News Highlights
Author:
Dina Abou Salem,
Web Editor,
Office of Information and Public Relations,
da09@aub.edu.lb
 AUB for Reconstruction and Community Development
Civil Summer Camp 2006 at Mishmish, Akkar
|
Mounir Mabsout builds foundations for AUB's Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service
Professor Mounir Mabsout |
Following the establishment of the Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service (CCECS) at AUB in December 2007, Provost Peter Heath announced to the AUB community the appointment of Mounir Mabsout, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, as its director.
Mabsout will "work to coordinate and develop the University's activities and programs for community service, service learning, and community-based research, in outreach to Lebanese communities," said Provost Heath. As a result, the Center will promote AUB's mission of service within the University and to the Lebanese community. |
CCECS, which will be housed in West Hall very soon, will operate to support community-based research initiatives, develop curricular opportunities for student service learning, organize a strong student volunteer program, integrate its activities into academic programs at the University, and foster productive working relations with project leaders in the community. It will work closely with AUB's Office of Development to raise funds and represent AUB in governmental and non-governmental organizations.
Mabsout's interest in community service and development goes back a long way. "I was often involved in community/volunteering work, namely working with various teams in relief efforts and with the displaced populations during various periods of the civil war and after. As an AUB faculty, I always thought that students and faculty should be engaged in community service and development; I worked with a team of students from the Civil Engineering Society in June 2006 to make the first summer volunteering camp happen -- an experience we repeated in August 2007. I was also involved as a member and then chair of the Task Force for Reconstruction and Community Service which President Waterbury established in August 2006," said Mabsout. |
The Task Force for Reconstruction and Community Service was appointed by President John Waterbury during the July 2006 war to look into the University's strategies in trying to relieve human suffering and the effects of the war. "Its aim evolved to encompass community service and development as a strategic goal for the university, and to seek to set and integrate this goal into AUB's educational mission and objectives," as described in the AUB for Reconstruction and Community Development website.
"It is no secret that AUB has long been engaged in community service and development, mostly at individual levels and/or through scattered group activities. Perhaps these initiatives are not properly recognized or even acknowledged, and often are invisible to the AUB community. The Center's purpose in that regard is to institutionalize such efforts, which, consequently, should instill the culture of community involvement in academia and in community-based research," said Mabsout. |
Given that the Center involves service learning, Mabsout plans to incorporate the latter in the educational programs at AUB. "This is one issue that the Center will need to investigate further before proposing an action plan. For example, we will look at several models available in universities and schools in the region and beyond, but it is equally important to create a model that suits AUB. So, be it in injecting 'community' components to be included in certain courses, promoting community-based academic projects/research in courses or theses, or encouraging volunteering field work and summer camps, the aim is to eventually instill the culture of community engagement," he added.
The Center is still in its formative stage. There are several plans to place it on the right track. "During the upcoming months, a small advisory team from AUB and I will work with the Office of the Provost on setting a structure for the Center and preparing short and long term action plans. As we do so, we will be meeting with various community partners at AUB and external organizations and individuals, who are interested in sharing experiences and supporting our activities," explained Mabsout. Already, several potential partners have expressed interest to work with CCECS such as UNESCO and UN-Habitat, Al-Majmoua, Micro-Loan NGO, and others. |
Mounir Mabsout received a PhD in civil engineering in 1991 from the University of Texas at Austin, USA. He also has a Master of Science (1987) in civil engineering from the University of Houston, Texas, USA and Bachelor of Engineering (1981), major civil engineering from AUB. In addition to his long academic career that entails publishing refereed research papers in international journals and coauthoring a book on highway bridges, he has an elaborate professional experience as a civil engineer and structural consultant.
|
|
