The Lebanese American University made history this weekend by running the largest-ever international middle school Model UN program, held in New York City.

The three-day conference brought together more than 1,720 middle school students for the 17th Global Classrooms International Model United Nations conference.

The motto of the conference was “Live Diversity,” and with 26 countries and 28 U.S. states represented, LAU lived up to that motto. 

In addition to Lebanon and the U.S., students came from Turkey, South Korea, Japan, China, Ghana and Honduras. They assumed the roles of UN member-states, blocks or bodies, and over the course of two days, debated in 13 committees, ranging from UNHCR to UNICEF and the Security Council, and tackled issues like child labor, global hunger, human trafficking, maternal health, malnutrition, the threat of extremist groups, and more. Throughout the conference, the young ‘delegates’ formed blocks, drafted resolutions and voted on them.

The conference ended with a dramatic closing ceremony in the United Nations General Assembly Hall, where students had the chance to sit in the very same seats as the leaders of the UN’s 193 member-states.

“There are those who dream, and that is important,” said LAU President Joseph G. Jabbra, addressing participants from the podium of the General Assembly Hall, “and there are those who do, and that is also important, but we need those who dream AND do, and we are counting on you.”

Students were also addressed by Ahmad Alhendawi, the United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, and by former minister Bahia Hariri, who served in her capacity as UN Goodwill Ambassador for Arab Women and Girls.

Global Classrooms International Model UN is the flagship education program of the Lebanese American University. Operated since 1999 by the United Nations Association of the United States of America, the prestigious GCI brand in New York City is this year taken over by LAU.

LAU will lead another conference in New York City next month for high school students. The goal of the conferences is to equip students with the UN culture of global awareness by allowing them to step into the shoes of ambassadors.

Former minister and current MP Bahia Hariri addressed the student in her capacity as UN Goodwill Ambassador for Arab Women and Girls.

Participating students came from 26 countries.

LAU President Joseph G. Jabbra addressing participants.

Recently, LAU entered into a partnership with the British Council and the Lebanese University, winning a bid for World Bank funding – dispensed through the Ministry of Education – for a project aimed at implementing a system of self-assessment in Lebanon’s schools. “We went bidding neck and neck against some of the biggest players in the field,” says Michel Majdalani, director of LAU’s Continuing Education Program (CEP) which is coordinating the university’s participation in the project. “We were able, in a very short period of time, to synchronize our efforts across departments and present something credible in the eyes of the ministry.”

The endeavor involves training principals and administrators from 300 public schools across Lebanon in the process of self-assessment. According to Mona Nabhani, LAU associate professor and chair of the Department of Education, “We came up with an instrument for principals to self-assess their schools and then identify gaps. Based on the gaps they will be trained in coming up with an improvement plan.” As an incentive, the program provides the participants with $7,000 per school, to improve the learning outcomes of students.

LAU’s contribution includes helping to design the training materials, seconding four faculty members as trainers, and providing premises for the training sessions in Sidon, Beirut and Byblos. In Majdalani’s view, the project potentially has national significance: “We are getting involved in something that has a tremendous and profound impact not only on the university itself but also on the lives of principals and the schools and the way they will be able to shape their destinies through strategic planning.”

Norma Ghamrawi, professor and head of the Education Supervision Unit at the Lebanese University Faculty of Education, also emphasizes the importance of the project for Lebanon. “We are catching up with other countries in the region, establishing a culture of self-evaluation, building it on sturdy ground. This is something I believe should have happened much earlier, but better late than never.”

For Robin Attfield, international education consultant and lead designer on the project, “LAU brings a number of strengths to the project, in terms of the quality of the individual consultants the university provided and the materials they have designed … it has provided the project with some credibility.”

Donna McGowan, country director of the British Council-Lebanon, agrees. “LAU has an outstanding reputation academically,” she says. “The faculty of education has previous experience in designing and implementing impressive school improvement programs involving highly qualified and high-performing faculty staff.”

The first training session has already taken place, and the results so far are encouraging. Several principals involved have noted that the new system reinforces improvement ideas they already had, by providing them with a means of documenting areas in need. “As principals, we know what the school needs, e.g., support services and facilities for students,” one said. “But with the school self-assessment tool, we can pinpoint the shortcomings and develop a structured plan to amend them.”

Another principal described it more visually: “It’s like you know that your house needs specific furniture for a certain room, but with the tools of the project we now need to take exact measurements both to ensure the furniture fits and to demonstrate its usefulness.”

In theater director and LAU Associate Professor Lina Abyad’s latest production, the smells of Zaatar, Jasmin and Aleppo soap mix with the taste of blood and salty tears to tell the real stories of those Syrian refugees forced to leave their beloved country in search for a life, at any price. Germany, is the promised land of the exiles who swim or sail away from the oppression and the aborted revolution they had so strongly wished for and believed in. The courage of Walid, Carla, Ahmad and Dima, their hopes, echo those of previously jailed poet Faraj Bayrakdar and writer Yassin Hajj Saleh whose wife, long-time activist Samira el-Khalil, was kidnapped in December 2013.

Poignant, raw, “Naoum el Ghezlan” is a human experience in its own right. To the sound of an Ave Maria and verses from the Quran, the play aims to break people’s lack of empathy toward the suffering of individuals who face and defy the worst of men while keeping faith in humanity.

In five tableaux full of symbols Abyad and her actors transmit their attachment to a cause that has become so universal and that no one should remain insensitive to.

Join the cause and watch “Nom el Ghezlan” at LAU Beirut-IRWIN auditorium every day until April 10 at 8:30 p.m. Click here for more information about the play.

Confidentiality is one of the core duties in the medical profession, yet one which is most often overlooked. In Lebanon, the prevalence of close-knit communities makes the argument for patient privacy ever more compelling.

According to Dr. Sola Bahous, assistant dean for Clinical Affairs at LAU’s Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine, it is common for extended families to presume they have a right to intimate details about the patient’s health. “Students find it difficult to deal with family members who insist on remaining in the room during a doctor’s visit,” says Bahous referring to LAU students in health and health-related disciplines working at LAU MC-RH, the university's affiliated hospital.

Nancy Hoffart, founding dean of the Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing, affirms that privacy is a complex issue in Lebanon. “A student once said that he could not lie to his mom,” says Hoffart. “It was a joke, but it still says a lot about how hard it is for some students to withhold information from their families.”

In light of an increasing awareness of its pivotal role in building a relationship of trust, LAU is stressing the importance of confidentiality in its curriculum.

“We teach them about confidentiality both by discussing the concept in class and by providing role models they can refer to when handling certain situations,” says Bahous. In ethics class, students are confronted with real-life scenarios designed to develop their ability to think critically about their actions and their consequences.

In Hoffart’s view, the fact that social media often compounds the problem must be tackled in the classroom. “When students enter a hospital for the first time, they are excited about the new experience and want to share it with friends, but they must know that this might mean a serious breach of the patient’s privacy,” she says. “It does not matter if the patient is sharing information on social media. A medical professional is nonetheless bound to confidentiality.”

To ingrain ethical practices in the students, they are  instructed to write reports using only the patient's initials even when working alongside their supervisor.

According to Hoffart, who has had extensive experience in the U.S., there is a greater degree of information sharing in Lebanon but the repercussions of a confidentiality breach can be harsher.

“When a woman has breast cancer in the U.S., she will most probably say so because she is sure to receive support,” says Hoffart. “In Lebanon however, it is the opposite. The patient will most likely want to keep it secret.”

In Lebanon, cases of doctors discussing confidential records in public places, such as hospital elevators, have harmed the relationship of trust that is at the basis of good medical care. LAU is dedicated to forming a new generation of health professionals that truly understands the importance of safeguarding a patient’s right to privacy.

Have you ever been aware of your own alienation to language? Did you ever think that words failed to express the real nature of your feelings? Or that some discourse had any control over your thoughts, knowledge and freedom?

Four LAU professors from different disciplines recently met precisely to discuss the limitations of words and their impact on our lives at different levels.

“Words are often reductive and inadequate to transport and fully represent genuine feelings,” said George Sadaka, lecturer in the Department of English, using the concept of  the Big Other by Jacques Lacan. “Take the word ‘love.’ When I say ‘I love you,’ what do I mean by ‘love’? Is it one singular word and one monolithic feeling? Can it be polyvalent? Can it be more than one expression condensed together? … Need is not love, pain is not love, possessiveness is not love, desire is not love, but love is all of these things together and more. So when I give ‘love’ a representation I am killing it, I am reducing it, I am being driven by the limits of my word.”

According to Sadaka, as children learn to speak they become subject to a pre-existing language, a pre-existing system, conforming to its rules and regulations, to its limits and restrictions. “Words and language become a system of representation that regulates our lives,” he explained.

Another feature of language that takes this alienation further is discourse. “According to Michel Foucault language enters discourse, which entails polymorphic techniques of power and which is manipulative and mystifiying of  truth.” To clarify his point, Sadaka gave the example of Andreas Lubitz who deliberately crashed the Germanwings plane he was piloting. “Had he been a Muslim, his act of suicide would have been labeled as ‘terrorism’ ... In such cases, words are used to conceal the truth rather than bringing out the will to inform.”

Discourse is also alienating to the human body, explained Nidale Daccache, associate professor at the Humanities Department. Daccache discussed how words shackle the body with the bonds of language and ensuing cultural conventions. “For the body to be liberated, it needs to be de-tabooed through the use of the right words joined with the act of liberation,” she argued.

According to May Hamdan, associate professor at the Computer Science and Mathematics Department, “using words to represent abstract truth is similar to using a two- dimensional medium to represent a three-dimensional object.” The choice of words in a new mathematical definition is crucial because a word is naturally pre-equipped with a chain of meanings. One would think that using symbols in place of words would remedy such a “bias;” however, this could slow down learning and make the material totally unappealing and far removed from anything the learner is acquainted with. A wise combination of unbiased symbols and loaded words is the balance sought.

Such a balance applies to the relation between body language and verbal communication, argues Pierre Sarkis, from the Department of Humanities  Sarkis directed the audience through four main aspects of body language that ruin communication because they create a distraction to the interlocutor or any large audience: eye contact, posture/movement, hand movements, and facial expressions. “Body language should go in tandem with our words and should respect the specificity of the occasion,” he explained.

Hosted by the Department of English, this symposium closed the discussion on the paradox of the power/weakness of words initiated by Symposium I last year. A third Symposium aspires to link the discussion of words to other media and specific fields of expertise at LAU.   

From left: Pierre Sarkis, George Sadaka, Nidale Daccache and May Hamdane.

According to James Worrall, a lecturer of international relations (IR) at the University of Leeds, “international relations theories by themselves are not useful for understanding dynamics in the Middle East.” Addressing a conference room of LAU students and professors, he continued, “this is because IR scholars usually have no real knowledge of the regions they try to apply theories to.” On the other hand, specialists on the Middle East often have no conception of global dynamics, since they focus narrowly on country-specific issues. “A dialogue between IR and Middle Eastern studies” would resolve these dilemmas, Worrall believes.

Worrall presented his findings at LAU on April 11, at a roundtable co-hosted by the Department of Social Sciences and Institute for Social Justice and Conflict titled “Debating the Post-2011 Middle East: Old or New Paradigms?” The event – which brought LAU students and faculty together with international experts Worrall and Alam Saleh, a lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter – took place on the Byblos campus.

“At the onset of the 2011 revolutions, Middle East scholars questioned previous paradigms adopted to study the Middle East,” said panel moderator and LAU Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations Tamirace Fakhoury. Five years after the dawn of the Arab Spring, the scholarly community is still struggling to make sense of events in the region.

“Why did we fail to predict the Arab Spring?” asked Worrall. “It was because we focused on the strengths of the regimes, not on their weaknesses.” In his view, there should be three levels of analysis. “The first is global, since the Middle East is the crossroads of the world and will always be contested … the second is interregional, and the third is individual, looking at the dynamics within different countries.”

Saleh’s presentation expanded upon Worrall’s insights from several angles. “International relations theories only look at interstate issues, ignoring the domestic make-up of states,” he said. “On the other hand, critical approaches ignore the state, focusing too much on society.” At the end of the day, this means that scholars fail to explain the region. 

Saleh’s solution is to look at the contemporary Middle East through different areas of potential conflict: divisions between social classes, societal identities, between the people and the state, within the political systems, within the region, and between international Great Powers with interests in the Middle East (specifically, Russia and the United States). “This context resists any single theory to explain what is going on,” Saleh insisted.

The presentations were warmly welcomed by the audience and sparked an intense conversation about regional realities. The debate ran a gamut of issues: whether the Middle East should be seen as an “exceptional” place that does not conform to standard scholarly attempts to understand politics and society; the effects of the Syrian conflict on Lebanon; the notion of democracy in the Middle Eastern context; and the role of Islamism in regional politics. 

In LAU Associate Professor and theater director Lina Abyad’s latest production Nom el Ghezlan (The Sleep of the Gazelles), the smells of zaatar, of jasmine and Aleppo soap mingle with the taste of blood and salty tears to tell the real stories of those Syrian refugees forced to leave their beloved country in search for a life, at any price. Germany is the promised land for the exiles who swim or sail away from the oppression and abortive revolution they had so strongly wished for and believed in. The courage and hopes of Walid, Carla, Ahmad and Dima, echo those of previously jailed poet Faraj Bayrakdar and writer Yassin al-Haj Saleh whose wife, long-time activist Samira el-Khalil, was kidnapped in December 2013.

“In a one-hour performance, Lina Abyad has managed to kill the idea of a featureless Syrian population, an inert group that has no dreams, no hopes – with the exception of those opponents who are jailed or kidnapped and who have their own stories,” said Syrian writer Dima Wannous during a discussion on Abyad’s production which was hosted by the Department of Communication Arts last Friday. “This play, like the revolution, has given each person a story, has restored people’s features, severely lashing out at the general lethargy – including that of the media, and the public – that surrounds this tragedy,” she added.

Poet Youssef Bazzi expressed his admiration for the artist who refuted the unacceptable status quo. “From numbers, Abyad gave refugees a name,” he said, “and this is a great act of defiance. When one defends other people’s humanity they save their own.”

Poignant and raw, the play is a human experience in its own right. To the sound of Ave Maria and verses from the Quran, it relates the suffering of individuals who face and defy the worst of men while keeping faith in humanity.

In five tableaux full of symbols, Abyad and her 23 thespians – students, alumni and non-LAU actors – transmit their attachment to a cause that has become universal and that no one should remain insensitive to.

“Nom el Ghazlan shows us how life and death have both lost value,” commented novelist and critic Elias Khoury. The LAU visiting professor explained how it transcends the sole tragedy of the Syrians to tackle the fate of millions of people across the globe who fall victim to oppression in a climate of general indifference. “Art is superior to politics in terms of its impact on people and Nom el Ghezlan is  proof of that,” he added.

For Abyad, it is impossible not to expose what is happening. “My aim is to move people, to push them to get in touch with their humanity again. This is what theater is about. It is about transforming and bringing about change,” she declared.

More than that, and in Wannous’ point of view, Abyad may have been powerless to save these people, but she managed to salvage their memories and their stories.

The play is an odyssey that begins somewhere in Germany going backwards to end somewhere in Syria.

Refugees crying for help as Samira al Khalil (left) declaims the messages addressed to her and posted online by her husband.

More than 700 students and practitioners in the fields of nutrition and food science gathered at LAU Beirut on Tuesday to listen to 19 specialists present their latest research findings. Students and professors from eight universities expounded on the rising obesity levels in the MENA region, the carcinogenic risks in potato chips, gluten mislabeled products, the nutrition of Syrian refugees, and the risk of pesticide residues, among other topics.

The presentations were delivered in three sessions, with the first focused on nutrition, the second on food science and the third a combination of the two. “Nutrition and food science are very related,” explained conference organizer and LAU Assistant Professor of Food Science and Technology Hussein Hassan. “After all, the food industry produces industrial products that are affecting the nutrition of individuals.”

Producers of such foods were among the conference sponsors, offering samples and networking with potential clients outside the Irwin auditorium during the breaks. The free admission, made possible through the sponsorships, attracted an overwhelming number of participants from across most universities and regions of Lebanon.

Having to stand, for lack of available seats, did not deter Balamand university graduate Noura from enjoying the event. “The topics discussed were very diverse and very relevant to me at this stage in my career.” LAU graduate Joumana Aouf agreed. “I’m here to make sure I stay up to date with information that affects the care I can offer my patients.”

Hassan began organizing the conference with Assistant Professor of Nutrition Lama Mattar in November. “All the papers presented relate to recently completed research,” he explained. “The quality of the abstracts received for this conference was very high and we were able to accept two thirds of them after a blind peer review and consideration of limited time.”

Pleased by the diversity of the participants and the spirit of cooperation that marked the event, Hassan stressed the importance of these components to the field. “This conference is scientific and when it comes to science we should always take away inter-university competition and collaborate,” he said. “We have today heard presentations from all universities and this is a rare occurrence in Lebanon.”

Over lunch, Hassan and 30 fellow academics discussed their latest projects and considered opportunities for future collaboration. “Many were meeting for the first time despite being in the field for decades,” he said. “We have limited resources in Lebanon but all too often we follow an individualistic approach. If we don’t collaborate, we will perish.”

The event offered academics a unique opportunity to network and discuss future collaboration.

An enthusiastic audience filled the lecture hall at the Adnan Kassir School of Business at LAU Beirut on April 7, where the LAU School of Architecture and Design held an interesting panel discussion about comics and censorship. Lebanese laws on freedom of speech and expression are ambiguous, with several cases over the past few years increasing public debate about the issue. These include the recent case of Samandal, a popular satirical Lebanese comic book series that addresses various social and political issues.

In 2010, the publication’s editors were sued by the Lebanese state for “inciting sectarian strife” and “denigrating religion”.

It was therefore fitting that Samandal co-founder Lena Merhej kicked off the event and later moderated the open discussion panel.

 Charles Brownstein — a tenacious advocate for free speech and chair of the U.S. – based Banned Books Week Coalition — opened his talk with a warning: “I’m going to show you some upsetting images.” Illustrating his argument with PowerPoint projections, Brownstein discussed how the right to free speech and expression guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment has been infringed through the court system against comic book artists whose work was deemed “too obscene” by the state. He pleaded passionately for total free speech: “Freedom of speech allows you to compete in the marketplace of ideas.”

Is it possible for comic book artists to sidestep censorship? Irina Chiaburu, who earned her Ph.D. from Jacobs University (Bremen) and whose research focuses on censorship in the Soviet Union under the Brezhnev government, says “yes.” She discussed how the slow opening of an autocratic Soviet society led to what could best be described as a quagmire for both censors and artists alike. She concluded that censorship inspired artists to convey their messages more creatively: “In countries where people endure censorship, people read between the lines.”

Finally, Lebanese legal expert Rana Saghieh, who supported Samandal during their legal battle, focused her attention on the inconsistencies and misuse of censorship laws in Lebanon. She cited examples of Lebanese who have been prosecuted under the criminal code for satirical art and social media posts, a situation that has lead to the “worst effect” of widespread self-censorship. Still, she ended on a positive note: in her view, although Samandal was ultimately fined $20,000, Sabiegh believes that the controversial case “opened a wider public discourse on art and censorship.”

The symposium concluded with a heated and an engaging open discussion that focused on the acceptable limits to free speech, with audience members citing potential security issues like the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. In the end, it appears that the issue of free speech and expression is of great concern to not only artists, but to many others in Lebanon. Perhaps Merhej’s standout guiding question should spearhead future discussions: “Do we really believe in free speech?”

From left: Lena Merhej, Rana Saghieh, Irina Chiaburu and Charles Browstein.

LAU’s Byblos campus was the stage to hundreds of dancing feet last week during the International Dance Day Festival in Lebanon, hosted by the university every year since 2011. Four international guests joined local dance instructors to conduct 80 workshops in a multitude of dance styles over six days.

“There’s a completely different vibe this year,” said festival founder and organizer Assistant Professor of Dance Nadra Assaf. “We have African Dance and Dabke workshops in the schedule, whereas previously we’d focused more on ballet, modern and contemporary.”

Street dancer and 12th grader Melanie Antoun was thrilled with the variety. “This festival is very enriching, giving me the opportunity to try out various forms of dance. It’s also wonderful to work with international trainers who focus on technique and not just choreography.”

Antoun was among a number of young women who performed an African routine choreographed by guest instructor Jennifer Ohia at the closing gala on Friday. “It’s been a wonderful week,” said the Nigerian instructor. “People with different abilities and of all ages have been coming to the workshops, regardless of the level advertised. It shows that they’re enjoying it and love it enough to break the rules. It’s a dream come true.”

Her husband and fellow dancer Ikem Ohia was also in Byblos, conducting jazz workshops. He heads the Society for the Performing Arts in Nigeria (SPAN), a dance academy that enables two of its students to pursue a degree in the performing arts at LAU. “We are working toward SPAN becoming a fully comprehensive school but as we do not yet have the educational system in place, we are happy to send our students to continue their education at LAU,” explained Ohia, who has in the past benefited from a ‘training of trainers’ workshop led by Assaf.

Expanding LAU’s relationship with dance schools and potential students was among the founding goals of the dance festival, explained Assaf who is also the associate chair of LAU’s communication arts department, which houses the newly launched degree in performing arts. “I’ve been teaching modern dance courses at LAU for 25 years within the physical education program and I’m very pleased to now be part of an expansive degree that offers a focus on dance,” enthused Assaf, who boasts a Ph.D. in education, a master’s in dance and a dance school with three branches in Lebanon.

Along with guest instructor Matt Henley, Assaf ran workshops in modern dance at the Byblos campus throughout the week. “I’m very impressed. The classes have attracted a wide range of dancers – some trying things out for the first time, and others who are quite experienced. It makes it fun for me as a teacher because I can see that everyone is learning something,” said Henley.

Twelve-year-old Tala was one of the novices won over by the experience. “I’ve been taking gymnastics classes for a few years and now want to get into dance. This festival gave me the opportunity to try different styles and get to know the different schools in Lebanon.”

Over 1,000 people took part in the different workshops.

The African dance performance at the gala dinner.

Friends, faculty and students of the Adnan Kassar School of Business were celebrating over the weekend after learning that the school had earned the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation, the most prestigious accreditation granted to only five percent of business schools worldwide.

Chief accreditation officer of AACSB International Robert D. Reid congratulated LAU and the school on successfully completing the multi-year process that led to the accreditation. “LAU confirmed alignment with 15 global accreditation standards, while demonstrating how they achieve success within each of the three pillars on which AACSB accreditation rests – engagement, innovation, and impact.”

Reacting to the news, LAU President Joseph G. Jabbra declared: “We need to make sure that we become the unchallenged leader in business education and a hub of enriching activities, worthy of our new status, in Lebanon, the MENA region and beyond.”

AACSB’s accreditation standards require excellence in areas relating to strategic management and innovation; student, faculty, and staff as active participants; learning and teaching; and academic and professional engagement. Thus, LAU’s success at attaining the accreditation is testament to its holistic approach to education.

Interim Dean Said Ladki, congratulated and thanked the faculty and staff at the school. “This monumental task would not have been accomplished without the hard work and dedication of all of the school’s family.”

Business school faculty member Walid Marrouch shared his joy on the LAU Facebook page: “Heartfelt congratulations to all my colleagues … for this great achievement. Your hard work over the past five years finally paid off. Our students can be proud today of being part of our internationally recognized school of business.” Equally delighted was Salpy Indjeian Mardirian, whose children are graduates of the school’s economics program and students of its M.B.A. program. “This news makes me so proud and happy to have made the correct choice in LAU.”

According to the National Academy of Medicine in the U.S., nearly 400,000 patients die in hospitals each year as a result of avoidable medical errors. One recommended solution is enhanced collaboration between healthcare professionals, that is, getting doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others involved in patient care to learn from and talk to each other.

“LAU has been a leader in this approach,” said LAU President Joseph G. Jabbra in his welcome address to approximately 150 healthcare professionals gathered on April 15 at the Metropolitan Hotel in Beirut to learn about the benefits of interprofessional collaboration from several leading international experts. Sponsored by the LAU Interprofessional Education Program (IPE), the event was “an opportunity for all of us to be introduced to and to adopt this new approach to health education, which is so important and essential in promoting the quality and safety of healthcare,” stressed Jabbra.

Dean of the Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing Nancy Hoffart, the inspiration behind the university’s IPE program, noted that the conference comprised professionals from “nursing, pharmacy, medicine, nutrition, physical therapy, respiratory therapy” and other health disciplines from 20 hospitals and universities across the country. The participants’ demographics “show that at LAU we are really committed to bringing people together from across the disciplines,” she enthused.

The conference was held under the patronage of Lebanese Minister of Public Health Wael Abou Faour, who was represented by Joseph el-Helou, the ministry’s director of medical care. Encouraging IPE, el-Helou declared: “The more there is efficient collaboration among disciplines – whether administratively or technically – and exchange of opinion and knowledge among health experts involved, the better the medical service will be.”

The opening ceremony concluded with an inspiring intervention by Martin S. Loyato, assistant professor of music at LAU, who conjured up “improvisation and conscious listening” — key collaborative elements of jazz — and urged the participants to inject them into their own healthcare practice.

The day featured a keynote address by Alan Dow, assistant vice president of health sciences for interprofessional education and collaborative care at Virginia Commonwealth University, as well as plenary speeches by Brent Foreman, assistant executive director of nursing quality and patient safety at the Hamad Medical Corporation (Doha), and Saleem Kibwali, a consultant for Joint Commission International, an organization advocating interprofessional collaboration in the medical field on the international level.

According to Nadine Zeeni, coordinator of the IPE program, the conference was a resounding success, “because we were able to bring together so many different healthcare professionals … there was no such conference in Lebanon before.” In her view, the next step is to create an alliance for interprofessional education and collaboration in Lebanon, so that the concept could be fostered across institutions beyond LAU itself.

The event of April 15 was followed by a full day of workshops at the LAU Byblos campus, in which the participants took advantage of the Clinical Simulation Center to put into practice the principles of interprofessional collaboration discussed the previous day.

At the opening ceremony, Zeeni presented Hoffart with a plaque honoring the dean for her contributions to the field, as the audience cheered in appreciation.

Health professionals taking part in the workshop at the Clinical Simulation Center at LAU Byblos.

The traditional divide between print and broadcast is anachronistic in today’s digital era. Technology is opening up new possibilities in journalistic expression, where the audience engages in the story to an unprecedented extent.

“Journalism is not about creating a linear story anymore,” said Monika Halkort, assistant professor at LAU’s Department of Communication Arts. “We are creating a unique experience that is often the product of a collaboration between an interdisciplinary team.”

Indeed, LAU is dedicated to forming professionals who are fully aware of the new possibilities in the domain of communication and possess the necessary skills to make the most of them. By the same token, LAU is offering a B.A. in Multimedia Journalism that specifically trains students in the new media landscape.

Within that framework and in collaboration with the Department of Design, on April 14-15, the Montreal-based interactive firm KNgFU conducted a two-day workshop on digital storytelling and presented its web documentary Lives on Hold, in collaboration with Al Jazeera.

The project, which highlights the plight of ten displaced Syrians fleeing the conflict in their country, grew from the joint effort of designers Ghassan Fayad and Ralph Dfouni, KNgFU, and producers Reem Haddad (Al Jazeera) and Abir Hachem (Solo Films).

Far from being a simple collection of videos, the platform presents a number of features curated in such a way as to make the viewer interact with the story on a whole new level. Sound environment captured on location plunges the viewer into a real-life setting, while user-generated content allows two-way interactions.

“We started thinking about how we could use the web to tell a story in a way that TV cannot,” said Reem Haddad during the discussion that preceded the workshop. The idea of a web documentary, she explained, was inspired by a compulsion to represent the stories of refugees while at the same time doing justice to their real-life experiences.

Taking this interactive platform as a model and learning the steps behind its realization, design and journalism students worked in teams to come up with new ways of narrating a story on the theme of the disappeared during Lebanon’s civil war.

“These students do not lack the urge to express themselves,” said Lebanese-born Fayad, president of KNgFU. “Our goal in this workshop is to inspire them to think of new ways of telling their stories.”

Each idea was elaborated with the help of Fayad and Dfouni, and then submitted to Al Jazeera and Solo Films producers for evaluation.

“This experience is teaching me how to approach, research and devise a story,” said Ghassan Bathish, a design student who aims, in his senior project, to revive his grandfather’s time as a combatant in WWII. “I want to use graphic design as a tool for social change, to keep the memory of the past alive so that history does not repeat itself.” 

Design and journalism students worked in teams to come up with new ways of narrating a story.

Representatives of Lebanese NGOs, as well as LAU students, faculty and staff gathered on the Beirut campus on April 13 to celebrate their spirit of service in the first annual NGO symposium.

The event was organized by the Outreach and Civic Engagement unit in collaboration with the Adnan Kassar School of Business to highlight the success of BUS299 course, a zero-credit mandatory course that promotes community engagement, and through which business students volunteer for a cause during a whole semester.

“The power of service stems from the power of love,” said LAU President Joseph G. Jabbra, who not only gave his accolades to the NGOs of Lebanon for their hard work in their respective causes, but also to the life lessons and values they teach young adults, LAU students included.

The 46 NGOs present at the symposium were a fraction of the 250 on LAU’s application list. What made them stand out was that they were part of the 53 that LAU students interned for this semester through BUS299, which was launched in 2013.

“1,480 LAU students were given the opportunity to intern at these NGOs through the course,” said Assistant Vice President for Outreach and Civic Engagement Elie Samia.

Instructor at the Adnan Kassar School of Business Dunia Harajli stressed the need for business schools to go back to their roots, “as future business leaders must be taught to also embrace social and moral wealth.” According to Harajli, a course like BUS299 is crucial because “it gives our students a glimpse of what it means to be human,” she said.

Following the screening of students’ testimonies of their experiences with the organizations they interned with, the NGO representatives received awards for galvanizing relief work at LAU and for their dedication to humanitarian concerns in Lebanon. 

“Getting this recognition is really rewarding… It shows that what we are doing matters,” said Sevine Fakhoury, a board member of Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (BETA). “I really think that LAU’s initiative through the BUS299 course is great as it introduces the younger generation to the act of volunteering, it is social education, and that is productive both for the students and the community as a whole,” she said adding, “the nice part is that many students continue to volunteer at the NGO they interned with even after they graduate.”

LAU honored more than 50 NGOs.

As the world marked Earth Day last Friday, LAU reiterated its determination to play a leading role in raising environmental awareness in Lebanon. Accordingly, experts in the field were invited to hold the symposium “Earth Day Concerns Lebanon”, which took place on April 15 and brought together LAU professors Christian Khalil, Mohamad Al Zein and Ahmad Kabbani and leading experts Ziad Abi Chaker, CEO of Cedars Environment, Shawki Srour of Dar Al-Handasah and Walid Saad of the American University of Beirut.

Ahmad Kabbani, professor of chemistry at LAU, organized the symposium with the aim of creating a channel between professionals with different focuses. “To solve the garbage crisis we need to break down the problem into its different components and tackle them separately,” he said. “There is no such thing as one solution to a problem.”

As part of LAU’s commitment to train its undergraduate students to produce research from the very start of their scientific career, Kabbani invited seven students in his course “Material Sciences” to relay their findings on the use of nanotubes for water purification.

“A scientist must produce, present and share,” the professor said. “If a student is not able to communicate his knowledge, he is missing the fundamental tool that enables a scientist to contribute to solving practical problems that affect the community.”

Exhibiting great communication skills and a remarkable engineering genius, Ziad Abi Chaker ― arguably the leading player in Lebanon’s recycling activities ― presented to students and experts his innovative waste management solutions. “Waste is still considered a ‘problem’ that has to be dealt with, while it should really be seen as a resource,” he said.

As an example, he cited governmental figures showing that, from 2011 to 2015, Lebanon imported 64,715 tons of organic fertilizer. Through dynamic composting, a technology developed by his company Cedars Environment, organic waste is transformed into humus-like material that can serve just the same purpose. “Waste is a fantastic resource,” said Abi Chaker, “it just needs some clever engineering.”

This mindset is fully shared by LAU, which plans to launch a new M.A. in Environmental Science and to incorporate sustainability in the already available curricula. In his opening speech at the symposium, Assistant Dean Sami Baroudi underlined a series of green initiatives undertaken by LAU, including recycling bins and green buildings that follow the example set by Tohme-Rizk on Byblos campus ― the first office building in Lebanon to receive the Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiency (EDGE) Certificate.

In conjunction with its affiliated medical center (LAUMC- Rizk Hospital), LAU is also working on finding ways to dispose of hazardous waste through foreign partners.

“Lebanon does not have any strategy to recycle pharmaceutical waste,” said LAU alumnus and professor at AUB’s Department of Chemical Engineering Walid Saad.

He cited studies showing that 90% of dental clinics’ pharmaceuticals are dumped in landfills that have no safety procedures. Controlled incineration, which would be a viable option to get rid of this kind of waste, only works in hazardous waste landfills, currently unavailable in Lebanon.

“Keeping waste material from reaching the environment through recycling is, as of today, Lebanon’s most desirable option,” he declared.

At LAU Beirut on April 15, students, professors and members of the public discussed the role and expectations of youth with regards to violent extremism online.

The overarching focus of the event was ISIS and its use of social media to both recruit and push messaging based on fear, hate and exclusion. “They laid bare our ethnic, religious and social economic differences and are making difference an instrument of conflict and bloody wars,” said LAU President Joseph G. Jabbra, welcoming the opportunity for LAU to participate in “making our community and global village better places to live in, now and in the future.”

Held in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and media advocacy and development organization Social Media Exchange (SMEX), the forum kicked off with an introduction of the panelists by Advocacy and Policy Director at SMEX Mohamad Najem.

Media instructor at Notre Dame University Rouba El-Helou and Chafic Abdel Rahman, from Tripoli-based NGO Utopia, spoke of their experiences with the poor and fractured communities in Tripoli that were more susceptible to the ISIS narrative.

“Youth in Tripoli are more likely to resort to extremism because unemployment stands at over 50 per cent and one in three children there die at birth,” explained Abdel Rahman. Utopia’s many initiatives have included a job fair for skilled workers and fostering trust in the Lebanese army. Such community-based activities and organizations, El-Helou believes, are essential to countering extremism. “Othering is a demon. People are simple but afraid, and fears drive them to violence. We must use media platforms to promote grassroots connections and counter walls of separation.”

Ali Baskey from the U.S. State Department and Ashraf Zaytoun from Facebook detailed their organizations’ efforts to combat ISIS propaganda online. “Countering extremism is a generational struggle,” said Baskey, as being labeled an associate or member of ISIS has become “cool” among some youths and communities in the region. “This is how pervasive they are. They’re able to subconsciously poison minds globally.”

In a bid to tackle ISIS messaging, the U.S. has joined a 66-member coalition, and many member states have set up initiatives or centers nationally, based on their own country dynamics.

According to Zaytoun, civil society and youth are best placed to counter extremism as they are most familiar with and trusted by their local communities. “We at Facebook have a 24/7 enforcement team to respond to threats, but there is an obligation on all of us to address it, which is why we ask users to inform us of suspicious content.” In response to a question from the audience, he made it clear that Facebook removes posts and accounts that violate its policy but does not offer monitoring services to law enforcement.

Among the various audience interactions that followed, counterterrorism specialist Talar Demirdjian asked Baskey about the role of Islamophobia and tolerated hate speak in America in propagating extremism. “Political anger, religious extremism, psychological issues … they all contribute. We have in the U.S. a long and sad history of intolerance and it has never helped our country to grow. But today, we are sitting in a university that is reflective of the positive outcomes of partnerships with the U.S. and region.”

This forum was part of a three-day symposium during which professionals from the public, private and civil society sectors collaborated in developing an approach to counter the inflammatory rhetoric pushed by militants online.

President Jabbra addressing the audience.

Lina Beydoun, academic executive director of the LAU New York Academic Center, joined prominent practitioners, thought leaders, academics and entrepreneurs at the Wharton School of Business in a discussion about the latest developments and trends in fields like energy, entrepreneurship, real estate, and healthcare. 

The event that took place earlier this month was entitled, “MENA Emerging: Resilience Amidst Uncertainty.”

Beydoun was invited to speak in a panel on “Youth and Employment.” She touted the region’s prospects, stating that vast numbers of young people coming into adulthood will mean an unprecedented talent pool to create and innovate.

While the MENA region continues to show staggering youth unemployment rates, experts say a lack of education is not the issue. Instead, they highlight various other factors that include a competitive job market where youth lack the skills in demand― often referred to as a “skills mismatch”― an over-reliance on family connections to get jobs, and a lack of opportunities in a thriving private sector, to name a few. 

Along with other American universities in the region such as AUB and AUC, LAU is paving way for youth employment and working to bridge that skills mismatch.

“It’s a mistake to constantly associate the youth bulge with unemployment,” said Beydoun. “When you have a large youth population, there's a huge potential for creativity and entrepreneurship. If that talent can be put to use, with the support of local governments, then the youth bulge could be seen as a positive factor rather than a negative one,” she explained. “In Lebanon for example, if the government supports social entrepreneurship, youth could provide the answer to solving many of the country’s entrenched infrastructure problems, such as waste disposal, electricity shortages, Internet bandwidth and more.”

According to a recent study by the Adnan Kassar School of Business, 78% of its graduates were employed after graduation.

However, said Beydoun, prospects for youth employment across the MENA region are handicapped by a glaring gender gap ― 13 of the 15 countries with the lowest rates of women participating in their labor force are in the MENA region, according to the 2015 Global Gender Gap Report ― and the current economic and political turmoil which, accompanied by the recent decline in oil prices, has deterred international investors.

Organized entirely by Wharton students, the conference provided a glimpse of the prospects for the region from those who are deeply involved in the local economic, political, and social systems.

LAU alumnus Christian Oussi Jr. (B.S. ’11) is currently an M.B.A. student at Wharton, and helped organize the event. “I felt it was important for people to know what the region is about, to be aware of its diversity and to learn about the values that people stand for and which are being misrepresented in the media and are being hijacked by certain fringe groups,” he said. “I wanted to give a better image of what MENA stands for.”

Speakers echoed that positive note, and were united in the belief that the current instability is laying the groundwork for future positive transformation. 

The 150 participants included students from leading U.S. universities, including Penn, Columbia, Duke, George Washington, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and Penn State, who plan to connect their careers to the region.

Christian Oussi (right) with fellow M.B.A. students and conference organizers at the Wharton MENA Conference.

Lina Beydoun (second from right) participated in the conference, speaking in a panel on youth and unemployment.

Over 30 universities, institutions and embassies from around the world gathered at LAU for International Education Week. The event that took place in April was dedicated to providing networking opportunities and information for students seeking to pursue further studies abroad.

The opening ceremony, held on April 19, inaugurated a series of events designed to benefit both students and staff members, ranging from sessions on international internships, to world-class Ph.D.s and faculty-led study trips.

“The time has come to put in place international education in practice, in a world that is so characterized by the culture of knowledge,” said LAU President Joseph G. Jabbra speaking about LAU’s commitment to internationalization.

“LAU looks forward to increasing the number of students who have an international education experience,” added Elise Salem, vice president of Student Development and Enrollment Management (SDEM) at LAU. “It transforms their education and, often, their lives.”

In order to provide LAU students with the best possible assistance in finding the right opportunity to mold their character and hone their skills, SDEM recently introduced a new Office of International Services. The office coordinates with the seven schools at LAU and with the relevant international partners to ensure the necessary guidance and guarantee that academic standards are met when incorporating international programs within the curriculum.

“With dozens of leading international partners in many different countries in Europe, the U.S., and Canada, we coach our students on how best to embark on such a life-changing experience,” said Dina Abdul Rahman, international services associate program manager and head of the Office of International Services.

The International Education Week was inaugurated in the presence of the Minister of Education and Higher Education Elias Bou Saab. “I, too, am a product of international education,” he said, “therefore I understand the importance of being able to mingle with people of different cultures in order to broaden one’s thinking.”

This proved true for LAU students who related their experience of studying abroad. “The classrooms were full of international students, like a world in miniature,” said Tatiana Karam, Political Science and International Affairs student who conducted her exchange at Science Po Paris during the fall of 2015. “I realized that life begins at the end of your comfort zone,” she added.

Exchange programs also enable foreign students to discover Lebanon and its culture. Paul Khoury, a Science Po student in Paris who defined himself as a “child of the Lebanese diaspora,” had the opportunity to rediscover his country of origin and learn its language thanks to the SINARC program. “When I was young I always rejected my Lebanese origins,” said Khoury. “Now I understand Khalil Gibran when he said: ‘If Lebanon wasn’t my country, I’d choose it as my country’.” 

The Office of International Services has dozens of international partners in Europe, the U.S. and Canada.

The concern with the existence, nature and attainment of happiness has shaped centuries of philosophical discourse. Not shying away from tough questions, this year’s writing competition invited students from all disciplines to submit essays and short stories revolving around the theme: ‘The road to happiness.”

The competition, which culminated with the distribution of awards on April 20, is one of several initiatives promoted by LAU to encourage creative writing. The previous weekend, a workshop was held by English professor Jenine Abboushi aimed at training students in different styles of writing.

“These initiatives reflect LAU’s desire to create―through its renewed English program―a generation of professional writers who can produce content geared toward different types of media,” says Abboushi. “The variety of writing exercises is expressly designed to unleash the students’ capabilities.”

The event was also an occasion to remember young poet Haas Mroue, who died of a heart attack in 2007. Thanks to his mother Najwa Mounla, who donated the event’s hosting fees, LAU students have the chance every year to experiment with writing and find their own voice.

According to professor Samira Shami, hosting such events is of paramount importance to “encourage all kinds of students to communicate and produce content that is creative, well developed and catchy.”

These are the criteria that she and the other three members of the jury used to assess the short stories and essays submitted as part of the fourth edition of the Creative Writing Competition, revolving around the theme of happiness.

For Christian Chadd, a third-year psychology student and winner of the short story award, happiness can be rendered metaphorically through the martial art of jiu jitsu. In his story, the way the characters wrestle mirrors their life problems and their approach to solving them. Both the process of wrestling and the success in doing so are emblematic of the quest for happiness.

“I think very deeply about things but sometimes I lack the clarity to express them,” says Chadd. “This is why I enjoy occasions like this one, where you are encouraged to put your thoughts into words.”

Biology student Zeinab Sbeity, recipient of the prize for the best essay, tackled the theme of happiness from a more philosophical angle. “Happiness to me,” she writes, is being the best version of “you ; a human designed to do and engineered to give.”

According to Sbeity, biology and writing are not at the opposite ends, but are both driven by creativity. “Biology fuels your thinking by training you to be aware of your surroundings, and this unleashes many inner feelings,” she says. “Through writing, I can then express them and make sense of it all.” 

Celebrating the competition’s winners.

“I'm sure there are a lot of talented people in LAU, but if they keep hiding, what good are they? Come out, come out wherever you are ... Please … ” joked Jawad El-Mawla, a Performing Arts major at LAU Beirut.

There is an element of truth to what the 20-year-old student had to say. LAU’s major productions have been able to bring out the untapped theatrical talents of students in various fields, from psychology to economics. The same is being done for the musical abilities of many students through biannual major music productions directed by Martín Loyato, assistant professor of music in LAU’s Communication Arts Department. Loyato also wishes to expand the university’s musical curriculum by introducing a selection of classes that touch upon the subject.

The Argentinian director already has four productions under his belt. Pachamama (Fall 2014) WEB (Spring 2014), Vadis Quo (Fall 2015), and last but not least his most recent Jazz in the Living Room. But these are not just music shows. “They are interdisciplinary shows,” explains Loyato who is always looking for a deeper meaning to deliver to the audience.

Thus far, the shows have dealt with a range of issues that continue to plague the world. Pachamama, which stands for mother earth, the indigenous goddess in Latin America, was about how humans are destroying the planet. The entire set was formed of plastic bags and other recyclable material. WEB explored the effects of social media on the spectators by inviting them to tweet and write on a Facebook wall displayed on a large screen onstage. Loyato was inspired to do so after witnessing students leaving a class glued to their mobile phone screens. Vadis Quo brought home the issue of social media and news brainwashing. According to Loyato, “We are hit by so much information daily, but probably 90 percent is untrue.” And so the director set out to blend live performance with prerecorded issues. Jazz in the Living Room, the musician’s most recent production, was an exercise in listening and improvising through the use of one of music’s most complex genres.      

However, Loyato believes that what really counts is not the show itself but the building process and the work everyone puts into it. “I think it is good to bring the music culture to the students,” explains the director who maintains that the students involved should never do something simply for the sake of doing it. “Even if they’re writing a piece of music I want them to think it will last a hundred years, if they don’t do that it’s meaningless, they won’t put their heart and soul into it.”

The productions also provide students with a chance to work in a real team-building environment and bring passion to whatever they do. Although the director makes the final decisions, it is all about how much time and effort the students put into the work and their creative contributions during the rehearsals. Along with new music courses, Loyato is already contemplating his next production, a musical written entirely by students.  

From jazz funeral to more popular romantic songs, the musicians performed for over an hour.

Loyato’s music productions provide students with a chance to work in a real team-building environment.