News Highlights
Author:
Maha Al-Azar,
Media Relations Officer,
Office of Information and Public Relations,
ma110@aub.edu.lb
 Dr. Huda Huijer's speech
Dr. Nadim Cortas' speech
President Peter Dorman's speech
MP and Trustee Saad Hariri's speech
|
Rafic Hariri School of Nursing is inaugurated
[L-R] MP Saad Hariri, Dorman, and Huijer unveil plaque as Min. Bahiyya Hariri looks on |
To resounding applause and in the presence of donor and AUB Trustee MP Saad Hariri, the Rafic Hariri School of Nursing was inaugurated on February 19 in Issam Fares Hall.
MP Hariri, who has pledged $10 million to name and endow the School of Nursing at the University, said that he chose to support nursing because nurses are the silent and unsung life-saviors. Moreover, he said, "nursing has been used to describe many of Rafic Hariri's actions. He was said to have nursed some of Lebanon's wounds in the 1980s. His plan in the early 1990s was described as having nursed the economy back to health. And his blood, spilled in the defense of our democracy and independence, surely nursed the greatest peaceful movement this area has ever and is still witnessing: Lebanon's Cedar Revolution."
Hariri was greeted with a standing ovation and the audience frequently chanted in his support.
|
 | Hariri arrives to a standing ovation in Issam Fares Hall
|
Hariri's gift will be used to renovate and equip the building and to endow a fund to support the directorship of the school and a faculty chair, which will be known as the Rafic Hariri Professor of Nursing. About one-third of the donation will allow the University to provide Hariri scholarships for nursing students.
Lebanon's Former Prime Minister Rafic B. Hariri was an AUB trustee and a generous supporter of the University, something which President Peter Dorman highlighted in his speech, noting the late prime minister's support to the University during the Lebanese civil war and his funding of the Hussam-Eddine Hariri Faculty Apartments on the lower campus, in addition to the scholarships he offered to thousands of students here. |
 | Front row [L-R]: Salam, Makari, B. Hariri, Khalifeh, Morris, S. Hariri, Dorman & wife Kathy, Cortas
|
Moreover, the Hariri Foundation's collaboration with the School of Nursing started in 2007-08, when 20 nurses working in Hariri community centers in Lebanon completed their post-basic training at AUB, and the foundation supported the residencies of nine graduate nursing students at Johns Hopkins University.
"If there is anything that defines Mr. [Rafic] Hariri and points to his proudest achievement, it is the importance that he gave to education and future generations," said Dr. Huda Huijer, director of the School of Nursing. "His legacy will now extend to educating the future generations of nurses at AUB."
Huijer added: "We consider ourselves privileged to be part of this historic development." |
 | MP Saad Hariri visits cedar tree planted in his father's name...
|
Dr Nadim Cortas, VP for Medical Affairs and the Dean of the Medical School, noted that turnover among nurses is high due to the stressful demands of the job, but added that he hoped that the renovated building with its up-to-date facilities will allow the medical center to devise post-graduate and residency programs that have been known to reduce departures.
"I am confident this gift will bring a new energy and help AUB to graduate nurses who are better prepared for their careers and to create programs for post-graduate clinical training... The impact of this generous gift will greatly improve healthcare and the wellbeing of our society for generations to come."
President Dorman also thanked the Hariris for their donation, saying: "The generous gift of Trustee Saadeddine Hariri comes at a moment of enormous promise and potential. It will enable our school of nursing to build on the impressive accomplishments of recent years--and, as it honors the memory of the late Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, it also celebrates the extraordinary commitment of the Hariri family to AUB and its mission 'to serve the peoples of the Middle East and beyond.'"
|
The inaugural ceremony was attended by a host of politicians and academics, including Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalifeh, representing PM Fouad Siniora, Culture Minister Tammam Salam, MP Bahiyya Hariri, Deputy Speaker Farid Makari, and AUB Board Chairman Thomas Morris, who were all given a tour of the nursing building, where MP Hariri, Dr. Huijer and President Dorman unveiled the plaque displaying the building's name.
MP Hariri also visited the cedar tree which was planted on campus in 2005 in honor of his father's philanthropy and legacy. |
The School of Nursing, which celebrated its centennial in 2005, was the first nursing school to be established in the Middle East. In 2007, both its BSN and MSN programs received accreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) in the USA for a five-year term, or the maximum term for initial accreditation. It thus became the first school of nursing to be accredited by CCNE outside the US territories.
SON is also in the process of establishing in 2009 a collaborative PhD program for capacity building in nursing with the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. The PhD program will be offered partly at AUB and partly at Johns Hopkins. |
|
