Check Archive

April 2008

• HotelExecutive of April 1 reported on the appointment of Joseph Zaiden as General Manager of the Sungate Port Royal hotel. He studied anthropology at the American University of Beirut, and in 1982 he was the managing partner of the Hofbrau Restaurant in Florida. He worked as a hotel manager in a number of hotels in Asia, Mexico, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East.
• Inside Higher Ed of April 3 reported that Peter F. Dorman, a professor of Egyptology at the Oriental Institute and the University of Chicago, has been named president of American University of Beirut.
• University of Chicago Chronicle of April 3 reported on the election of Peter Dorman as the American University of Beirutâ??s 15th president. Announcing his appointment was Thomas Morris, chair of the AUB Board of Trustees, who said, â??AUB is in the midst of an exciting period of change and transition, and we look forward to working with Peter to capitalize on the energy and amazing growth that has been building at the University in recent years. Peter has a strong commitment to strengthening AUBâ??s research environment and understands the universityâ??s success depends not only on the growth and success of its new PhD programs, but also on the continuous improvement of its core undergraduate programs.â?
• The Argonaut of April 3 reported on artist and daughter of former Lebanese President Bechara el-Khoury, Huguette Caland. During her childhood she was surrounded by Byzantine art, which continues to influence her work as an artist. At the age of 16 she began private lessons with Italian artist Fernando Manetti and then studied art at the American University in Beirut from 1964 to 1968. In the 1970s Huguette moved to Paris where, in addition to focusing on her art, she designed a line of her signature caftans for French designer Pierre Cardin. She settled in Venice in 1997.
• Chicago Maroon of April 4 reported on Peter Dormanâ??s election as the American University of Beirut. Born in Beirut, Dorman will continue a family tradition of involvement with AUB. His great-great-grandfather, Daniel Bliss, founded AUB in 1866, and his great uncle, Howard Bliss, was also its president. When he spoke to students during his visit, he found that they had many universal concerns, such as problems registering for classes on-line and complaints about tuition. Dorman said he plans to spend his initial years at AUB learning about the University rather than making sweeping changes. â??I donâ??t have any specific ideas at this point,â? he said.
• Silobreaker of April 4 reported published an article by Magda Abu-Fadil, the director of the Journalism Training Program at the American University of Beirut, about the Arab Broadcast charter, recently signed by Arab information ministers. She voiced her concern that the charter would place more restrictions on the already restricted Arab media scene. Nabil Dajani, a professor of social and behavioral science at AUB, said a possible solution to the media restrictions is taking regulatory measures out of the hands of both governments and the media and handing the task to international organizations.
• Ascribe of April 8 reported on the Carnegie Corporation of New Yorkâ??s investment of $10 million to enrich the quality of America's public dialogue on Islam and Muslim societies. The corporation announced that it will hold a number of lectures as part of its efforts to bolster understanding of the Muslim world. Among the lectures is the American University of Beirutâ??s series of seminars to address contemporary political Islam, intended for journalists from small-to-medium-sized US media markets.
• Noticias of April 9, Kauppalehti, MobileBurn, TMCnet, and DiGiTAL50 of April 7, and MobileTechNews of April 6 reported on an agreement signed between Motorola, Inc. and Carl Icahn under which William R. Hambrecht, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of WR Hambrecht + Co. and co-founder of Hambrecht and Quist, and Keith  Meister, a managing director of the Icahn investment funds and principal executive officer of Icahn Enterprises, will be nominated for election to Motorolaâ??s Board of Directors at the 2008 Annual Meeting of Shareholders and included in the Companyâ??s 2008 proxy statement. Mr. Hambrecht currently serves on the Board of Trustees for The American University of Beirut and is on the Advisory Investment Committee to the Board of Regents of the University of California.
• Blackwell Synergy of April 9 reported that an article by doctors at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Department of Pediatrics at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, and the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at Bethune College in Canada, was published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
• Salon.com of April 14 reported on how Fatah-Islam militants were able to set up base in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, which was the eventual site of battles between the militants and the Lebanese army. Ahmad Moussalli, a professor at the American University in Beirut pointed out that some of the militants had fought in Iraq. â??They learned many techniques for fighting a regular army. They were very well trained in urban warfare,â? he said. Hilal Khashan, a colleague of Moussalli's at AUB, warned that the fighters may be the first of a new generation of extremists to expand their fight beyond Iraq.
• MSNBC of April 17 reported on how despite being out-raised in the first quarter, Republican Sen. John Sununu still has about twice the amount of money in his campaign account as his Democratic opponent. The article also revealed that Sununu has taken six privately financed trips since taking office in the Senate in January 2003, including a trip to Houston, funded by the American University of Beirut Alumni Association in November 2005.
• Sacramento Magazine of April 17 announced the retirement of Nick Atallah from his occupation as a farmer in Madison outside of Davis. A former water engineer at the United States Department of Agriculture and former professor at the American University of Beirut, Atallah decided to pursue farming after he grew restless of his life in retirement.
• The Cambridge Chronicle and Ya Libnan of April 21 reported on Leila Fawwaz being named a 2008 Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Corporation in New York. A social historian, she was born in Sudan and raised in Lebanon where she attended the American University of Beirut, and later Harvard University. She joined Tufts University as an assistant professor in 1979. She later served as chairperson at the universityâ??s history department from 1994 to 1996, and dean for humanities and arts from 1996 to 2001.
• East Valley Living of April 22 announced that a Burton Barr Central Library in Phoenix, Arizona will host an exhibit of photographs by Nidaa Aboulhosn titled, â??Conatus Every Day,â? from May 2 â?? 29. A freelance photographer, Aboulhosn holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health from American University of Beirut.
• Foreign Affairs of April 23 presented a review of a book by Ussama Makdisi entitled, Artillery of Heaven: American Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East. It said that the book covered American Protestant missions starting with their establishment of the American University of Beirut in the 19th century.
• Argus Leader of April 24 published an announcement that war photographer Paul Taggart, and Marcy Newman, a visiting professor at the American University of Beirut would be speaking at a Sioux Falls church on April 24. Taggart will speak of his experiences during the Iraq war, and Newman will speak about her experience as part of a nonviolent presence for peace in Gaza and the West Bank.
• Albany Democrat Herald of April 25 reported that Rami G. Khouri, the Director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut would be delivering the 2008 Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Memorial Lecture for World Peace on at Oregon State University on April 30.
• Estes Park Trail Gazette of April 26 reported on a fundraising event to be held in Estes Park, Colorado on May 10. A keynote speaker at the event is Dr. Thomas Sutherland, a former dean at the American University of Beirut who was kidnapped during the countryâ??s civil war.
• Relief Web of April 27 reported on the Public Health in Complex Emergencies training program (PHCE), a two-week residential course focusing on public health issues faced by NGO/PVO personnel working in complex emergencies. It is aimed at enhancing the capacity of humanitarian assistance workers and their organizations to respond to the health needs of refugees and internally displaced persons affected by these emergencies. The host organizations for this program are the American University of Beirut, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in Thailand, and Makerere University IPH in Uganda.
• The Voice of Russia of April 28 published an article on the decline of public opinion of the United States in the world, and particularly Muslim countries. Rami G. Khouri, the Director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, said that one of the main reasons for the decline relates to the rhetoric and reality of democratic values. â??The Bush administration has made democracy promotion a central pillar of its foreign policy in the Middle East at the level of rhetoricâ?¦But in practice it pays little heed to behaving democratically in its interaction with the Arab people,â? he observed.
• The Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism of April 29 published the findings of research by a team from the Calcium Metabolism and Osteoporosis Program, Department of Internal Medicine at the American University of Beirut, and the Department of Laboratory Medicine at University of Toronto, Canada on the short-term and long-term safety of weekly high-dose vitamin D3 supplementation in school children.