News Highlights
Author:
Ibrahim Khoury,
Director,
Office of Information and Public Relations,
ifkhoury@aub.edu.lb
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Waterbury to step down as president of the University
 | President John Waterbury: 'We look forward to remaining in Lebanon.'
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The Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut has announced that John Waterbury will step down as president of the University at the end of the 2007-2008 academic year. Dr. Waterbury became AUB's fourteenth president in January 1998 and was the first president to reside in Beirut since the end of the Lebanese civil war. During his tenure at AUB, Dr. Waterbury raised the academic standards of the University to the highest international levels.
"The Board of Trustees regretfully accepts John's decision, and thanks him for ten years of outstanding leadership during an extraordinary period in the history of the University. The Board is putting in place a search committee to begin the process of recruiting a new university president and will keep the AUB community informed," stated Dr. Thomas Q. Morris, chairman of the AUB Board of Trustees.
Dr. Waterbury's tenure at AUB has been defined by the development of the first master plan for the campus, a strategic academic review of AUB's strengths and potential, and the Campaign for Excellence, a five year campaign that will provide long-lasting support in every area of academic and campus life to ensure that AUB continues set the highest standards for education in the Middle East. The campus master plan, completed in 2002, has set a path for new and renovated facilities and an enhanced physical environment that will support the University's academic mission and student life in the decades ahead.
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Under Dr. Waterbury's guidance, AUB's two year academic review culminated in a revised liberal arts curriculum based on distribution requirements, enhanced electives, and the availability of minors, augmenting the academic experience and reinstituting programs that had been interrupted during the Lebanese civil war. In 2004, the University was the first academic institution in Lebanon to be granted accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. In 2006, the University announced the launching of seven PhD programs. The Waterbury presidency has also witnessed the development of several academic and medical research institutes at AUB, including the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR) founded in 2003; the Abu-Haidar Neuroscience Institute, founded in 2004; the Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute, founded in 2005; and the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, founded in 2006.
The Campaign for Excellence has succeeded in surpassing its goal of $140 million in 2006-07, during the 140th anniversary of the University. The campaign will provide the funds needed to sustain AUB's role in the region as an institutional leader committed to excellence in teaching and research.
"My wife Sarah and I are very attached to Lebanon and to the American University of Beirut. We look forward to remaining in Lebanon. I am eager to continue my academic research and writing and my affiliation with the Political Science and Public Administration Department at AUB," added Dr. Waterbury.
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Before joining AUB, Waterbury was, for nearly twenty years, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He specialized in the political economy of the developing countries with a special focus on the Middle East. He was director of Princeton's Center of International Studies and editor of the academic journal, World Politics, from 1992 to 1998.
Dr. Waterbury has published widely on the politics of the Middle East, the political economy of public enterprise, and on the development of international river basins. His latest book, 'The Nile Basin: National Determinants of Collective Action,' was published by Yale University Press in 2002. He earned his PhD in public law and government at Columbia University in 1968.
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