04 May 2009

Interview

BEIRUT: Beirut has changed since Peter F. Dorman's boyhood. The city of childhood memory has expanded over the foothills, the traffic is worse and the streets seem smaller.

But when Dorman was asked last year to become the 15th president of the American University of Beirut, he didn't think twice.

"It was an easy decision," he told The Daily Star, during an interview on AUB's stunning seaside campus. "It was very much a sense of homecoming ... It took me quite by surprise, a delightful surprise."

Dorman, who will be inaugurated on Monday, was born at the American University Hospital and spent his youth living in Beirut and exploring Lebanon.

His great great grandfather, the Reverend Daniel Bliss, founded AUB in 1866.

Dorman left Lebanon before the country's 15-year Civil War, and until 2006 he had hardly been back. But his childhood in Lebanon had lasting effects, among other things, in establishing his attachment to the region and his passion for archeology.

"I remember one afternoon we spent some time out by the airport and at that time, of course, there were these beautiful sand beaches all the way down south to Khalde," he recalled. "We were digging in the sand dunes and much to our surprise we discovered a mosaic floor that belonged to some Byzantine church. You know we were just a bunch of kids brushing sand off of this dune."

"Lebanon is that kind of country," he said with a smile. "You dig even just a little bit and you get some layer of culture lying down below."

After leaving Lebanon, Dorman became a renowned Egyptologist and one of the best-known scholars on ancient Egypt's New Kingdom. For a decade, he ran the University of Chicago's Chicago House archeological project in Luxor, Egypt and he then chaired Chicago's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

Now he is the president of one of the finest universities in the Middle East, a position that carries a noble and tragic past. During Lebanon's Civil War, AUB President Daniel Dodge was kidnapped, and Dodge's successor Malcolm Kerr was assassinated.

Dorman acknowledged that AUB is still "emerging" from years of civil strife and he voiced his commitment to moving the institution forward and maintaining its place at the vanguard of regional education.

To this end, AUB is opening eight new teaching programs and is highlighting the importance of original faculty research as well as interdisciplinary and international partnerships with foreign universities and the private sector.

He also expressed the hope that in coming years US and European student enrollment would increase.

"I think one of the things [AUB] has always done well is to represent American educational values in the Middle East," Dorman said. "And presently AUB is very much committed in fostering an active program in the liberal arts which is really the core of the American educational system."

This educational program, Dorman said, "fosters a much broader appreciation of multiple cultures, languages and civilizations and presents opportunities to examine larger questions."

Following eight years of troubled relations between the United States and the Arab and Islamic worlds, Dorman noted that AUB is an example of what America has to offer to the region and the world.

"This is something that America truly has to offer not only to this region but elsewhere as well, and I think that from its founding AUB has offered that model of American education in the Middle East," he said.

For Lebanon, AUB has certainly done this and more. Many of the countries leaders, whether in politics, medicine, the arts or business, are AUB alumni, and the university remains Lebanon's premier institution of higher learning.

Under the new president's leadership, AUB is exploring new projects on renewable energy and peace mediation and boosting various community specific programs, like semi-arid region agricultural research.

According to Dorman, AUB doesn't push any particular policy line or outlook but rather encourages its students to develop the skills they need address the needs of their societies.

"One of the side-effects of the AUB education is really to produce individuals that are aware of their role in society and thus develop the leadership skills to follow that through," he said.

Dorman, an American citizen, seemed confident about AUB's future - he called the school an "educational gem" - and, more broadly, he voiced guarded optimism about new relations between the United States under President Barack Obama and the Arab world.

"I think those of us who know the Middle East very well and lived here have been very much dismayed by what happened since 9-11," he said, referring to US interventionism and a "lack of interest" in dialogue.

But, he noted that things were looking better under Obama, who like Dorman taught at Chicago and lived in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood.

"I think we are now starting to see a change in that American foreign policy attitude toward the Middle East which is very heartening ... I think this is more than just lip service," Dorman said, adding, "I would like to think that it indicates a major change in attitude to the Arab world."

Hundreds of AUB's alumni meet in Beirut

BEIRUT: More than 200 alumni converged on campus this weekend to attend the Worldwide Alumni Association of the American University of Beirut (WAAAUB) second International Convention on May 1-3, which also coincided with the launch of Inauguration Month at AUB.

The convention brought together AUB alumni from Lebanon, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kingdom Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Kingdom, Athens and North America, who attended WAAAUB meetings and participated in a  number of social activities to help them connect with each other and their alma mater.

The three-day meeting also included a leadership summit, and a gala dinner and alumni awards ceremony on May 2 at 8:30 p.m. at Le Maillon restaurant - Centre Sofil- Achrafieh. It was wrapped up on the morning of May 3 in Issam Fares Hall.

The kick-off welcome reception was held at Rotana Gefinor Hotel, Beirut where President Peter Dorman inaugurated the convention by reiterating the importance of alumni to AUB.

"I don't think it's possible to overestimate how important our alumni are to this University. Their appreciation for the AUB experience that they enjoyed and for the role that the University plays in Lebanon and the region, their generous support, their wisdom, and their advice is invaluable. I have benefited enormously and have been deeply touched by some of the stories they have shared with me - stories about the profound impact that AUB has had on them, their families, and their communities," Dorman said at the convention launching ceremony.

Ambassador Khalil Makkawi, president of WAAAUB Board of Directors, also spoke at the welcome ceremony, updating attendees on WAAAUB's latest news. - The Daily Star

Copyright The Daily Star 2009.