horse owners and race goers on he says, “but I promise we will make aware of the lack of green and civic the weekends. “This land is owned sure that in 2011 all sidewalks in spaces in the city. Starting on home by the municipality for the people of Beirut will be planted with trees and ground, he has drawn up an ambitious Beirut and the people of Beirut do maintained.” if controversial plan that entails the not use it. I visited it for the first time demolition of the municipal stadium in my life when I became mayor. It is Trash collection: With the Sukleen in Tariq el Jdideh. “The stadium occu- a paradise that nobody knows about. contract almost at an end and other pies 30,000 square meters of land Now we have a master plan. The companies bidding for the job, Hamad and is used five or six times a year. Hippodrome will stay, but it will be is in a holding position. That does not Why do we need this?” Hamad asks. one of six facilities. We will have an mean he is not studying the problem. “Let’s change it into a civic center amphitheater, an artificial lake, a mini “I visited Istanbul and Barcelona; they with underground parking for 2,500 golf course, a horse riding school, and have properly covered bins installed cars—we solve the parking problem. green restaurants where there is no in the correct places. If Istanbul can Then on top we have a green civic smoking. This is my dream and this do this, why can’t Beirut? We have park, mini football, basketball, and dream will happen.” to work with the government on this volleyball pitches, the largest public (For those lobbying to reopen issue. We need to see which com- library in Beirut, a multipurpose hall Horsh Beirut [Beirut’s pine forest], the pany will be responsible, but in all for weddings, condolences, and other news is not so positive. At this point, cases, we need to have bins that are functions, pedestrian walks, a jogging Mayor Hamad feels the only way to properly covered with lids that open path—in short a civic center which safeguard this vital breathing space with a hydraulic foot pedal; it’s an at least 1,000 people use every day. for Beirut is to continue to protect it environmental imperative.” Some people tell me I cannot touch the from becoming an open air argile and By now the time is ticking and stadium because it is part of our herit- barbecue spot, both of which he feels Hamad is due in the classroom. There age. Beirut is a concrete jungle and to would seriously jeopardize the fabric of is a line of students waiting outside keep all this land for one stadium—it the Horsh.) [See article, p. 28.] his door. It is time to go, but one last makes no sense.” question—how is he going to manage Sounds autocratic? Not so says Sidewalks: “To widen the sidewalks to hold down his job at AUB and face Hamad. “Whenever I have a project I requires urban planning and changing all these challenges? “By agreement call for the traffic flow; changing the traffic flow with the president and the provost, I will would mean altering the roads; altering have to cut back my time at AUB. But, the roads is impossible, don’t worry, Beirut is in good hands. I but I am am an AUB professor using the code studying the of ethics I learned at AUB. I am an AUB problem, person through and through. I and, where will not let you guys down!” possible, —M.A.

48 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Beyond Bliss Street legends and legacies The Principled Polymath Cornelius Van Alen Van Dyck has One of the College’s original telegraphed twice daily to the Imperial 5 been described as “probably the most faculty members, Van Dyck worked Observatory at Constantinople. gifted and most honored of all the particularly closely with Drs. John Van Dyck resigned from the SPC 1 early faculty members at SPC.” He Wortabet and George Post to found its in 1882 to protest what has come was a medical doctor, a scientist, medical department (the forerunner of to be known as the Darwin Affair. the author and editor of numerous today’s Faculty of Medicine) in 1867, (See “Darwin and the Evolution of important works in Arabic, and a gifted becoming chair of internal medicine AUB,” MainGate, fall 2009.) Although 6 linguist who mastered not only Arabic, and general pathology. A lifelong this event marked the end of his for- but Syriac, Hebrew, Greek, French, mal affiliation with the institution, Van Italian, and German as well. Dyck continued to be involved with The son of a country doctor, Van the College until his death in 1895 at Dyck was born in Kinderhook, New the age of 77. One of the other fac- York on August 13, 1818. After earn- ulty members who resigned from the ing an MD degree from Jefferson College to protest the Darwin Affair Medical College in Philadelphia in was Van Dyck’s third son, William, 1839 at the age of 20, he traveled who had been a medical lecturer to Beirut as a lay medical mis- since 1880. sionary. It was in Beirut that he William returned as a mem- met and married his wife, Julia ber of the SPC faculty in 1915, Abbott, whose father had been eventually retiring in 1928 as the British consul. They had six professor emeritus. children: Henry, Edward, Ellen, Van Dyck Hall, which is Eliza, William, and Florence. located just inside the Medical In 1846—20 years before Gate, was built for the medical the establishment of the Syrian school in 1930 with funding Protestant College—Van Dyck from the Rockefeller Foundation. founded the Abeih Academy, It is now home to the Faculty which was the first institution in Syria of Health Sciences, the Office of 2 to confer a high school diploma. Computing and Networking Services, With his “intimate and lifelong friend,” and the Academic Computing Boutros Bustani (see “A Kindred Center. Spirit”, MainGate, fall 2010), Van Dyck 1 Daniel Bliss, Letters from a New Campus, page completed an Arabic translation of 267. 2 Some sources give a date of 1843 for the the Bible, which Reverend Eli Smith amateur astronomer, he also helped founding of the Abeih Academy. 3 7 3 had begun in 1848. In addition to set up the Lee Observatory in 1874. In The Founding Fathers of the American University of Beirut: Biographies, compiled by Ghada Yusuf the translation of the Bible, Van Dyck addition to choosing the site, Van Dyck Khoury, page 186. 4 http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/ wrote, edited, and published books in provided much of the observatory’s people/alrazi.aspx 8 5 Arabic on many medical and scientific original equipment. Assisted by Faris The other members were Daniel Bliss, David Stuart Dodge, George E. Post, Edwin R. Lewis, topics including Abu Bakr Mohammad Nimr (BA 1874), who was a mem- Harvey Porter, and John Wortabet. 6 http://staff.aub.edu.lb/~webanest/story.html Ibn Zakariya al-Razi’s groundbreaking ber of the College’s first class of 16 7 The observatory was named for Henry Lee from Manchester, England who donated 150 pounds work on smallpox and measles that he students, Van Dyck recorded regular sterling for the building. 4 8 also translated. meteorological observations that were http://www.aub.edu.lb/tour/nojava/b12.html

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 49 Beyond Bliss Street reflections [Lessons of War] Renowned professor Rashid Khalidi had every intention of returning to AUB one year after leaving for a fellowship in the United States, but events conspired against him. Thirty-eight years later he reflects on his time on campus and still considers the possibility of coming back.

up. So AUB students were not terribly Were the students able to engage Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said worried about shelling and sniping, but properly, were they distracted? Professor of Modern Arab Studies and the rain. . . We were very lucky. In those years we Literature and director of the Middle East taught students who had benefitted Institute at Columbia University, taught at How different was teaching from the quite excellent K-12 educa- AUB from 1976 to 1983. at AUB from your previous tion in Lebanon. I have been teaching experiences? for 37 years, and in those seven AUB Main Gate: When did you arrive I had taught for a couple of years years I taught some of the best stu- at AUB and what were your first at the Lebanese University just after dents I have ever taught. There was no impressions? I finished my dissertation. At the decline in quality over that period. I have spent time on campus and Lebanese University you had a largely known people who were involved working class student population, How would you compare your with the University for as long as most of whom worked during the day students with others you have I can remember; half of my family and who showed up rarely for class. taught since? graduated from AUB, my father and At AUB, most of the students came I would say that students at AUB, in brother included. I started teaching at to most classes and most of them terms of the subjects I teach (history, AUB in 1976. came from comfortable backgrounds. politics, and so on), were considerably There was also the difference between more knowledgeable and interested Do you have particular memories the facilities: AUB obviously has a than many of the students I have taught from those years? quite gorgeous campus and lovely since. American students, for all their 1975-76 was not the calmest aca- facilities. many good points, often don’t have a demic year. I was pleased to be teach- very good grasp of Middle Eastern his- ing here, but we were ducking for What was the biggest change you tory and they often don’t have terribly cover half the time. I remember that noticed while at AUB? good language [skills]. the rains came early that fall, and the I was here for seven years from 1976 first day when it really started raining, to ’83. I was going to say that the Are you still in touch with any of there were very few people in class. students became less political, but your former students? I asked one of the students, where that’s actually not true. Most of them I am in touch with many of them—es- is everybody, and he said, “Ya ustez, remained very interested in politics. pecially those who went on to careers it’s raining!” I said, but people were There was turnover, but most of the as university professors. coming when there were shells falling, students managed to stay. I constant- and he said yes but the girls won’t ly see former students—sometimes come because it will mess their hair because I am teaching their children.

50 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Beyond Bliss Street reflections

it you say how did we ever put up with that, but at the time it just seemed like the thing to do.

How did those years at AUB impact on your academic work? I think I learned more about politics and history during those years at AUB, or the 11 to 12 years I lived in Lebanon, than at any other time in my life. Anyone who thinks history is a matter of simple factors or believes in the con- spiracy theory of history did not draw the right lessons from the kind of things we went through. It was traumatic in some respects, but in terms of my understanding of the topics I deal with, I think it was very enriching.

How much has the role of young people in the Middle East and Lebanon in particular changed since those days? My impression is that students who were probably understandably apoliti- cal after the war have in some respects You were here from 1976 to ’83, broke out became an issue. But, I been re-energized. One also hears, a period of great upheaval. What had every intention of coming back in however, that there is some of the made you decide to stay? 1984. Of course, the situation became same lack of serious concern among I had been living in Lebanon before so much worse and with our kids we some kids about what is really happen- 1976. I have a lot of family here, I just couldn’t. . . ing—a detachment from reality—that had a job, I had kids, and we had no I remember from pre-war Lebanon. It desire to go anywhere else. I like AUB. How did you cope on the personal is hard for me to judge, but I do think I enjoyed teaching here. Beirut was a level? there has been greater involvement vibrant intellectual center, all kinds of Much of the time the electricity was and attention to things among young stuff was happening. The war wasn’t cut off. We had problems with gas, people in the last few years than was a constant; there were months and problems with kerosene, all kinds of the case right after the war. months at a time when things were day-to-day problems, which many apparently peaceful. When we left, we readers of MainGate know as well Would you consider teaching left with only a few suitcases thinking as I do. In conditions of war, people again at AUB? we would only be away for a year. I are enormously resourceful and are I would hope it would be pos- had no intention of leaving. One thing able to put up with much more than sible at some stage. that changed was that as our kids got people living in peaceful conditions —M.A. older, getting to them and getting them can imagine. It just seemed normal. home after a car bomb or after clashes We managed. When you look back on

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 51 Beyond Bliss Street time flies

The caption on this photo, likely taken before 1920, reads: “Main Gate of the College, taken opposite. The college donkey and the two college servants in center. They are going downtown for some supplies.” Thanks to Trustee B. Philip Winder for donating a collection of family photos to the AUB archives. If you are interested in donating your own AUB photos or memorabilia, contact us at [email protected]

52 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate AUB students, alumni, entrepreneurs, and business leaders met in Damascus, Syria March 10-12 at WAAAUB’s Second Regional Meeting, which focused on exploring ways to increase employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for young AUB graduates. More than 100 students, alumni, and speakers from Jordan, Syria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon battled a weekend snowstorm to make the trip to Damascus. WAAAUB Chapters Committee Chair Flare Majali (BA ’75), WAAAUB President Khalil Makkawi (BA ’54), and Provost Ahmad Dallal (BE ’80) were on hand at the opening recep- tion on Thursday evening at the historic Al Pasha Hotel. Keynote speaker Adel Hussain Al Maskati (BS ’75) advised students to build their personality, develop skills, take risks, and work hard to

prepare themselves for today’s challenging labor market. After Nader WAAAUB Second Regional Meeting Kabbani and AUB Professor Jad Chaaban presented some recent statistics concerning unemployment in the region, AUB alumni Elias Nasr (BE ’03), Rana Shmaitelly (BE ’93, ME ’08), and Lina Zawati (BAR ’80) shared their experiences. There were also lively presentations from Ashoka VP Iman Bibaris, Amjad Al Aryan (CEO and founder of Pharmacy 1 in Jordan), Berytech Program Manager Krystel Khalil, Rana Ghandour Salhab (MBA ’85), and AUB BOT member Abdulsalam Haykal (BA ’01). Presentations by student representatives also prompted animated discussions that continued at the gala dinner that evening, organized by the Damascus Chapter at the Four Seasons Hotel. At the gala, Damascus Chapter President Sami Moubayed (BA ’00) thanked WAAAUB for holding this impor- tant meeting in Damascus. Friday’s “work” meetings were followed by a day of “play” that included a tour of the old city of Damascus, shopping in the souks, visits to major touristic sites, and lunch at the (Top to bottom) WAAAUB Damascus MENA participants and meet- renowned Syrian restaurant Narinj. For more information about the ing; panel discussions; keynote speaker Abdel Maskati talking to AUB students business meetings visit www.waaaub.org. Recently elected Washington State Chapter Maldives Chapter Rony Ferzli (BE ’99, ME ’02) President Zahiya Zaheer (BA ’83) President Hassan Issa (BS ’04) Vice President Aishath Mohamed Didi (BA ’82) Vice President Zeina Makhoul (BS ’99, MS ’02) Secretary Mohamed Hameed (BA ’84) Secretary Jean Ghanem (BE ’02) Treasurer Ahmed Mansoor (BBA ’85) Treasurer Gassan Salloum (BE ’99) Technology Officer Ibrahim Shafeeg (BBA ’84) Joe Rjeili (BE ’02) Member at Large Roland Saad (BE ’02) Member at Large Gilbert Tawil (BE ’02) Member at Large MainGate Spring 2011 53 The Charles W. Hostler Student Center was the site of a fierce battle on December 12, 2010 when business alumni from AUB, the Ecole Supérieure des Affaires (ESA), Birmingham, International Excellence (IE), and Columbia competed for the right to call themselves the best business alumni football team in Beirut. In the end, ESA prevailed with Columbia and Birmingham snagging second and third places respectively. The WAAAUB Inaugural WAAAUB WAAAUB Programs WAAAUB football tournament winning teams: ESA (in blue) and Business Alumni Football Tournament and the reception that Columbia (in gray) followed were organized by the WAAAUB Programs Committee in collaboration with IE business alumni to promote professional networking among business alumni. Greece The Greece Chapter is back! Alumni in Greece held their first general assembly on February 16 at the Nargila restaurant in Athens. Alumni residing in Greece caught up with old friends and reminisced about the “good old days” before getting down to business and launching the chapter’s upcoming elections. The highlight of the event was a Greek tradition—the cutting of the pita for 2011. The new Greece Chapter committee will announce future events on its Facebook page. February get-together in Athens

post tell us a resume where you are find - your old lab partner - events - a job How long has it been since you visited the OLC? It’s all here > www.aub.edu/alumni

Be a mentor to Look up a recent grad alumni chapters 54 MainGateLook Spring 2011for AUBites in Link your your new home town Facebook page to your OLC sign-in The WAAAUB family’s newest member—the Maldives Chapter— recently appointed former Maldivian Education Minister Zahiya Zaheer (BA ’83) as its first president. A host of distinguished former Maldives students including Maldives Vice President Mohamed Waheed Hassan (BA ’77), former Minister Aishath Mohamed Didi (BA ’82), and Maldives Red Crescent President Ibrahim Shafeeg (BBA ’84), attended the chapter’s first general assembly on February 25.The new chapter also welcomed US State Department Senior First general assembly Education Adviser Molly Teas as the guest of honor.

More than 250 AUB alumni attended the WAAAUB Switzerland Chapter gala dinner at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva on March 26. Chapter President Muwaffak Bibi (BBA ’77) wel- Switzerland comed AUB and WAAAUB delegates to the event and thanked everyone for their generous support of the WAAAUB Swiss scholarship fund. The Swiss committee also honored former chapter president Akram Saadeh (BS ’73, MS ’76) for his serv- ice to the Swiss alumni community. WAAAUB board member and president of the WAAAUB UK Chapter Talal Farah (BA ’62, MA ’70) briefed the guests on WAAAUB news and thanked the alumni for their extraordinary ongoing support and enthusi- asm. His Excellency Hassan Rammal, Lebanese Ambassador to Switzerland was among the guests. As promised, official speeches were kept short so that everyone could dance the night away… with some even reliving a little bit of Saturday Night Fever on the dance floor.

The first Qatar quiz night was such a hit in June 2010 that the WAAAUB Qatar Chapter held a second quiz night on January

20 at the Diplomatic Club in Doha. Some 200 alumni and friends (Top) Left to right: Manal Azzi (BS ’02, MS ’06), Carla Karam (BA ’96), Mohammad Ali Mahfouz (BS ’98), Kassem Haydar (BS ’89), attended the event, which was sponsored by Microsoft. A Diana Cotran (BBA ’77), Muwaffak Bibi (BBA ’77) September quiz night is in the works. (Bottom) Dancing at the Switzerland gala dinner

AUBMC hosted a dedication ceremony to celebrate the Abu Dhabi Chapter’s donation to name a room in the Bone Marrow Transplant Qatar (BMT) Unit for Jirji Bachir (BA ’74). Abu Dhabi Chapter President Elias Assaf (BE ’88), VP Samer Gharzeddine (BA ’90), former President Ramzi Kteily (BA ’64), and chapter founder and honorary member Jirji Bachir (BA ’74) were on hand for the ceremony. So too were some of Bachir’s family and friends: Dr. Ali Bazarbachi, Dr. Fuad Ziyadeh (BS ’76, MD ’80), Deputy VP/Dean Ziyad Ghazzal (BS ’78, MD ’82) and Dr. Nadim Cortas (BS '63, MD '67). In their remarks, Assaf touched on his relationship with Bachir and pledged the chapter’s continued support for AUB while Kteily spoke of Bachir’s legacy. Bachir, whose wife Fatimah (BA ’76) and Qatar quiz night

MainGate Spring 2011 55 Abu Dhabi

Alumni and friends at the opening of the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, named by the Abu Dhabi Chapter for Jirji Bachir (BA '74) four children—Mazen (BS ’99), Basel (BS ’01, MD ’05), Zeina (BS ’04), and Elias (BE ’07)—are all AUB alumni, thanked BMT staff for the care he had recently received while a patient at AUBMC.

More than a thousand Abu Dhabi alumni, friends, and their fami- lies who attended the chapter’s annual “Day Out” at the Hiltonia Beach Garden Hilton Hotel on January 28 were looking forward to a fun-filled day with clear skies and sunshine. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans when wind picked up in the early afternoon and a storm set in. Thankfully, the storm didn’t last long enough to disrupt the chapter’s program. Among the highlights this year were the participation of Radio Star FM presenter Rania Younes as mis- tress of ceremonies and the generous gifts many Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi "Day Out" Dubai companies distributed to all attendees.

More than 150 alumni and friends gathered at the Marriott Key Bridge Hotel in Arlington, Virginia on March 18 to attend the annual gala dinner of the WAAAUB Greater Washington DC Chapter. Welcoming remarks by Chapter President Dr. Suheil Muasher (BS ’72, MD ’76) were followed by comments from HE Antoine Chedid, ambassador of Lebanon to the United States. In his keynote speech, President Peter Dorman provided the audience with campus updates and news relating to the recent AUB Board

Greater Washington Greater DC Washington of Trustees meeting. Music and dancing capped off a successful evening for a happy crowd.

The Southern California Chapter hosted a well attended luncheon in old town Pasadena on March 27. A comedian, Charles Marina, entertained the delighted audience. The attendees enjoyed a won- derful Sunday afternoon socializing, reminiscing and laughing.

New England Chapter members celebrated the 2010 holiday season with a festive party on December 12, 2010 at the Masa Southwest Bar and Grill in Woburn, just outside Boston. More

Annual gala dinner at the Marriott Key Bridge Hotel than 60 AUB alumni, family, and friends braved the rainy winter

56 MainGate Spring 2011 weather to attend the chapter’s annual holiday party for a late night of fun, dancing, great food, and wonderful company. Everyone was in good spirits and is looking forward to the upcoming year and a multitude of alumni events. New England The Montreal Chapter organized a Christmas lunch on December 18, 2010 at Restaurant L’Ô at the Novotel Hotel in Montreal. They must have had a great time because just six weeks later, on February 3 chapter members got together again—this time for a “5 à 7” event at the Caramel Supper Club—also in Montreal. On March 20, the chapter followed up with a snowshoeing event at le Parc National Montreal des Iles de Boucherville. The park is made up of five small islands located right in the middle of the St. Lawrence River in Montreal.

The light snow that fell on Ottawa only briefly delayed the start of the Christmas party on December 10, 2010 at the St. Elias Centre. This being the outgoing board’s last public activity, the president, Samir Samaha (BBA ’79) was surprised with a trophy of appre- ciation from his colleagues. The official tone of the evening quickly gave way to a much lighter mood, however, thanks in part to Andre Skaff’s (BE ’67) jokes and anecdotes. Then it was on to karaoke, dinner, a poetry competition, and finally dancing to DJ Tonnee’s music. The chapter would like to extend its gratitude to corporate (Top to bottom) Diana Makhlouf, Naheel Sahruk, Dr. George Sharuk (BS ’73, MD ’77), Mona Abou Hamad (BS ’80, MS ’83), and Dr. sponsor Gabriel Pizza, to DJ Tonnee, who led the evening’s activ- Samia Khoury (BS ’80, MD ’84); Amal Hayek (BS ’93, MS ’97), ities, to the MC and judge, and to all those whose presence made Hiba Tabbara (BS ’96, treasurer), and Reina Hallab (LAU alumna, Montreal Chapter President) at the Caramel Supper Club; Montreal this evening such a warm, successful, and memorable one. Chapter alumni on a snowshoeing adventure.

Attention WAAAUB 2011 elections This is your alumni AUB Alumni! are underway. In late May association and we need your eballot will be sent to your participation to make your inbox. it the best association AUB and its graduates We urge you to familiarize deserve. Don’t forget to yourself with the new vote! WAAAUB leadership structure (details can be Questions? Email us at found at: www.waaaub. nominations-committee@ org) and to cast your waaaub.org ballot by June 25. Election results will be announced @ on July 1, 2011.

MainGate Spring 2011 57 Beyond Bliss Street c l a s s n o t e s

1950s Raphael Calis magazine. In 1981, he moved director of the pan-Arab tele- Albert E. Hazbun to Washington, DC to launch vision station MBC in London, (BE ’59) has a long history of the Kuwait News Agency returned to Washington as a supporting education, start- (KUNA) in North and South full-time publishing adviser to ing with a memorial scholar- America and was the agency’s the Department of State, and ship he named for his father: bureau chief and director for launched the Arabic cultural the George Issa Hazboun 13 years. Subsequently, Calis magazine Hi. In his current Scholarship for Palestinian spent a year in Riyadh, Saudi position as Washington direc- engineering students at AUB. Arabia, as director of planning tor of IPS, Calis will focus He is an active member of (BA ’66) was recently appoint- for the Saudi Research and on publishing operations, the Equestrian Order for the ed director of the Institute Publishing Company, one of development, outreach, mar- Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, for Palestine Studies (IPS), a the largest publishing compa- keting, and special projects. an ancient Catholic order that private non-profit academic nies in the Arab world. In 1994 [rjcalis(at)yahoo.com] supports the Latin patriarch organization. A veteran Arab- he returned to Washington to in Jerusalem and the educa- American journalist and pub- assume the position of exec- Shamira Derakhshani tional institutions under his lishing executive, Calis has utive editor and vice president Nicolas jurisdiction. Around ten years been an editor of three maga- of the American wire service, (BA ’66, MA ’72) After her ago, Hazbun founded a stu- zines, a daily newspaper, and United Press International, graduation from AUB, Nicolas dent scholarship at Bethlehem two wire services, including becoming one of the first followed her husband Ilyas University where he recently AUB’s Outlook; managing Arab-Americans to occupy (Peter) Nicolas (BS ’67, MD helped establish a mentor- editor of The Daily Star, and such a senior position in a ’72) to Cleveland, Ohio, where ing program. In the 1950s editor-in-chief of The Middle major American media orga- she was delighted with the Hazbun served as editor of East, a London based monthly nization. He then served as a opportunity to study at the AUB’s Engineering Yearbook and of Outlook. His son Rania, also an MD; Nicolas’s Waleed A. Hazbun is an AUB wife, Dunia Chahine (AUB professor in the Department student 1971-72); their of Political Studies and Public daughters: Zeina Chahine Administration. [hazbun(at) Jirbaka (BS ’02, MPH ’05) sbcglobal.net] and Lara Chahine Rezko, who studied marketing at 1960s Nicolas A. Chahine ding.” The family after the big Concordia University; and her Barbara Ann Johnson (BS ’65, MD ’69) did his post- bash: left to right: the bride, husband Robert Rezko, who (BA ’63) keeps up with sev- graduate work in otolaryngol- Riwa, MA virology, University studied civil engineering at eral AUB classmates includ- ogy at AUBMC until 1974. He of Montreal; Chafik Jirbaka the University of California at ing her junior year roommate, writes: “This is how I look 40 (BA ’02); groom Dr. Karim Los Angeles. [nchahine42(at) but she would love to hear years later at my son’s wed- Chahine, MD; his mother gmail.com] from others, especially those from Iraq, Ethiopia, and Alumnae from the class of 1965 Somalia. She is planning to held their own mini-reunion this attend her class reunion in spring. Left to right, seated: Rose Hanna Debbas, Bushra Jabre, 2013. [harkhan(at)aol.com] Najla Hamadeh Osman, Shafica Dayya Omari, May Ziwar Daftari, Fatima Sbaity Kassem. Standing: Nada Husseini Jabre, Maha Faris Looking for old friends Sabbagh. and classmates!

58 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Beyond Bliss Street c l a s s n o t e s

and have five children, six issued and pending US and in Australia, was just published grandchildren, and two more world patents. Kassis and by the Australian Academic grandchildren on the way. his wife Sousan Kanbar have Press and nominated for the [aedeeb(at)hotmail.com] or two girls: Lana (12) and Maya prime minister’s 2010 Book [eas(at)ichp.ufl.edu] (10). [amin_kassis(at)hms. Award. It has been described harvard.edu] as cross-cultural research that Amin I. provides exceptional insights Kassis Walid M. into the hopes and fears that Nasr people experience when deal- prestigious Cleveland Institute (BE ’71) is an independent ing with diversity. Well known of Art. Her exhibit, The Light of management consultant for his work on comparative Universe, was on display at the for development and con- religions and ethnicity, Ata Gallery at the Arts and Cultural struction companies, law served briefly as a temporary Council in Rochester, New York firms, and UN organizations delegate to the UN in 1970. last October and November. such as the United Nations He is currently at the Australian She often uses numbers in her Development Programme Catholic University and a works. “Numbers are natu- (BS ’68, MS ’71) After com- and the International Labor WAAAUB Council member. rally orderly, factual, precise, pleting his doctorate from Organization. He is currently [abe.ata(at)acu.edu.au] descriptive, and their physi- McGill University in Montreal the contracts formation man- cal shapes contain all pos- and a one-year postdoctoral ager for HEISCO, a publicly Mohamad M. Barudi sible forms in nature.” For fellowship at Case Western traded Kuwaiti company in oil, (BAR ’75) has practiced as more on Nicolas’s work, see University in Cleveland, gas, and ship-building. Nasr is an architect and contractor MainGate, “Connections,” fall Ohio, Kassis was recruited married to Vicky Fattouh. They throughout the Middle East. 2008. [shamiranicolas(at)hot- by Harvard Medical School have two married children and He welcomes visitors to his mail.com] (HMS) in Boston where he one grandchild. [walidn(at) new website [www.ancha- has remained. Currently, he hotmail.com] tarch.com] [anchatarch(at) 1970s is professor of radiology at yahoo.com] Abdallah “Al” HMS and director of radio- Abe W. Ata Elias Deeb biology and experimental (BA ’72) Ata’s book, Us and Joyce Mufarrij Jurdak (BS ’66, MD ’71) is a fellow radionuclide therapy. A pro- Them: Muslim–Christian (BA ’75, MA ’84) writes: “With of the American College of lific author, he also holds 44 Relations and Cultural Harmony a reassuring smile on his face, Surgeons and has a general surgery practice in Tallahassee, Florida. Since 1985, he has owned and managed a Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) multi- specialty outpatient surgery Serhan Kayal Group involved in corporate in environmental sciences center. Deeb partners with (BS ’77, MS ’81) is an social responsibility activi- from Griffith University, Betsy Shenkman, PhD, who environmental consult- ties including community Brisbane, Australia. He and is a professor and chair- ant with the Environmental outreach and is involved in his wife Fatima Chaar have person at the University of Protection Department of company efforts related two children: Nejla and Florida’s College of Medicine. Saudi Aramco. He heads the to global climate change. Abraham. [kayalsx(at)gmail. They reside in Tallahassee Environmental Awareness Kayal holds a doctorate com]

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1980s Sani Nassif was awarded her certified Bassem P. Fakhry management accountant cer- tificate (CMA) making her the first female CMA in the KSA. In 2002 she went on to earn her certified financial manager certificate. She is married to Dr. Kisirwani was always there Mahmoud Gharazeddine to assist us throughout our (BE ’80) is a research man- (BE ’75), and they have three years at AUB. We were always ager at IBM. He received his children: Imad, Farid, and welcome in his office at Jesup (BE ’80, MBA ’87) writes: PhD from Carnegie-Mellon Jana. [hayatbaki(at)gmail.com] Hall when we had any prob- “Busy as we all are, I guess University in 1986 and worked lem, be it academic or even to we sometimes tend to over- at Bell Laboratories prior to Rana Zeine solve an issue with administra- look the changes in our moving to IBM. Nassif is a fel- tion. We almost felt that Dr. lives, even those significant low of the Institute of Electrical Kisirwani was family, and this or momentous ones that and Electronics Engineering, was a wonderful feeling for us come every 30 years or so an IBM master inventor, and at the PSPA Department as we (in my case). Here’s the latest a member of IBM’s Academy progressed through our aca- twist in my life and career: I of Technology. He and his wife demic program. Dr. Kisirwani left GE after nearly 12 years Julie Slim have two daughters had a way of putting things to start my own company in attending college and a now (BS ’83, MD ’87) earned into perspective that would June 2010. Dynamic Energy empty nest in Austin, Texas. her doctorate at McGill help us get through. and Water Solutions (www. [sani.nassif(at)gmail.com] University in Canada. She When I heard that Dr. dynamic-ews.com) is based is currently pursuing an Kisirwani was leaving AUB, in Dubai and specializes in Hayat Abdel Baki MBA at the Keller Graduate a flood of memories came to solar energy and water treat- School of Management at mind even though I graduat- ment. My wife Elita Abou- DeVry University in New York ed a while ago. Dr. Kisirwani, Haydar Fakhry (BS ’84, City. Zeine was invited to I will always remember your MS ’87) and I have lived in the present her research at the wisdom and generosity. It is UAE for more than 19 years. session on tumor microenvi- my turn to wish you all the We celebrated our 25th anni- ronments at the 2010 Third best. May you keep that smile versary last December… so World Cancer Congress in of yours and may you enjoy 2010 was a big year for this (BBA ’83) is head of Internal Shanghai. Her presentation life surrounded by the love of AUB couple.” [bpfakhry(at) Audit at the SKAB Group, can be viewed at [http:// your family and friends.” dynamic-ews.com ] Saudi Arabia. In 2001 she www.slideshare.net/rzeine]

Lost Alumni Below is a list of alumni Garabed Abajian Muna Abu-Shibel Md.Ainuddin Aminul-Islam from the class of 1982. If Nemer Abboud Yunan Abu-Sulayman Salma Ammuri Ghadah Abdo Demetris Achilleos Michel Antun Class of 1982 you know the whereabouts Md. Abdul-Karim Sirajuddin Ahmed Ghassan Aswad or contact information of Lina Abdun-Nabi Banilya Ajinah Tonia Maria Aswad Can you help someone on the list, please Walid Abi-Aad Paul Ajluni Elie Atallah solve any Maha Abi-Isa Hisham Ajouz Lina Atiyyah send an email to alumni@ Joyce Abi-Rad Marius Akhras Salma Atiyyah of our lost aub.edu.lb and type “lost Farah Abourjeily Sewan Alexanderian Kamal Attar alumni alumni” in the subject line. Aida Abu-Asali Abdul-Munim Ali-Idris Leila Awad mysteries? Diana Abu-Hamra Samera Al-Jawhari Abdul Aziz Thank you for helping. Roger Abu-Jawdah Rabi Allus Nurhan Baghdadi Carol Abu-Rashid Husam Aminuddin Dani Bakhus Amin Abu-Samra Abu Noman Aminul-Islam Panos Balian

60 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Beyond Bliss Street c l a s s n o t e s

Maral two children. Sami, their oldest Khaled A. Antoyan child, has just received his BBA Taki (MA ’86) With her master’s from AUB, majoring in account- in education, Antoyan has ing. [lfayed(at)sabis.net] worked as a teacher, a guid- ance counselor, an instructor Maha at Notre Dame University, Hurayki an educational adviser, and (BE ’86) is currently director prior to joining the interna- is currently the education- of the Information Technology (MA ’86) earned several tional NGO ACDI/VOCA as al coordinator of Armenian Department at the American advanced degrees from US a program manager for a Prelacy Schools in Lebanon. University of Kuwait where institutions including a doctor- $3 million project funded by [hasmig6(at)yahoo.com] she also heads the Institutional ate. In 2005 Taki established USAID. This Quality Control Research Unit. Hurayki is mar- his own franchise consultan- and Certification Program is Bassil Farraj ried to Fouad Khlat (BE ’83, cy firm, Franchise Business designed to strengthen food (BE ’86) is cur- MBA ’88) and they have two Consultants (www.fbcfran- testing laboratories in Lebanon rently technical manager at daughters: the oldest gradu- chise.com), and created the to sustainably address qual- OmniSystems, SAL Lebanon ated from AUB in summer first franchise training insti- ity, food safety, and regulatory in charge of post sales sup- 2010. [maha(at)khlat.com] tute in the Middle East at the compliance issues. Melki and port of various IT solutions Gefinor Center in Ras Beirut her husband Pascal Abdallah from Avid, IBM, Symantec, Hakikur (FTI www.franchisetraining. have two children. The fam- and Sun. Farraj is married to Rahman pro). In 2010 he was elected ily lives in Mount Lebanon. Josette Hajeily. They have two (ME ’86) is a postdoctoral the first president of the Arab [celloun(at)hotmail.com] daughters: Maria and Sara- researcher at the University Franchise Association (www. Gabrielle. [bassil.farraj(at) of Minho, Portugal. He is arabfranchiseassociation. 1990s omnisystems.com.lb] the founder-principal of com). FBC recently submitted Fadi Abdulsalam the Institute of Computer a proposal to the Lebanese Lina Fayed Management and Science government for a Beirut water (BA ’86) is Computer College, adjunct taxi to help alleviate local traf- the admissions officer at faculty at Bangabandu Sheikh fic congestion. He is looking the International School of Mujibur Rahman Agricultural forward to his class reunion in Choueifat, which is the parent University, and chairman of 2011. [ktakiphd(at)ahoo.com] school of a global network SchoolNet Foundation—all in that includes 79 schools and Bangladesh. Rahman and his Celine Melki a large university. She and wife Shamima have a daughter, (BS ’89, MS ’95) spent 12 (BE ’90) after graduation, her husband Khalil Fayed have Sausan. [email(at)hakik.org] years in the food industry joined his family’s contracting

Ibrahim Barhum Sharif Diab Ahmad Fityan Atallah Hajj Diana Hassan Willie Barnes Paola Durant Maha Foster Roger Hakim Hamoud Hassan Maurice Battikha Fuad Edde Randa Ghandur Mireille Hakimian Amir Hassun Nicolas Bazas Salpy Ellezian Kamil Ghobril Mitri Halabi Yessayi Havatian Jean Pierre Bijjani Olymiada Embedokli Imasdouhi Ghorghorian Zaynah Halawi Rafik Hawwa Fuad Bin-Ali Mona Esfahani Antoine Habib Umar Hamad Tayyib Hayati Andre Bou-Nassif Dimah Farhat Jiryis Habib Hisham Hamadah Raymond Hayik Mary Bresenham Rana Farhat Walid Habib Jumana Hamid Nabil Hilu Nadia Bushrui Ascension Faysal Emile Haddad Hind Hammud Yusuf Hitti Asef Chaudhary Nayla Faysal Fadya Haddad Nadim Hammud Farid Hubaykah Vart Cupeyan Nasir Fayyad Mary Haddad Imad Hannun Nuhad Hunaynah Suad Dajani Bernard Fighali Samir Haddad Frida Hasan Amal Samar Isa Ruwaydah Dallul Pierre Fighali Suhayl Haddad Husayn Hasanayn Antoine Istfan Nabil Deeb Eser Fikri Kyriakos Hadjikyriakou Nadim Hashim Amal Itani

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business, GBCC, as man- Raghid Bitar Sbeit is also a founding and aging director. The com- current board member of a pany is based in Sharjah, local charter school, Manara UAE. He has two children: Academy, in the Dallas, Texas Sarah and Samir, who is a area. He and his wife Sara pre-med major at AUB. Khayat live in Dallas and have three children. [dr.raed. Hanadi Tabsh Maryland, College Park. sbeit(at)gmail.com] (BBA ’90, MBA ’92) is (BS ’98, MD ’02) is the director Dr. Dagher, who was previ- the head of accounting at of bariatric and advanced lap- ously an assistant professor 2000s Makassed General Hospital. aroscopic surgery at University at the University of Florida, Mohamad In 2010 she became a certi- Health Systems of Eastern received her doctorate from Haidar fied management accountant North Carolina’s Heritage the University of Minnesota (CMA). Tabsh and her hus- Hospital and the Tarboro in 2007. Her dissertation was band Issam Itani have three Clinic. After earning his MD nominated for the University of children. They live in Beirut. in 2002, he completed one Minnesota Dissertation Award. year of general surgery train- [rdagher1(at)umd.edu] Bachir El-Saghir ing at AUBMC before moving to the United States to finish Raed Omar Sbeit his training at the University (BAR ’01) is a virtual design of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and construction manager at in 2008. Bitar and his wife Lee, Burkhart, Liu, Inc. He Sherene Wehbe Bitar lives in Los Angeles, California. (BSN ’99, MPH ’01) have two [mohamad_haidar(at) children: Leen, age five, and yahoo.com] (BS ’96) is a senior land- Abdallah, age three. They live scape architect at Projacs in Greenville, North Carolina. (BE ’98) is a technical man- Mohamed International. His wife Hiam [raghid.bitar(at)gmail.com] ager at Verizon and an adjunct Badaoui Chemaitelly (BS ’03, MS professor at the University of Najjar ’05) is a research special- Rada Dagher North Texas where he heads (BS ’01, MS ’04) is a senior ist in epidemiology at Weill (BS ’98, MPH ’00) is an the MSES graduate engineer- scientist in innovations at Cornell Medical College in assistant professor in the ing management program. In PepsiCo, USA. He leads Doha, Qatar where the cou- Department of Health Services 2008 he earned his doctorate PepsiCo’s global energy ple lives. [bachir.saghir(at) Administration, School of in engineering management at product design. In 2009 he gmail.com] Public Health, University of Southern Methodist University. earned a doctorate in food sci-

Abdul-Kadir Itani Rima Kamil Muhammad Khulani Muna Lahhud Lost Alumni Layla Itani Dina Kanu Amal Adele Khuri Kathleen Mackenzie Marthe Jabarah Rafik Karam George Khuri Elie Mahfud Class of 1982 Suzan Jabarah Rita Kashshu Imad Khuri Wahib Mahjub (continued) Rabi’ Jabbur Yusuf Kassab Ludvig Khuri Alenouche Mahrokhian Nuha Jabir Souheil Kastoun Salwa Khuri Ilyas Majdalani Eileen Jada’ Henry Kevorkian Thurayya Khuri Mary Makhluf Md. Jalaluddin Diana Khabbaz John Khuri-Yakub Emanuele Manasci Wisam Jamal Hasan Shukri Khalidi Muna Kubaysi Muhammad-Walid Mansur Hagop Jamgochian George Khalil Wafa Kubaysi Rizkallah Masabni Randa Jannun Rima Khalil Ahmad Kurban Takouhie Mazloumian Jihad Judi Layla Khalil Nada Kurm Janine Melikian Mazin Jundi Yusuf Khamisi Antoine Kusa Mh. Mohsin Miah-Miah Ghassan Kamar Steve Khatchadourian Samir Kustantin Abdun-Nasir Mikdad

62 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Beyond Bliss Street c l a s s n o t e s

provides generating systems plans to start a doctoral pro- to households and to electro- gram in workplace and adult mechanical businesses. ARJ learning next year. She lives was granted the International in Beirut. [janaaboureslan(at) Europe Award in 1999 for hotmail.com] Best Quality in the Middle East. Jubaili currently resides Joumana Mattar ence from Rutgers University social responsibility/sustain- in Beirut, Lebanon. [Nader(at) Moukarzel in New Jersey. Najjar current- able development (CSR/ jubaili.com] (BGD ’05) is a design manage- ly lives in White Plains, New SD) coordinator. She cur- ment consultant. She earned York. [Mohbadaouinajjar(at) rently holds that position Hanine Estephan her master’s in design man- hotmail.com] and is also communications (BS ’04, MPH ’06) is a doc- agement at Istituto Europeo di manager. She writes that toral candidate at the Harvard Design, Barcelona. Moukarzel Wissam Shaar although she is very happy School of Public Health. In is currently studying coaching (BE ’02) is an MBA stu- working at Holcim, she will 2010, Estephan was a fel- at the European Economic dent concentrating in strat- always consider her years low at the Harvard Graduate Conference, Madrid, and egy and global leadership at AUB to be the best ever. Consortium for Energy and interning at XVDMC (Xenia at McGill University. He and [grace.elazar(at)gmail.com] Environment. She is cur- Viladas Design Management his wife Nagham Sayour rently living in Boston, Consultants). She believes (BS ’06, MA ’09) moved Nader Jubaili Massachusetts. [Hanine(at) that design is a tool for to Montreal, Canada last gmail.com] social change. She is fluent August. Sayour is a doctoral in English, Spanish, French, student in economics, also Jana Abou Reslan and Arabic. [joumana.mm(at) at McGill. [wissamshaar(at) gmail.com] hotmail.com] Ward Wehbeh Grace El Azar (BS ’03, TD ’03, MS ’07) (BA ’03) is the managing El Azar earned her BS in director at A.R. Jubaili & Co. environmental health and her (ARJ). As one of the leading master’s in environmental companies in power gen- (BA ’04) is an instructor at sciences with an emphasis eration, ARJ has been a key the American University of on environmental health. In supplier of power generating Science and Technology, 2009, El Azar joined Holcim sets in the Middle East and Lebanon. In 2009, she earned (BE ’08) is a chartered accoun- Lebanon as a corporate North Africa since 1979. It an MBA at LAU. Reslan tant at Pricewaterhouse-

Olga Mikhail Rula Nasr Said Rashshash Ali Shahuri George Tayyar Yeghishe Minassian Marwan Nayfeh Walid Rifai Elie Shamun Krikor Tersakian Abdus-Sattar Molla Mollah Mustafa Nili Muna Saad Lamya Shatila Sayed Tora Raja Mubarak Dani Nujaim Naylah Saadah Talal Shaykha Karim Trad Naila Mufarrij Md. Nurul-Islam Himadri Saha Chanda Shrestha Ramzi Tubbah Shamsuzzoha Muhammad Nazihah Nuwayhid Gilbert Saliba Basim Sibai Said Yasin Ahmad Faik Munla Eleftherios Papaeracleous Samar Salman Muhammad Siraji Salwa Zahid K.A. Musa Photos Pasantas Muna Sarkis Bassam Srour Zahir Mutasim Demetrios Photiades Ihsan Sawda Ilham Staitieh Naziq Nadjarian Rodrique Noel Raad Marwan Sayfuddin Leila Ann Suki John Najjar Marie-Pierre Rafi’ Rozina Semenoglou Leda Svadjian Husamuddin Najm Pierre Rahhal Rima Shabb Tawfik Taha Nabilah Nasif Mahbubur Rahman Milan Shahin Kawthar Taitoon George Nasir Rezaur Rahman Zaynab Shahin Ahmad Tayish

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Coopers. In October 2008 consultant in 2008-09. She Hotel project expected to Ahmad Barazi she married Giorgos Christofi is now finishing her doctor- open in June 2012. [faris. in Cyprus. They have a beau- ate in irrigation engineering haddadin(at)dargroup.com] tiful baby girl, Eva. Wehbeh at USU. She lives in Logan, and her family live in Nicosia, Utah. [roulabachour(at)hot- Julie Haswani Cyprus. [wwehby(at)hotmail. mail.com] com] Faris Anwar Haddadin Roula Bachour (BE ’10), with his degree in civil engineering, went to work as a project engineer at Arabian Construction (BBA ’09) is a human Company. He writes, “I feel resources officer at Deloitte so confident and satisfied & Touche in Beirut. In 2009 with my work. I got promot- (BE ’09) writes that the joy- she earned her degree in ed in my first two months. I (MS ’09) is a graduate ful cap and gown celebra- business administration am so grateful to have gone research assistant in the tions lasted for a few days with an emphasis in human to AUB. It contributed a lot Civil and Environmental before he set off with “trunk resources. She writes, “It is to making it possible for me Engineering Department loads of memories, knowl- an honor for a relatively fresh to excel in life.” Barazi lives at Utah State University edge, and eagerness to start graduate like me to be part in Beirut. [ah.barazi(at)gmail. (USU). She earned a BS in a promising career in the of class notes. It is always com] agriculture engineering at land of cultural and historical great to shed the light on Carine Lteif the Lebanese University in heritage, Egypt.” Haddadin AUBites’ achievements, (MA ’10), who completed her 2005 and an MS in irrigation is a project coordinator at whether it is in Lebanon master’s in urban planning at AUB in 2009. Bachour Dar Al-Handasah Shair and or abroad. Thank you to and policy in October 2010, worked at GTZ-Lebanon as Partners working on the the MainGate team.” [Julie. is a consultant at AUB’s a conservation agriculture landmark Nile Ritz-Carlton haswani(at)gmail.com] Center for Civic Engagement

I always remember same person throughout my my dad talking about AUB, entire life: my Dad.” its educational excellence, Maya’s two sisters social life and, of course, its are also AUB graduates spectacular campus. My dad who work at AUB: Rihaf taught me to always make Yazbeck (BS ’02, MPH ’05) the most of what I had. He is a quality review analyst in Maya A. Yazbeck (BS ’09) the Beqa’a were concerned would tell me that nothing is the Quality Accreditation and Abdallah Yazbeck (BS ’63, about their academic studies. impossible and that if you put Risk Management Program at MS ’69) After earning her He completed one year of your mind to something, it AUBMC [ry03(at)aub.edu.lb] degree in computer science, graduate school at University can become a reality. and Ribal Yazbeck (BS ’04) Maya Yazbeck went to work of Michigan before returning Throughout their lives, is a senior accountant in the as a records specialist in to work in the Beqa’a as a people find themselves admir- Comptroller’s Office. [ry04(at) AUB’s Development Office. principal of the Green Plan at ing a number of different peo- aub.edu.lb] Abdallah’s email She writes: “My father is Baalbeck, Hermel, where he ple. In my case this has been is: [Abdallahhyazbek(at)hot- an AUB graduate from a time served for around 20 years. particularly challenging as mail.com] [Maya’s email is: when very few people from He is now a retired dad and I have always admired the [my27(at)aub.edu.lb] his beloved home town in grandpa.

64 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Beyond Bliss Street c l a s s n o t e s and Community Service RECENTLY Leila Tarazi Fawaz professors at AUB, Fawaz where she is researching HONORED (BA ’67, MA ’68) (Harvard, said, “I am grateful to AUB agricultural practices in Sour Haig Khatchadourian MA ’72, PhD ’79) After serv- and for all my education in in south Lebanon. She pre- (BA ’48, MA ’50) earned a ing on Harvard University’s Lebanon. I found my teach- viously worked at LACECO, doctorate at Duke University Board of Overseers for the ers wonderful.” an architectural and engi- in 1956. He has taught phi- past five years, Fawaz was neering firm in Hamra. For losophy for more than three recently elected its director Bana Hilal her master’s thesis, Lteif decades starting at AUB, for 2011-12. She is the first explored the landscape where he spent 15 years, Lebanese academic to be potential of urban agricul- and throughout the United given such an honor. She ture located at the peripher- States at the University of said her election as director ies of municipal Beirut. “The Wisconsin, University of of the Board of Overseers goal of my research was to Southern California, University demonstrated the high value assess the extent to which of Hawaii, University of New that Harvard places on inter- urban agriculture might con- Mexico, and Harvard Law nationalism. tribute to urban food secu- School. Khatchadourian Fawaz is the Issam M. rity while providing for urban founded and was made a life Fares Professor of Lebanese green areas and other ben- member of the International and Eastern Mediterranean (BA ’72) has received efits like urban water man- Academy for Philosophy and Studies and founding direc- the 2010 East-West agement and environmen- the Armenian Philosophical tor of the Fares Center Bridgebuilder Award from tal protection. I chose this Academy in 2001. In 2004 for Eastern Mediterranean the Levantine Cultural topic because it enabled he was elected a fellow of Studies at Tufts University, Center, an organization that me to use my background the Royal Society for the where she also holds promotes greater under- in agricultural engineering encouragement of Arts, appointments as profes- standing of the Middle East and also because, although Manufactures and Commerce sor of diplomacy at the and North Africa by present- urban agriculture is increas- in England for his work in Fletcher School of Law and ing artistic and educational ingly valued throughout the aesthetics. In 2005 he was Diplomacy and as professor programs that bridge politi- world, it is underappreciated awarded the medal of David of history. A Carnegie schol- cal and religious divides. “As in Lebanon. I hope that my the Invincible, believed to ar from 2008 to 2010, Fawaz a Lebanese Muslim woman, research will help to raise be the first Armenian phi- has authored two volumes, I find myself facing stereo- awareness of how urban losopher (c. 5th-6th century An Occasion for War and types and preconceived agriculture can contribute to AD) to introduce Greek logic Merchants and Migrants in notions of who I am…I creating more livable cities. and philosophy to Armenia. Nineteenth-Century Beirut, have learned that I am not This would be a first step Among Khatchadourian’s and is currently working on alone…We need to educate towards acknowledging its biographical listings are: a study of the World War the West about our culture importance and devising Marquis’s Who’s Who in I experience of Muslims in and religion and at the same policies that would promote America, 2009 and Who’s the Middle East and south time educate ourselves to its development in the urban Who in the World, 2011. His Asia. In 2000, she received accept and embrace the dif- context.” publications to date include the International Institute ferences that exist between more than 100 articles in of Boston’s New Citizen our communities. Only with philosophical journals, 10 Award, given to immigrants open minds can bridges philosophical books, and two who have made signifi- be built and hearts seek volumes of poetry (1983 and cant contributions within connections.” Hilal is an 2010). He currently lives in their respective communi- active member of the Daniel Milwaukee, Wisconsin. ties. Paying tribute to her Bliss Society Leadership

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 65 Beyond Bliss Street c l a s s n o t e s

Committee. [Banahilal(at) US Green Building Council manent consul general will gmail.com] (USGBC) and represented be appointed after Lebanon’s USGBC on a trip to Egypt new government is formed. Internationally to help launch Egypt’s GBC. Diab earned his law degree acclaimed artist In the past year, he also from the Lebanese University Lena Kelekian (BS ’81) worked with USAID assisting in Beirut and his LLM (Master and her artist/architect hus- Jordan to develop environ- of Laws) in finance law from band Hagop Sulahian mental regulations to com- the American University in (BAR ’84) represented bat industrial pollutants. He Washington, DC. Lebanon at the 4th Beijing has lived in Orange County, California for the past 23 Tarek Barhoum years and will soon celebrate poetry volume Geographies his 20th anniversary with his of Light (published 2009). wife Mary. Mazboudi is cur- [lmajaj(at)cytanet.com.cy] rently pursuing an MBA at California State University. Ziad Mazboudi [mazboudiz(at)hotmail.com] (BE ’87) received the 2010 American Society of Civil Looking for old friends and classmates! International Art Biennale. Engineers (ASCE) Citizen The theme for the 2010 Engineer Award in recogni- (BAR ’03) While at AUB, event was preserving the tion of his public service, Houssam Assad Diab Barhoum received the Fawzi W. environment. Work from the 2010 California ASCE (BS ’90, BBA ’92) has been Azar Architectural Scholarship both artists was selected for Outstanding Community appointed acting consul gen- Award for outstanding aca- the permanent collection of Service Award, and the 2010 eral of Lebanon in Detroit. demic achievement in design. the Beijing National Art Southern California American Diab has held a number of He is now a managing part- Museum. Kelekian and Public Works Association senior level government posi- ner for Design Class (www. Sulahian also exhibited their Project of the Year Award for tions here and in Lebanon, designclass.com). Among his work last November at innovation in the formation including consul general of recent honors are first prize Korea’s 9th Goyang of the Tri-City Water Saver Lebanon in Los Angeles, in the Carlton Architectural International Art Exhibition. Committee in South Orange deputy chief of mission of Design Competition, 2008 Kelekian is an internationally County, California. He is cur- the Permanent Mission in Beirut; first prize in renowned artist, iconogra- rently president of the ASCE of Lebanon to the United the Limited Architectural pher, restorer, geologist, Orange County Branch and Nations, head of the Arab Design Competition for the environmental designer and a director on the ASCE Los Affairs Department at the mayor of Riyadh HH Prince curator of international exhi- Angeles Section Board. He Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Abdulaziz Bin Ayaf’s resi- bitions. She is the winner of sits on the board of directors Emigrants in Lebanon, deputy dential complex, 2009 in the 2008 Beijing Olympic of the Ecology Center in San director of the Department of Riyadh; and the International gold medal and Torch for Juan Capistrano, California International Organizations at Residential Property Awards’ the Fine Arts. [Lena(at)kele- where he has served for the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Best Interior Design, 2009 kianartgallery.com] past nine years as a senior and Emigrants, where he led and Best Architecture, civil engineer managing the the cultural affairs section, 2010 in Dubai, San Diego, Lisa Suhair Majaj city’s environmental division. and adviser to the Lebanese California, and London. [tarek- (BA ’82) won the Del Sol Mazboudi is an LEED accred- Minister of Foreign Affairs barhoum(at)designclass.com] Press Poetry Prize for her ited professional with the and Emigrants. A new per- [tarekbarhoum(at)gmail.com]

66 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate FRIENDS him a hero in our eyes.” a chemical reaction that has Robert (Bob) G. Berry After AUB, Dodd since led to the development (former staff) passed away joined the United Nations of hundreds of anti-bacteria last April in New York City. In before becoming director and anti-cancer drugs. For 1992 he retired from a suc- of the Fulbright Foundation this achievement, Issidorides cessful fundraising career in Islamabad, Pakistan. He was awarded Lebanon’s as AUB’s executive director retired to Victoria, Canada National Order of the Cedar. of development and public where he was active with In 1986, he moved to relations for North America. the Canadian Institute of California where he taught at Berry was critical in helping International Affairs (CIIA). He the University of California, AUB exceed the $38 million is survived by his wife Erica Davis for nine years. He is goal of its 125th anniversary Cruikshank Dodd, former survived by Bonnie Buckles, campaign. Prior to coming AUB faculty member, his his wife of 44 years; their to AUB, he served as nation- brother Bruce Dodd, and four two daughters, Diana and ing Rensselaer Polytechnic al director of fundraising for children and their families. Daphne, two granddaugh- Institute (RPI—his under- the US Olympic Committee ters, three great grand- graduate alma mater), and vice president for devel- Constantine (Costas) children, a brother, and the University of Southern opment and public relations Hercules Issidorides two sisters. The family has California, Syracuse of the New York Botanical requested that memorial gifts University, and Arizona State Garden. Berry also served in be sent to AUB’s financial University. the US Army. A 1944 gradu- aid fund for needy students. Kano’s teaching career ate of Brown University, he Contributions may be made spanned four decades. and his wife Christiane, who by contacting vempaty(at) Among his many achieve- survives him, were generous aub.edu or on-line at http:// ments are the publication of donors to AUB scholarship give.aub.edu two advanced textbooks in funds for over 40 years dat- the field of electronic chips ing back to the 1950s. Kanaan Kano passed away and semiconductors, gov- last January in Phoenix, ernment medals and cita- Former Faculty Arizona. He was born in tions for excellence in teach- Peter Carter Dodd Syria in 1931. After he com- ing, including Lebanon’s passed away in November pleted his undergraduate National Order of the 2010. He was born and studies in the United States Cedar in 1973, the General grew up in Beirut, received passed away at his home in and received a doctorate Electric Company’s Award his undergraduate degree Woodland, California last from Yale University’s School for Teaching Excellence, the from Princeton University, November. Born in Athens, of Engineering in 1963, Kano Eta Kappa Nu’s Outstanding and earned his doctorate Greece in 1920, Issidorides moved to AUB where he Teacher of the Year, and in sociology from Harvard attended Athens College, an remained for the next quarter the Outstanding Teacher University. He spent his life American preparatory school, century. Award from the School encouraging understanding prior to moving to the United He became chairman of Engineering in 1989 at between Muslim and west- States to attend the of the Electrical Engineering Syracuse University. ern cultures. After college, he University of Iowa and Department in the early He met his wife taught for 20 years at AUB. Harvard University. 1970s and served as dean Elizabeth Downing during A former student says, “His He was a professor of of the School of Engineering his undergraduate years modesty, demeanor, charac- organic chemistry at AUB from and Architecture from 1976 when she was a nurse at ter, respect for others, pro- 1952 to 1986. In 1965, he to 1985, when he returned to the Samaritan Hospital near found understanding of the and his colleague, Professor the United States to be closer RPI. She survives him along concerns of the Arab world, Makhlouf Haddadin, dis- to his children. with their children Michael, and unreserved empathy with covered the internationally He continued to teach Gina, Nayla, and Riad who its national struggles, made acclaimed “Beirut Reaction,” at various universities includ- all remember him as a lov-

www.aub.edu.lb/maingate | MainGate Spring 2011 67 ing and dedicated man who Boghossian family, she will We Remember put his family first throughout be truly missed. Shafik M. Jiha his life. BA ’33, MA ’44 Mona Suwaydan Melhem Albert Y. Badre ALUMNI (BS ’60), a former AUB BBA ’34 Sonia Bogosian (Nursing nurse, died on February 23 Abdallah Hay Simon Diploma ’55) was born in after a long struggle with BBA ’40 Aleppo, Syria in 1922. Her leukemia. She was the wife Sami Yusuf Alami parents, Dr. Khatchig and of the late Dr. Rafic Melhem, BBA ’44, MA ’46 Astrid Boghossian recog- an AUB doctor, and leading Ibrahim Antoine Tarazi nized her strength and inde- radiologist who served as PHCH ’45 pendence from a very young chairman of AUB’s Radiology Kamel Mikhail Humsi age and encouraged her to Department from 1968 until BA ’46 pursue an education and a 1986. Melhem and her class- Mansour S. Kadi career. Her brother Edward mates celebrated their 50th BA ’50 was founder and editor of reunion in 2010. She is sur- Adnan M. Shaykh The Armenian Reporter. vived by her three children, BA ’50, MA ’52 In 1956, she followed Rania, Elias, and Nada. Nazih M. Shaykh him to America where BA ’50, BSCE ’51 she enrolled in Columbia Ara Alexander Garabedian Carlos W. Dihmes University to earn a mas- BA ’51, MD ’56 ter’s degree in nursing. She Usama A. Khalidi went on to become director BS ’51, MS ’54 of nursing at Dewitt Nursing Kamal I. Khuri Home in New York City for BA ’52, BSCE ’53 over 30 years. Sami B. Abbud-Klink Bogosian was known for BEN ’58 her passion for the arts and Abdallah M. Idris for Armenian-American caus- BS ’71 es including the Armenian Nasri Jamil Abu-Judeh General Benevolent Union, BEN ’71 the Diocese of the Armenian Rayya Said Usayran Church, the Armenian BS ’85 Assembly, the Armenian Tree Alain Cordahi Project, and countless chari- (BA ’72, MA ’74) After earn- Friend of AUB table and cultural endeavors. ing his doctorate, Garabedian Towfic Ghandour She traveled to every corner spent many years practic- AUB parent of the world. ing as a psychologist for Levon L. Karjian Although she never the state of Arizona. He is Former student married, she had a large survived by his loving wife Mohamad Saadeddine extended family who adored and best friend Rina Adib Dimachkie her; she became a second Abou-Haidar (BA ’74), his BBA student mother to all of her nieces, brothers Gary and Raffy, and nephews, and grand nieces his in-laws, the Abou- and nephews. Sonia is sur- Haidar family. vived by them, her sister Fimi Schulze, and her sister- in-law Arlene Boghossian. As the matriarch of the

68 MainGate Spring 2011 | www.aub.edu.lb/maingate Last Glance Photo © AUB Photography Department / Ahmad El Itani

A traditional Lebanese home on Bliss street seen through the university’s eastern wall Return Address

American University of Beirut 3 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza 8th Floor New York, NY 10017-2303

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Beirut coast, late 19th century