Alumni Relations Office
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Message from the Alumni Relations Office Dear Alumni, Asslam-o-alaikum! It gives me great pleasure to share with you that LUMS Alumni Affairs Office has completed 9 years since inception. Dur- ing this time the Alumni Affairs Office has taken many initiatives to foster linkages between alumni around the globe, and this magazine is among one of them. The Alumni Annual 2009 brings to you your class-notes, articles from alumni and news from LUMS. I am sure you will enjoy reading this issue and learn more about the LUMS community. This year the total number of LUMS alumni has reached to 4,500 which is a major milestone in the history of LUMS. In 2009, the Alumni Affairs Office focused on reaching out to the LUMS alumni community across the globe and has en- deavoured to bring them closer to each other. We have established several new alumni chapters for this purpose. These chapters comprise of alumni volunteers who have worked really hard in bringing alumni closer in their respective regions. We appreciate their enthusiasm and commitment towards LUMS. In the current year several alumni reunions were arranged in New York, Seattle, Bay Area, Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, Saudi Arabia and Singapore. We also arranged the first ever 20-year reunion of MBA Class of 1988 in addition to 10-year reunions of other classes. This year we have in- troduced an alumni newsletter to keep you informed of the success stories of your fellow alums. In 2010 LUMS will be celebrating its 25th anniversary. We will be arranging special events for alumni to celebrate this great occasion. We are grateful to our alumni who have set up individual or collective endowment and scholarship funds at LUMS to en- sure provision of quality educational opportunities to their successors. This year more than 600 alumni contributed to var- ious initiatives at LUMS, making it a record. We anticipate that this number will grow in coming years. We have also started preliminary work on creating a university endowment fund with the help of alumni and friends of LUMS with the ob- jective of making the institution self sustainable in a few years. In the coming years we will be working closely with our alumni to create strong connections between alumni, students and faculty. The alumni can help us with mentoring and counseling of students, giving lectures, participating in seminars and workshops, facilitating fundraising, organizing networking events such as the grand homecoming weekend, reunions, etc. I will be happy to hear your ideas in this regard. Let’s work together to make the LUMS network stronger than ever! Regards, Sheikh Ali Hussain (EMBA 2007) Director, Resource Development & Alumni Affairs [email protected] 02 Pro-Chancellor’s Message Dear Alumnus/a, I want you to know that over the years you have been a source of great satisfaction for us and we are proud of your achievements. We always look forward to hearing about your progress in life and want you to share your experiences with us and also give us feed- back on what you think should be done here at LUMS to make it better. This is a dynamic time here at the University; many things are changing and we would like to share these new initiatives with you. We feel you should be en- gaged in the future development at LUMS. At LUMS today we have a fairly solid base on which we can continue to improve our effort. We need your collaboration to make that happen. Best wishes for your continued success, Syed Babar Ali 03 Gearing LUMS Brightfor a Future By Risham Zaigham The Alumni Annual team recently caught up with LUMS Vice Chancellor Dr. Ahmed Jan Durrani. What en- sued was an interesting conversation about his decision to join LUMS, his impressions of the University and initiatives here, and of course, the personal implications of his professional choice. Read on! Tell us a little about yourself and your deci- year ago they asked me again if I would join them. sion to come to LUMS… But this time, they presented it in a way that I should do this for the country, which made a com- This has been the hardest decision I’ve ever made pelling argument. in my life. It’s not easy to leave your family and ca- reer behind Speaking of where LUMS needs to be, there’s and have your a strong emphasis on research now, and c o l l e a g u e s what do you think is the reason for that shift? question your decision. But I think a university aspiring to be a world class uni- my reasons versity cannot do so without really being an insti- were not only tution where new knowledge is created, where professional; advancement of knowledge takes place, where they were path breaking research happens. Being a good ed- more to do ucation university is a pre-requisite but to be a great with having a institution you must begin to create a scholarly en- desire to help vironment and nurture the students, and advance- Pakistan. No ment of knowledge must happen. Otherwise just question about being an educational institution, with time, the qual- it, it’s a deci- ity of instruction as well as the reputation of the uni- sion based on versity begins to deteriorate. Knowledge is passion and developing so fast that unless you are part of that gut feeling scholarly environment where you contribute to it rather than any and you build the capacity and the new generation rational logic of scientists who will develop that knowledge, the that nothing else could justify that except you feel university will continue to fall behind and that you must do it, it’s your obligation towards the would perhaps ill serve the nation because our country and society and that’s what brought me problems are unique and we must solve and de- here. I have lived in the US for almost 35 years. My velop our own solutions and that can only be done wife is a physician, she practices there and my son if there’s a capacity to address those problems is a senior at Rice University. So all of us who are through research. there essentially talk about doing something for Pakistan but nobody has the courage to do it and Are there any specific initiatives that you feel to me it was an epiphany that I need to be the first alumni should be aware of? one if nobody else does it. Somebody has to start off. So it was a tough decision. LUMS had asked Oh, there are. I have been here a year, and when I me five years ago and at that time I said no, and a look back at what we have achieved during one 04 year, I kind of marvel at it myself. Change is not whole, that students must be given the opportu- easy, particularly in Pakistan, where the inertia nity where consistent policies apply across all against change is huge. Especially when the three schools. So we set about fundamentally to mechanism to manage that change, especially the create one uniform calendar for the University and organisational mechanism, is missing. I can’t help move to the semester based system. These are but commend my colleagues who have helped not easy changes. We worked very hard, many me manage that change. I would like to mention faculty members, even students and staff, they all the financial health of the University. Let me rec- played a role in it and we have moved to semes- ognize this upfront and address this issue. We had ter based system and things have settled down. to tighten belts within the first three months of my coming here; we recognized that the University Our problems are unique and we must had financial deficit accumulating over the years, solve and develop our own solutions and that we cannot to afford to continue down that that can only be done if there’s a capacity path without self destructing in the long run. So we to address those problems through re- institutionalized good fiscal practices meaning that search. we plugged wherever there was waste happen- ing, we controlled some of the unnecessary oper- ational as well as capital expenses, we revamped And the third really was bringing this concept of the budgeting process so that the budget is pre- residential colleges to LUMS. We need to think pared with a view of the resources that are avail- about the emotional health and physical wellbeing able to us rather than an open ended wish list and of students, advising system, their interaction with hoping that somebody will write a check for LUMS. the faculty, etc. They are functioning as a commu- So within the last one year we have not only re- nity of students rather than individual students versed the trend of growing budget deficit but are dealing with their own problems. All these essen- hoping that within the next two years we’ll bring it tially persuaded me to look at the model that I had to zero and going forward we’ll begin to build en- been used to at Rice University and many other dowments which are so badly needed for LUMS. leading universities, the system of residential col- This will help manage our financial affairs in such leges. This means each college becomes a com- prudent ways that hopefully we can put away munity of students; alive, well, and taking care of some of the revenue that we generate for rainy each other, where students take ownership of their days.