Patterns of Social Control at the Lebanese University

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Introduction Much has been written about sectarianism When Crisis Promotes Proximity: and sectarian clientelism in Lebanon from Patterns of Social Control at the the viewpoint of political history (Sinno; Sharāra; Makdissi). Little has been pub- Lebanese University lished about how it works on the micro- sociological level, certainly when it comes to the country’s highly diverse education system (Nucho; Deeb and Harb). In the context of political systems such as the Lebanese, sectarianism or communalism (Arabic: madhhabiyya or ṭāʾifiyya) is a mode of distributing legal, political and administrative power among different religious groups. Beyond this meaning, sectarianism is often used to mark a mentality, a pattern of loyalty which channels contacts and forges relationships. This concept of sectarianism widely overlaps with the one of clientelism. Both concepts, sectarianism and clientelism by themselves Jonathan Kriener have little explanatory or illustrative power in order to understand institutional rela- During the Lebanese war of 1975 to 1990, terms of the dynamics of social control tions. To look a bit deeper into the mecha- the only public university of Lebanon that resulted from it. It shows that by the nisms, by which they work, I was searching branched out into more than 40 locations perspective of social control, sectarianism for a different perspective when studying all over the country. While this deed and clientelism can be observed as the Lebanese higher education land- reflects the inner division of Lebanon, it related with, but distinct from one scape. also moved the University nearer to the another. Considering the academic benefits and country’s geographical and social periph- costs of the Lebanese University’s (LU’s) eries. Employing field research, newspa- Keywords: Higher education, Clientelism, institutional change, I got the impression per articles, and grey literature this article Lebanese University, Sectarianism, Social that, besides the scattering of material and gauges the effects of fragmentation in Control intellectual resources, the mode of social

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control is an important standard by which Proximity/collective Anonymity/individual the price for the apparent gain in access and social mobility can be illustrated. Conciliatory Compensatory Penal Therapeutic Browsing sociological theoreticians for Harm Relational Material Value Personality the concept of social control, my attention Liability Shared Group Individual none was drawn to Horwitz (see table 1), who has shown that under conditions of indi- Goal Reconciliation Settlement Retribution Normality viduation and anonymity, groups tend to Solution Negotiation Payment (“deal”) Penalty Treatment rule by values, norms, and judiciary, whereas under conditions of proximity, Table 1: Major styles of social control according to Horwitz Source: Horwitz, Allan V. The Logic of Social Control. Plenum Press, 1990, p. 22. group loyalty is prior to individual legal interest, and the mechanisms of rule are at university. In other words, a student liv- leagues from other universities and from rather negotiation, settlement etc., in ing in a dorm or shared flat in the capital many cultural backgrounds for lunch or which personal social capital has more is less likely to be asked e. g. to take care after work, their daily encounters with col- impact. Hence, with Horwitz, I theorize the of her/his smaller siblings, sick relatives or leagues in al-Ḥadath nowadays are usually modus of social control as a continuum of any communal issue; she or he will restricted to colleagues from the same between proximity and anonymity. more likely spend her/his leisure time with campus and from fewer socio-cultural In the context of higher education these classroom peers talking about issues con- backgrounds (LU Political Science 1 Senior; concepts apply in that the separation of cerning their studies than a student living similar LU Political Science 2 Junior, who the individual university student from her/ at her family’s home far from the capital, taught at three different campuses). his former social context of family, kinship, where only a small section of the university Most importantly, both a professor’s as childhood and school time peers and is situated. well as a student’s academic performance neighborhood releases resources of time Of course, the change in connectivity and personality will less be looked at and energy to have contact with academic affects professors, too. A professor of LU’s through the glasses of their general per- peers in an environment – usually an urban Faculty of Law, Political and Administrative sonality and their personal history when one – where her/his formerly earned repu- Science Branch 1 complained in an inter- anonymity instead of proximity applies, tation is widely disregarded. Basically, view with me that after the relocation of and fewer people at university know them such an anonymous setting levels the the faculty branch from central Beirut to from their pre-academic and extra-aca- playing field for the students’ chances to the new built campus in Ḥadath (about ten demic contexts. build up an academic reputation through kilometers to the South of Beirut) in 2007, academic merit, independent of the social their networking patterns changed con- This article is based on data from two capital each of them had accumulated in siderably. Whereas in the Hamra district in research-projects: one being a collective their native environment before enrolling Beirut they had had contacts with col- project titled “Local, Regional and

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International Borrowing and Lending in From the sources, a picture of communal- The Lebanese war of 1975 to 1990 divided Social Sciences at Egyptian and Lebanese ism as both a legal and an informal mode the country into different regions charac- Universities”, which I coordinated between of social control emerges by focusing LU terized by different religious and ethnic 2010 and 2015 as a research associate at as part of the administrative and service communities through guarded and hard- the Orient-Institut Beirut, later at the apparatus of the Lebanese Republic. The fought demarcation lines. As one of many Department of Oriental & Islamic Studies dialectic of communalism with either calamities that sprang from this, large of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum.1 A group proximity or anonymity will be illustrated. numbers of university students and staff of four researchers and four student assis- To that end, socio-geographical and across the country were not able to arrive tants, we gathered data at four universities administrative changes implemented at at their institutions for work and study any- in Egypt and two in Lebanon, consisting of LU since 1977 are highlighted in the next more. Soon, some universities responded 40 semi-structured interviews with faculty two sections. Section 4 shows a number of by opening branch campuses in regions members and a standardized survey examples of how styles of social control or neighborhoods other than their main administered to several hundred students, impact on decision making at LU in mat- campuses. LU, the largest university of the plus the universities’ bylaws and annual ters of faculty appointment and the orga- country, and its only public one, branched reports. The second project, “History nization of student activities. Section 5 out into more than 40 locations, from Writing at Lebanon’s Universities” I con- gives an outlook on the public debate Tripoli in the north to Tyre in the south and ducted as a research associate of the about the problems resulting from the the Bekaa valley in the east, based on a Orient-Institut Beirut between 2015 and situation of LU and possible policy conse- ministerial decree of 1976.2 As the earliest 2018. For it, I cross-analyzed titles and con- quences in light of the existing patterns of measure of this process, additional tent tables of doctoral theses in history social control. branches were created East of Beirut in from different branches of the Faculty of predominantly Christian areas, whereas Arts and Humanities, and newspaper arti- The Lebanese University Re-Structured before the war, most of LU had been situ- cles from leading daily newspapers of Over Time ated in West Beirut. This measure had Lebanon. The data presented here, namely The Lebanese University (LU), which was been considered already before the war five faculty interviews and a number of founded in the course of the 1950s and with the intention to de-centralize LU, but newspaper articles and reports are but a 1960s with the intention to merge and had been opposed by Muslim and leftist small part of what we collected. integrate the Lebanese communities on stakeholders (al-Amin, “Al-Jāmiʿa” 21). Additionally, I analyzed three lectures and the level of intellectual and professional While it reflects the inner division of two scholarly articles by academics, who leadership, serves a highly illustrative Lebanon, it also moved LU nearer to the had studied LU as a subject of their own example of how communalism dismem- country’s geographical and social periph- research while they belonged to its faculty bered an institution, which was intended eries and enabled a kind of socio-geo- or student cadre. to counteract it and become an integrat- graphical inclusion different from the cul- ing force for the young nation. tural-confessional inclusion initially

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intended: the fact that, nowadays, people living far from the capital can go to university without leaving their families has made higher education accessible especially for unmarried women from tradi- TIONALHOMES4HEPROXIMITYTOTHEGEO- graphical periphery also facilitated studying at LU to many people who ALREADY WORK IN NON ACADEMIC PROFES- sions, are married and have founded fam- ILIESINPLACESFARFROM"EIRUT3O,5SFRAG- mentation added an element of social mobility to Lebanon’s educational land- SCAPE!BOU2JEILYAL (AKAM Social equality, however, comes at a certain expense pertaining to the character of higher education: as one of the conse- quences of LU’s fragmentation, its resources are stretched (Moussawi, h!L *ǞMIɒAAL ,UBNǞNÆYAv AL !MIN ETAL ,5SBUDGET SUPPLIEDANNU- ally by decision of Parliament, has to allo- Fig. 1: Cover sheets of doctoral theses from the Faculty of Arts/Lebanese University. cate funding for several locations of the Source: Courtesy of the author. same faculty instead of just one, as was h!L *ǞMIɒAv &ORCOMPARISON THELIBRARIES ABOOKORJOURNALFROMANOTHERBRANCHTO INITIALLYTHECASE5PTOlVESTUDENTOFlCES OFTHE!MERICAN5NIVERSITYOF"EIRUT!5" ONESOWNLOCATION instead of one, along with a faculty secre- and of the Lebanese American University, Research is hence not very strong: LU pro- TARIAT ANDALIBRARYETCHAVETOBEFUNDED ENROLLING STUDENTS EACH FEATURE duces only a third in number of the pub- Hence, libraries, for instance, are severely LIBRARIESWITHFAROVER PRINTEDVOL- LISHEDTITLESVISIBLEVIA3COPUSTHATTHE!5" UNDEREQUIPPED4HEFACULTYLIBRARIESOF umes each, and a far larger number of SHOWS +HALIFEH ALTHOUGH IT ENROLLS ,5 WHICHCATERTOMORETHAN STU- subscriptions and electronic publications about ten times the number of students DENTS AND PROFESSORS POSSESS THAN,5HAS+HALIFEH !CENTRALLIBRARY AND THREE TIMES AS MANY PROFESSORS ! PRINTED VOLUMES ALTOGETHER DOESNTEXISTAT,5ANDITISDIFlCULTTOORDER high percentage of LU’s dissertations PER BRANCH LIBRARY -OUSSAWI deals with local topics detailed on hun-

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University President presided, Faculty $ !" #"# " " ! $ !"&+ , /322 Councils over which the Deans presided, and Department Councils over which their " 4 ! +" $EPARTMENTAL#HAIRSPRESIDEDSEElG " !" ! " + " !"'))!' #"' !$ )NTHELATES WITHTWO THREEORlVE ) %!, !!# %!' $ &%! , ) branches to most of the faculties, the posi- #" $! tion of a Director for each of these !""!" ! # branches was created along with a branch * ! ") ! council, hence a fourth level of administra-

$ !"& ) %. % ") '# )"#" TIONSEElG )) )) ")' ' + ') #) # ")# !"'/2 !' )'# # " #"&'0 "! #)' ' 4HEBRANCHDIRECTORSARESELECTEDFORTHEIR " " ) # !! .1 !"#"!( &) #)' ' )"#" MANAGEMENT SKILLS NOT THEIR ACADEMIC &%!'" ') # # ##)' ' "! )'# # SKILLS,EBANESE2EPUBLIC h,AWv --- &' ! ! . #!#)' '# !&'#"& ! ## ee AL !MINPERSONALINTERVIEW "" !. &%!' $ !" &' ' #"! ! . # )' # )"#" 4HE$EANSHAVETHEIROFlCESINSEPARATE ') $ "" # )'# " locations, distant from the faculty !' !# ") ",

"!"!'!#!" &%!' !'# ) BRANCHES4HECOUNCILSONEVERYLEVELHAVE !""#" " "!'!#!" ) !'# &%!' become inactive for long periods of time, ') ANDDECISIONMAKINGHASBECOMERATHER )' ' personalized around the person of the LU Fig. 2: Governance structure of the Lebanese University before 1977. President, supervised by the government Source: Courtesy of the author. ORTHE-INISTEROF%DUCATION4HISCONCERNS DREDSOFPAGESINHIGHLYDESCRIPTIVESTYLE ies of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities the appointment of full time faculty and 4ITLESSUCHASThe Development of School IN7EST"EIRUT 3IDON $EKWANEHANDAL higher administrative positions, as well as Education in the City of Tabnin 1982-2012 &ANARINSEElG MAJORCURRICULARANDlNANCIALDECISIONS ACCEPTEDIN Yamuna and the Role Minor decisions in the everyday manage- of its Municipality in its Development 1925 From Self-Administration to Political ment of academic life are now mostly in to 2009 Bint Jbeil from indepen- Administration THEHANDSOFTHEBRANCHDIRECTORS)NSUM dence until 1970 The Economic, "EFORE,5WASBRANCHEDOUTINTHELATE the academic personnel in the depart- Social and Political History of Ainata, 1920 S ITWASSELF ADMINISTEREDTHROUGHAN ments have much less power over the to 1978 WERELEGIONONTHEDISSERTA- internationally common structure: a course of the university’s activity than was tion shelves that I searched in local librar- University Council, over which the initially intended by LU’s bylaws, because

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tion and little power over the allocation of ITSRESOURCES

Parliament Presi (determine LU Examples of Social Control at the Cabinet of Ministers dent (apoint LU President, Gen. Sek. Deans, budget, pass Lebanese University Gen. laws) approve bylaws) Sec. 4HEDE CENTRALIZATIONOF,5HADADEEPER Legal account Advisor ing impact than the above described, how- statistic LU s Council ever, and it can be associated with the Libra- research Etc. ries forms of social control as outlined in Law Fac. of Law Fac. of Law Fac. of Law Law Law Fac. of Law Law Fac. of Law Law University & Pol. Sci. 1 & Pol. Sci. 2 & Pol. Sci. 3 & Pol. Sci. 4 & Pol. Sci. 5 (ORWITZ7HEN AFTEROURCONVERSATION THE Pol. Sci., Pol. Sci. Pol. Sci. Dpt., Pol. Sci. Dpt., Dir., Gen. Dir., Gen. Dir., Gen. Pol. Sci. Dir., Gen. Dir., Gen. Chair, Chair, Chair, Chair, Council Chair, Council Council (LU Sec., Sec., Sec., Sec., Council Sec., Branch Dean, Council Council Council Admin. sci Admin. Sci. above mentioned political science Council Council Council Branch Council Student President,Fac. 19 Deans, Admin. Sci. Admin. Sci.Branch Branch Admin. Sci. Branch Student Council. electedCouncil faculty, 2 Student Student Student Council 0ROFESSORAND)WALKEDOUTOFHISOFlCE Council Council cabinet appointed Council Fac. of Arts Edu., Arts Edu., persons; LU bylaws, Chair, Council Chair, Council toward the entrance of the building, we Pedagogy Early Childhood, Pedagogy 1 Pedagogy 2 Branch Science Edu., Science Edu., nominate candidates Deanery., Chair, Council Dir., Gen. Sec., Dir., Gen. Sec., Student Chair, CouncilBranch Chair, Council passed a large window overseeing the for deanships & Gen. Sec., Music Edu., Chair Council LanguageStudent Edu., Council Language Edu., Council presidency, faculty Council Council Chair, CouncilCouncil Chair, Council bylaws, approve History, History, Fac. Student INNERCOURTOFTHEFACULTYBUILDING/NTHE Letters & Chair, Council Letters & Chair, Council History, History, Letters & Council programsDean, & curr., Humanities 1 Humanities 2 Letters & Chair, Council Chair, Council Humanities 5 WALL FACING US HUNG mAGS OF THE !-!, approveFac. appointment Dpt. Letters & History, Dir., Gen. Dir., Gen. Dpt. Humanities 3 Dir., Gen. Council Dpt. Humanities 4 Dpt. Chair, Council of profs, resourceSec., Council Dpt. Sec., Council Dir., Gen. Sec., Council movement in a row alternating with Branch Dpt. Dir., Gen. Dpt. management) Student Sec., Council Dpt. Dpt. Branch Branch Sec., CouncilBranch Dpt. Council Dpt. Student Student Student Ȭ! SHçR AmAGSnASTHEȬ! SHçR A holidays had Council Council Council. Inst. Social ENDEDSHORTLYBEFORE!-!,MEANSHOPE Science 1 Inst. Social Inst. Social Inst. Social Inst. Social Dean, Gen. Science 2 Science 3 Science 3 Science 5 Sec., Board, Dean, Gen. Dean, Gen. Dean, Gen. Dean, Gen. IN!RABIC ANDISALSOTHEACRONYMFOR!FWǞJ Sec., Board, Sec., Board, Sec., Board, Sec., Board, AL -UQǞWAMAAL )SLǞMÆYA%NGLISHTRANSLA- Fig. 3: Governance structure of LU as it emerged after 1977. TION"ATALLIONSOFTHE)SLAMIC2ESISTANCE Source: Courtesy of the author. )TISTHE3HÆɒIPOLITICALMOVEMENTNEXTIN they are not represented in their faculty TORSPUTINOFlCEINITWASDECREED prominence and constituency to the one councils anymore, but in the branch coun- that professors be appointed by the gov- calling itself Hizbollah (English translation: CILS #ONVERSELY THE GOVERNMENT AND ERNMENTIN THE,5#OUNCILWASSUS- 'ODS0ARTY INTHEFOLLOWING(! ANDSHAR- ADMINISTRATIONHAVEMOREDECISIONMAK- PENDED AGAIN UNTIL WHEN IT WAS ing electoral lists and certain spaces of INGPOWERTHANBEFORE PLACEDBACKINTOPOWERANDTHE$EANS INmUENCEWITHTHELATTER+RIENER Lebanese WEREGRANTEDBACKTHEIRORIGINALPOWEROF Ȭ! SHçR A is the anniversary of the During two long phases, institutions of VOTINGANDDECISIONMAKING,5SBUDGET BATTLEOF+ARBALA)RAQIN#%!( THE ,5SSELF ADMINISTRATIONWEREOFlCIALLYSUS- ISDELIMITEDBYPARLIAMENT4HE,5SELF FOUNDING MYTH OF THE 3HÆɒA )T LASTS TEN PENDED&ROMTO THE5NIVERSITY administration has no say in the acquisi- DAYS !NY SORT OF POLITICAL SYMBOLS AND Council was suspended and branch direc- ACTIVITIESON,5SCAMPUSESHADBEENOFl-

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cially prohibited by LU’s administration the Similar procedures are applied to the refused to sign the proposed arrange- same year (Lebanese University). However, selection of the LU President (al-Amin, ment. However, after he saw the Dean, a in Lebanon religious holidays and sym- “Al-Jāmiʿa” 31) and even the professors. friend of his, come under pressure from bols are often charged with political dis- Although the LU Council and the Faculty the Minister of Education, he finally gave course. My interlocutor pointed to those Councils were working again for a few in and signed, so that two Shi’a were flags remarking that under these influ- years in the early 1990s, the government appointed as professors, who were actu- ences, many students were ill at ease to remained in charge for the appointment ally not qualified for that position (LU Arts come to campus and study. He pointed to of the leading personnel and the profes- 1 Senior). the other side of the corridor, where sors of LU. The problems of clientelism, Later the same year, according to a news- another large window oversees the neigh- indiscriminate creation of positions and paper report (Khoder, “Menacée et agres- borhoods of the southern, Shi’a domi- programs, and irregular demand of sée”), the secretary of Branch 2 of the nated suburbs of Beirut, the ḍāḥiyah, and resources, however, which were intended Faculty of Information, Laura Abi Tayyeh, added that “parties, tribes (qabāʾil) and to be addressed by this measure, were not quit her position after having been men- clans (ʿashāʾir)” from there were exerting mitigated. Instead, they were shifted into aced at daylight on her way to work by two these influences (LU Political Science 1 the political realm. The number of profes- gunmen. She was known as being affili- Senior). sors and administrative positions has ated with the Forces Libanaises, a political The following sections show a few exam- grown considerably since then, because party of the March 14 alliance favored by ples of the mechanisms of social control the politicians tend to just add to the nom- Christians. Soon, her position was filled by practiced in LU institutions. They concern inated candidates those they are in favor Antoine Khoury Harb, an adherent to the the appointment of faculty and some cam- of (“Al-Jāmiʿa” 26 ; al-Amin et al., 59-60; Christian dominated party in the opposite pus activities organized by the student al-Haj; Moussawi “al-Taʿlīm”; Haidar: camp of the political spectrum, i.e. the councils. al-Taʿlīm). Free Patriotic Movement. As stated in the In 2010, the following occurred at the report, the case was not examined any fur- 1) Appointment of Faculty Faculty of Humanities, Branch 1 in West ther by LU’s administration, while a large As al-Amin (“Al-Jāmiʿa” 21-22) claims, after Beirut, according to one of its professors, group of students adherent to the same LU’s fragmentation whom I interviewed: the Dean split a fac- political camp as Abi Tayyeh staged a “The selection of Branch Directors goes ulty position into two, because they strike for several weeks. The same Antoine on in accordance with the geo-political wanted a Shīʿite applicant to be appointed, Khoury Harb seems to have been dis- particularities of the area in which the although only Sunni and Christian appli- missed from his post as branch director branch is situated. Hence, anyone of cants had been shortlisted in light of the three years later likewise in non-obser- them enjoys political authority besto- formal criteria in place. My interlocutor, vance of the bylaws (al-Haj). wed on him by the local forces.” who was a member of the commission In another example, a high ranking processing the appointment, at first employee of the Ministry of Energy and

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student representatives to the councils on all levels at LU: the University Council, Faculty Councils, and Department Councils (see fig. 2). In all these, their role was strictly advisory.

During the early war years, not only did these councils become inactive, but the Student Union also dissolved under the centrifugal forces of the ongoing political strife and LU’s fragmentation. What remained until present, are student councils on the branch level, whose function is to represent the students towards the professors and the administration, and to organize students’ campus activities, such as holiday celebrations etc. (al-Amin,

Fig. 4: The flag of the AMAL movement next to the Lebanese flag in the entrance area of a faculty buil- “Al-Jāmiʿa” 23). Student Council elections ding on the al-Ḥadath campus. have not taken place since 2008 for fear of Source: Al-Nahar Newspaper. unrest. Hence, representatives have often bequeathed their office to younger stu- Water, Jean Aziz Boulos was appointed for up to seven years (Haidar: Muwaẓẓaf; dents of the same political party when full time professor at LU in December al-Hakam; “Deterrent Strike”; Touma) Non- they left university (LU Political Science 2 2012, just a week before he reached his observance of bylaws in appointment pro- Junior). They tend to be particularly active age of retirement. The case produced a cedures was a feature in many of my inter- in branches, where one political party or scandal not least because, at the same views and of the newspaper reports, electoral block is clearly predominant (see time, files that had been submitted for the regardless of the political allegiance of the fig. 3). promotion of faculty from contracted to authors. One such location is the large new univer- full time personnel at LU were pending sity campus in Ḥadath. In fact, the new already for a long time: more than 600 2) Student Activities Ḥadath campus did unite different parts of contracted faculty members fulfilling the Before the war, the Union of LU Students LU, namely several disciplines of Branches criteria for full time appointment had had been founded in 1971 (al-Amin, 1 and a number of disciplines which had already been waiting for their promotion “Al-Jāmiʿa” 18). It organized elections of never been branched out. It did not unite

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different branches of the same discipline, though. Thus, it created a sort of subsec- tion of the university for the southern suburbs. Here, the student councils exert an influence to a degree so great that at times they enforce the enrolment of students against official criteria, and even influence the appointment of professors against the will of the faculty leadership (Noor Addin, “Al-Anshiṭa al-Ṭullābiyya fī-l-Jāmiʿāt”; al- Mosawi).

Campus life is culturally influenced by the dominant groups respectively (see fig. 4 and fig. 5). At the Western entrance of the Ḥadath campus, for instance, the one pointing to the predominantly Shi’i southern suburbs, where HA and AMAL are the Fig. 5: Statue of the virgin Mary at the entrance to the campus of the Faculty of Arts (Kulliyyat al-Ādāb) dominant political forces, I was greeted by in al-Fanār. huge portraits of leading clerics and oper- Source: Courtesy of the author. atives of HA and AMAL on my field visits, although the display of any sort of political the center of Beirut to the campus in campus administration to restrict or pro- symbols or pictures on campus has been al-Ḥadath, its work has been disturbed by hibit theater, movie and music events. In prohibited since 2012 (Lebanese students from other faculty branches situ- reaction to the pressure, the newly built University). On the eastern entrance, fac- ated there, who consider it to contradict assembly hall is not used for the exhibition ing the Ḥadath neighborhood, which has religious principles. Students of the Fine of semester works anymore, but these are a less clear-cut political allegiance, and in Arts were bullied for their participation in exhibited in classrooms instead. Also branches 2 of several faculties I visited theater or film projects, and called gays rehearsals and other preparatory meet- east of Beirut I never saw portraits of poli- and whores. Paintings and photographs to ings were interrupted and sabotaged by ticians or other political symbols; whereas be exhibited at the end of semester were religious political activists. Remarkably, religious symbols are common there, too.5 destroyed overnight. The student council these cases were reported in an extensive After Branch 1 of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the campus, which is dominated by the report in the pro-HA daily Al-Akhbār (Kulliyyat al-Funūn) was transferred from two large Shi’i parties, put pressure on the (Hayek, “Ṭullāb al-Funūn taḥt al-Ḥiṣār”).

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In another example, a group of 30 student 25 May, the commemoration day for the Ishtibākāt”; Mushallab, “Ishtibāk”, adherents of HA interfered in a commem- withdrawal of the Israeli Army from South “Tajaddud”). oration ceremony for a student who had Lebanon in 2000, as a doctoral student died in an accident, because music by two from a Faculty in al-Ḥadath reported in a Outlook famous Lebanese singers was planned for lecture at an AUB conference. Moreover, The examples in this article hint that a the event. The students organizing the high ranking political and religious offi- great many decisions at LU are made by event claimed to have taken permission cials are often invited to give lectures or way of negotiation and settlement, some- for that from the director of the faculty hold speeches at graduation ceremonies, times with the help or under threat of vio- branch, Khaled Tawil. The HA students, and at events of religious mobilization, lence, while unlawful acts are committed however, argued that their interference such as the delivery of prizes for the best without penalty. With LUʿs departments was in accordance with an agreement veiled female students (akhawāt) or the nearer to the places of origin of their con- reached three years before between the Day Against Offending the Prophet stituencies, contacts between different Student Council, the campus administra- (dhudh Isāʾat al-Rasūl), despite the gen- players now follow a logic of proximity tion, and the Office of the Student eral prohibition to do so by the university rather than of anonymity, thereby tighten- Movements active on the campus (i. e. HA administration (Noor Addin, “Al-Anshiṭa ing the politico-religious ties often labeled and AMAL), which rules that any such al-Ṭullābiyya fī-l-Jāmiʿāt”). Professors in as sectarianism. The decrease in power of event could only be permitted by agree- Branch 2 of the Faculty of Law and Political the councils opened the doors for interfer- ment between all three sides (“Interdiction Science, conversely, strictly abstained ence on different levels of loyalty rather de chansons”; “Vague d’indignation”). from inviting politicians as speakers in line than explicit regulation. LU’s proximity to While the students suggested this as a jus- with the new ruling. They were even its students’ and professors’ native polit- tification of their conduct, the incident instructed by their branch administration ico-religious environment seems systemic. shows, in fact, how a settlement practice to abstain entirely from discussing current Some observers even report that the char- has actually reached the status of implicit national politics in classrooms, as a politi- acter of teaching, too, and the character of rule and replaced official regulation, thus cal science professor asserted to me, nominally the same university degree vary granting the Student Council compe- which he found hard to apply in light of from branch to branch, depending on the tences clearly beyond those intended in the subject matters of the discipline (LU given communal influences (al-Amin, the bylaws. political science 2 senior). “Al-Jāmiʿa” 22; “Al-Baḥth” 8). However, to Notwithstanding the attitude taken against When negotiation does not bring the explore the effects of LU’s fragmentation the songs by Fairuz and Julia Boutros in intended results, violence is sometimes on its teaching contents and practices is the mentioned incident, HA student activ- employed in conflicts among students, beyond the scope of this paper, and can ists do play music on the Ḥadath campus some of which are not political in cause, probably only be done by insiders. in the form of Political and religious songs, but are quickly charged with ideological In the public and academic discourse LU’s e.g. during celebrations of ʿAshūra, and on meaning (Moussawi, “Tajaddud fragmentation (tafrīʿ) is often associated

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Jonathan Kriener with a decline in quality and indepen- resisted, except perhaps in rare cases of is now a national symbol widely devoid of dence (al-Amin et al.; Moussawi, “al-Taʿlīm”; outstanding personal strength. Under the integrating force hoped for by its worked as a research fellow Khalifeh; and many of our interlocutors). such circumstances, it is hard for the cad- founders. Applying Horwitz’ perspective specialized in the field of education However, this move seems irreversible. res to play according to rules and norms of social control it seems that, this way, cli- at the Georg Eckert Institute, the The creation of the new Ḥadath campus in of a national, i.e. super-communal charac- entelism could be contained even in a Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut in 2007 with its relative pluralism of cultural ter. Further we read that LU is corrupt sectarian environment that will most prob- Essen, at Marburg’s Center for Near backgrounds in faculty and student body because of its communal structure, or it ably remain in place for the foreseeable and Middle East Studies, the Orient- is what comes nearest to a step in the remains confessional, because of its clien- future. Institut Beirut and at the universities of direction of unification, which was not fol- telism (Khalifeh 20-21). Clientelism is cer- Bochum and Tübingen. His publications lowed through. So, maybe al-Ḥadath tainly a problem also at other universities deal with history, civics, and religious shows a kind of vision of LU’s future if re- around the world, though, where posi- instruction at Lebanese, Palestinian unification were implemented. Complete tions do not have to be distributed among and Israeli schools, as well as higher re-unification, however, would mean a a variety of confessional groups. education in Egypt and Lebanon. Since reduction of positions and resources, on Some participants in the debate about a 2019, Jonathan offers his service as an which a large number of individuals and reform brought up the idea that LU might independent researcher and counselor networks operate. Many groups and stake- fare better if its parts established them- with people suffering from substance holders would certainly resist it, openly or selves as widely independent institutions. abuse, eating disorder and family silently, especially in light of the asymme- If the different parts became independent dysfunction. tries in populace, mobilizational and para- concerning their academic emphases and email: [email protected] military capacity between the different the acquisition and allocation of their politico-religious teams. resources, that could make them more Much of the debate around LU has a nos- flexible and set free the creative forces of talgic air and presents somewhat tauto- competition among them (e. g. “Al-Baḥth”). logical arguments: there is no account- It seems reasonable that, when services ability and no transparency, because the are de-centralized, also policy-making LU cadres play a stitch-off or are to „weak“ should be. Independent in their policies, to create transparency or accountability the different parts of LU could set up regu- (Moussawi, “Al-Jāmiʿa al-Lubnānīya” 298– lations that take local values and needs 299). The examples in this article show that better into account. Rule by negotiation under conditions of proximity with their could perhaps then decrease in favor of socio-cultural background, contacts more locally designed explicit regulations; among interest groups have an almost decision making could become less per- compelling dynamic that can hardly be sonalized and more accountable, in what

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Notes 4 The organizational charts in Works cited Haidar, Ibrahim. “Al-Jāmiʿa Horwitz, Allan V. The Logic of Figures 2 and 3 depict only wa-Shahādatuhā Khaṭṭ Social Control. Plenum Press, 1 We thank the Volkswagen four out of 19 units of LU: The “Al-Baḥth al-‘ilmī fī ‘l-ādāb wa- Aḥmar.” An-Nahar, 31 July 1990. Foundation for funding two Faculties of Law, Political and l-ʿulūm al-insāniyya: iʿtimād 2012, p. 8. years of this work in the frame Administrative Sciences, of nidhām LMD wa-taṭbīq “Interdiction des chansons de of its program Civil Societies Literature and Humanities, qawāʿidihi.” An-Nahar, 22 ---.“Al-Taʿlīm al-ʿĀlī Yantaẓir Feyrouz à l‘UL: le Hezbollah in the Middle East. Evaluation of Pedagogy, and the October 2012, p. 8. Injāz Qānūnihi al-Jadīd wa- et Bou Saab tentent of part of the gathered data Institute of Social Science. lā Taghayyurāt fī l-Jāmiʿāt d‘éteindre la polémique.” and authoring of an article Blue: faculty, red: students, al-Amin, Adnān. “Al-Jāmiʿa al-Khāṣṣa. Sūra Qāʾima L‘Orient le Jour, 5 December was made possible through green: Government/public al-Lubnāniyya taḥta Waṭʾat li-l-Jāmiʿa al-Jubnānīya fī 2011 2016. www.lorientlejour. a funded fellowship in the administration. Green arrows al-Taḥawwulāt al-Siyyāsiyya.” … Khilāfāt wa-Azamāt wa- com/article/1022116/ Re-Configurations network symbolize discretionary Al-Jāmiʿāt al-Ḥukūmiyya al- Majlis Muʿaṭṭal.” An-Nahar, 31 interdiction-de-chansons-de- at the Center for Near and power, orange arrows ʿArabiyya, Nażara Tārīḫiyya: December 2011, p. 8. feyrouz-a-lul-le-hezbollah-et- Middle East Studies of symbolize advisory function. Ḥalqa Dirāsiyya, edited by bou-saab-tentent-deteindre- Marburg University. For some I left out most arrows in the Center for Research and ---. “Muwaẓẓaf Kahrabāʾ la-polemique.html. Accessed of the results see Kriener, Figure 2, not necessarily Policy Studies, Beirut, 2017, ʿUyyina fī Milāk al-Lubnāniyya 17 November 2019. “Different Planets”, “Al-ʿUlūm”, because competences pp. 1-41. qabl Ayyām ʿalā Taqāʿudihi: Mougheeth. aren’t delimited, but Majlis al-Wuzarāʾ Aṣdar Khalifeh, Issam. “Mudākhala.” because, from my level of ---. Personal interview. 21 June al-Marsūm wa-Yaḥjub Lecture at the Association of 2 The causes and impact insight, I couldn’t tell. The 2012. al-Tafarrugh ʿan al-Miʾāt.” An- Friends of Kamal Jumblatt, 18 of this decision have been party symbols in Figure Nahar, 7 March 2013, p. 8. January 2012. elaborated as early as 1999, 3 are randomly situated ---, Melhem Chaoul et al. see Amin et al.: Qadhāyā, near certain institutions. Qaḍāyā al-Ǧāmiʿa al- al-Haj, Fatin. “Al-Jāmiʿa Khoder, Patricia. “Menacée particularly chapters 2 and 3. They do not depict the Lubnānīya wa-Iṣlāḥuhā. Dar al-Lubnānīya: Al-Qānūn et agressée, une Since then, the fragmentation factual composition of their an-Nahar,1999. ghibb al-Ṭalab”. Al-Akhbar, 10 secrétaire générale de has made considerable presence in a given branch, January 2014. www.al-akhbar. l‘UL démissionne, mais les progress, see Moussawi, “Al- but only symbolize the fact “Asatidha al-I’lām 2 com/print/198354, Accessed étudiants la soutiennent.” Jāmiʿa”, “Al-Taʿlīm”; Amin,“Al- that particular compositions Yashikkūn min Qirārāt ghayr 3 February 2014. L‘Orient le Jour, 11 December Jāmiʿa”. of their presence prevail in Qānūniyya.” An-Nahar, 20 2010. different branches. November 2006, p. 19. al-Hakam, Hamid. “Kalimat Raʾīs al-Hayʾa al-Tanfīdhīya Kriener, Jonathan. “Al-ʿUlūm 3 This section, including 5 Portraits of the President of Deeb, Lara, and Mona Harb, li-Rābiṭat al-Asātidha al- al-Ijtimāʿīya fī Jāmiʿat al- the organizational charts State can be found in halls Mona: Leisurely Islam: Mutafarrighīn fī al-Jāmiʿa Qāhira qabla Shubāṭ 2011 in it, is based on Lebanese and offices all over LU. Negotiating geography al-Lubnānīya bi-Munāsabat wa-baʿdahu: Tamaththulāt Republic, “Law 75/67” and and morality in Shi‘ite South Yawm al-Jāmiʿa al-Lubnānīya wa-Idrākāt Mutaghayyira “Law66/2009”; Amin,“Al- Beirut. Princeton University 17 Nīsān 2014.” Awrāq li-l-Ḥurrīya al-Akādīmīya”. Jāmiʿa”; Moussawi,“Al-Taʿlīm”, Press, 2013. Jāmiʿīya, vol. 39, no. 1, 2014, Idafat, the Arab Journal of “Al-Jāmiʿa”; and Amin, pp. 9–17. Sociology, 41-42. Center Personal interview. “Iḍrāb Ridʿī.” An-Nahar, 7 for Arab Unity Studies, November 2012, p. 8. Hayek, Rana. “Ṭullāb al-Funūn 2017/2018. pp. 114-133. taḥt al-Ḥiṣār.” Al-Akhbar, 17 April 2010, pp. 14–15. ––›

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