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6 38 48 Landscape architecture: a people-centric Student activism at AUB Bahia Shehab (BFA ’99) a street approach to outdoor space design artist draws from the past to challenge the present American University of Beirut Magazine. Fall 2016, Vol XV, No. 1 The Third 19 Fifty 66 1966-2016 20 16 Aidu cat ion. Dania Zeineddine, architecture major and USAID University Scholarship Program (USP) scholar, thinks city buildings should fit together and serve a purpose. “I like contemporary architecture that goes with the time and the context,” she says. Function, more than aesthetics, she believes, should be the focus in architecture. Her philosophy resonates with how she came to the field. “I love math and geometry and thought architecture would be an extension of those disciplines.” Thanks to the USP program, she has the chance to realize her architectural vision. As member of the USP class of 2014, she was granted a five-year scholarship, which allowed her to enter the architecture program; she is the only USP scholar at AUB in that program. Dania, like all USP students, must fulfill a volunteering requirement. “I’m an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). I handle emergency situations during the night shift, take patients to the hospital.” She works two days a week during the school year and more often during the summer. She plans to earn her master’s in urban planning after graduation. “The program has been tremendously helpful. I have so much support and never feel alone.” To speak to someone about supporting financial aid, contact us at [email protected] or make a gift at give.aub.edu.lb The Mai nGate Fall 2016 Contents Vol XV, No. 1 Student life, the liberal arts, AUB personalities Inspiration 5 past and present Vice President of Advancement Imad Baalbaki 8 steers the University’s 150th Campaign Discoveries 15 Research, the arts, and current events doctor/mi doctor/mi Step 2 Mukhtar* Challenges 1. Birth noficaon • Valid residency permit 2. Identy document • Inconsistencies in 3. A fee up to LBP 30,000 68% required required documents and fees obtained birth documents and fees documents and f • Re cerficate • Refugees lack clear informaon inf Syrian refugee babies, stateless in ex i l e Challenges 1. Birth cerficate Step 3 • Step required within 2. Identy document one year of birth 3. Fees up to LBP 6,000 one year of bi one year of birth Nofous** • Refugees lack clear 20 informaon • inf • Lack of valid residency 20% permit completed permit registraon C Wellness 23 AUBMC 2020, health, and medicine Young and troubled: a look at Lebanon’s mentally 28 suffering teens AUB’s 150 th 31 The Third 50 years Anniversary Impact 39 Regional impact, advocacy, and policy initiatives 40 REP supports higher education in the region AUB Everywhere 47 Alumni profile, class notes, WAAAUB, and chapter news Street artist Bahia Shehab (BFA ’99) mines ancient 48 Arabic for modern tools of protest Letter from the president Views from Campus Dear fellow alumni and friends of AUB, like no other, highlighted the University’s role pinnacle last year when the Board of Trustees as an epicenter of humanity, of service and of agreed to restore academic tenure to the Greetings and a very warm welcome to this courage. Faculty members, students and staff University, more than 30 years after it had been third special edition of MainGate celebrating risked life and limb to educate, learn, and heal. frozen during the war. AUB’s sesquicentennial. Our anniversary Doctors, nurses and staff collaborated to take specials have been distributed over three 50- care of the sickest and most seriously wounded This year of anniversary events, which the year blocs: the founding of the college and the members of a devastating war that would cost whole AUB community has entered into with pioneering early years (1866-1916), the golden the lives of one out of every 20 people living in such enthusiasm, has been a superb example age which etched the cultural, political Lebanon. The University showed itself an of the spirit of AUB. In the midst of the freedoms and academic excellence that have island of tolerance, of commitment, of shared humanitarian storms shaking our region, become our hallmark (1916-66), and now, liberal and secular values. there was no guarantee that celebrating AUB’s with this edition, the age of resilience and foundation 150 years ago would capture the resurgence (1966-2016). The Third Fifty As the University took hesitant steps towards imaginations of so many so strongly. Optimism cemented the University’s capacity for phoenix- post-war recovery, it benefited from the for our future, as a servant of this region, as the like rebirth out of the flames of conflict. Yes, widespread engagement of its alumni in the creator of transformative knowledge and AUB missed out on a decade-and-a-half of drive to rebuild College Hall, disgracefully educational excellence, has been rekindled progress because of the civil war. Yes, our bombed to rubble in 1991. As Lebanon during a packed #AUB150 calendar. Thank competitors were able to open up the gap recovered, so too did AUB, with faculty and you to everyone who has made it such a great between us in terms of research and student recruitment accelerating. From 1998 success, and thank you even more for the scholarship, especially in the sciences. Nor until 2008, John Waterbury, the 14th President, work you will do to help us fortify our purpose, were Arab universities waiting respectfully for led a revitalization of the research mission of reinvigorate our mission, and recalibrate AUB to regain its regional ascendancy, AUB, with many accomplishments, including our vision for future accomplishment. especially among the GCC states with their the expansion of student enrollment and the sights set on academic superiority funded with successful recruitment of a wave of increasingly With respect and admiration, petrodollars. Indeed, the civil war didn’t just distinguished young and senior faculty. AUB Fadlo R. Khuri hamper AUB’s development through the 1970s climbed up the international rankings and was and 1980s—it could have closed us down. But on its way once more to becoming a major we didn’t only survive. This period, perhaps knowledge center. That process reached a new Inbox Dear MainGate readers, This feels like an important moment for AUB. As we emerge from a splendidly celebrated 150th anniversary year, hinging into a major fundraising campaign to ensure our relevance and Cover Medical faculty and staff march purpose for decades to come, while we embark on bold new strategic plans for academic from AUBMC to Government research, education and the campus, it also feels like an immensely exciting time to be here. House in response to the I hope this edition of MainGate captures some of the dynamism that so many on campus are kidnappings of Dr. Munir Shammaa and Joseph Salameh feeling. With everything going on at the moment, I am certain that we will be bringing you ever in December 1985. more exciting stories of positively disruptive changes in coming editions! One development that has been a long time coming has been the appointment this year of the first woman as dean of our oldest and largest school, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. We meet her in Inspiration and hear her plans to boost liberal education at AUB. Inspiring female role models abound within these pages. One of the watchwords of our current strategic reappraisal is sustainability, which leans heavily towards equality—or to cite the UN sustainable development goals towards “eliminating gender disparities in education and ensuring equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities.” In that vein I would like to draw your attention to the pioneering work of our Title IX Office and efforts to raise awareness about discrimination and harassment in the Back Cover classroom and workplace. See our article in Impact for the whole story. Map provided by a project led by Maria Abunnasr on AUB’s It being the Last Fifty of our series, I’m eager to be able to share in our Anniversary section impact on the streets of stories that most of you as alumni will have witnessed first-hand. For the war generation of Beirut. faculty, staff and students, not everything will make comfortable reading; but the sheer grit Executive Editor you showed to keep AUB up and running is worth celebrating and we do so here. Martin Asser Responsible Director Nabil Dajani Martin Asser , Executive Editor Managing Editor Sally Kaya Najjar Features Editor Eric Eyges Alumni Editor Errata: Spring/Summer 2016, Vol XIV, No. 3, Inbox, pg. 3: Caption for map of AUB’s impact on the streets of Beirut (back outside Barbara Rosica cover) incorrectly lists the project leader’s name as Maria Mansour. Her name is Maria Abunnasr; Scenes of AUB, pg. 33: Photo #19 Errata is from the late 1980s, not the 1960s; AUB Values, pg. 35: Lower left photo of agriculture students is from the mid-1960s, not the Contributing Writers mid-1950s; Finding Warmth in a Cold Climate, pgs. 44-45: Sara Atie’s surname is misspelled as Sara Atieh throughout the article. Firas Haidar Her degree is incorrectly listed as BA ’12 instead of BBA ’12. Laudy Issa Rami Khouri Copyeditor Sierra Prasada Art Direction and Design AUB FAFS FHS IFI REP Communication Design SAL American University Faculty of Agricultural Faculty of Issam Fares Institute Regional www.cd-sal.com of Beirut and Food Sciences Health Sciences for Public Policy and External Programs Abbr. International Affairs Photography AUBMC FAS FM SPC Hasan Nisr American University of Faculty of Arts Faculty of Medicine LAU Syrian Protestant College Jean Pierre Tarabay Beirut Medical Center and Sciences Lebanese American HSON WAAAUB University University Libraries, Archives Common CCECS FEA Rafic Hariri School Worldwide Alumni and Special Collections abbreviations Center for Civic Faculty of of Nursing OSB Association of AUB American University of Beirut found in the Engagement and Engineering Suliman S.