It can be challenging, however, to develop governance structures to support interdisciplinary programs. This is one of the reasons why the Provost’s Office has proposed the establishment of a Graduate Council, which will oversee these programs, as well as assuming many of the other administrative duties generally performed by a school of graduate studies; and drafted new policies and procedures for the governance of interdisciplinary programs. The Graduate Council proposal has been approved by the Senate and the Board of Trustees. The governance document is still being reviewed by the Board of Deans.

These changes are necessary if AUB is to develop new interdisciplinary graduate programs to address the challenges currently facing the Arab world. Plans are in the works for Master’s-level programs in Islamic studies; public policy and international affairs; and energy sciences, technology, and policy. The development of these programs is closely related to a major new initiative to develop research clusters in these three areas and in environmental sciences and the arts and humanities.

For the present, AUB’s three existing interfaculty graduate programs are administered by interfaculty coordinating committees in conjunction with the graduate committees of the participating faculties. The provost is working with the academic deans to reform the governance of interdisciplinary programs and to develop policies and procedures for the initiation of new programs.