Dear friends and colleagues of the AUB community,
Every gift counts
I am proud to announce that AUB has just completed its most successful fundraising
year to date, receiving $78.3 million during FY 2016-17, and topping $100.7 million in
new gifts and new pledges. We have deservedly spoken at length this year about the
Semaan Foundation gift—the largest in AUB’s history—a gift which affords us a
sustainable endowment for the Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and
Architecture (SFEA). But even without that extraordinary donation from the late, much
mourned Mr. Semaan, this year of philanthropy which saw the launch of BOLDLY AUB:
The Campaign to Lead, Innovate and Serve comfortably shatters previous records. This
is a phenomenal achievement in these challenging times, and yet again proves the
undying commitment and generosity of our friends, supporters, alumni, trustees,
deans, faculty, staff, and new graduates, who have joined the list of more than 5,000
individuals, businesses and foundations giving wholeheartedly to AUB in support of
our unique mission. 
When we say “every dollar counts”, we are telling the truth and not just paying lip
service to the vast majority who—short of a major lottery win—cannot hope to
individually dent our ambitious $650 million target of the BOLDLY AUB campaign.
Perhaps the best example of a significant collective gift is the Fingerprints drive, which
solicits small contributions—just $25—from final year students as a senior gift; giving
something back to the University as they leave to apply the knowledge and skills they
have developed at AUB. The Fingerprints fund has grown to more than $1.8 million—
with matching pledges from trustees and the USFC—and it has generated more than
half a million dollars in support over its 12 years, aid with which we have been able to
help more than 240 students. There is no qualifying restriction to receive the grant,
except need. Think of the difference this has made and you
will realize immediately that no gift is too modest. As our
outstanding and tireless VP for Advancement, Dr. Imad
Baalbaki, is fond of saying: “No one knows how generous the
gift is except the person giving it.” Indeed every gift is a step
closer to our goal and in this spirit I would love to see us
pushing towards 100% participation in the campaign, from all
our above grade staff, faculty members, graduates, and wageearning
alumni. Please go ahead and make us even prouder of you than we are
already!
Unsung heroes of PPD
As our campus broils in the summer heat, I would like you to spare a few minutes to
consider the hardworking and dedicated women and men of AUB’s Physical Plant
Department, for whom this is anything but a time of rest and recuperation. Using the
summer window with fewer customers on their books, PPD staff labor all hours to
repair, replace and renovate equipment, internal spaces and infrastructure that are
essential to the smooth running of this institution and the comfort of its community.
Large-scale renovations of men’s and women’s dormitories are underway, as well as
dozens of faculty residences, not to mention classrooms, labs and offices all over the
University, all while keeping our vital green spaces in excellent condition. Yes, we are
the inheritors of some ageing buildings with the challenges that this implies. Under the
directorship of Jean Abdelnoor, his motivated managerial team and multi-trade work
force provide all types of services including events logistics to the community on a 24-
hour cycle. The team has radically improved its delivery of operation and maintenance
services to make our working and living spaces as pleasant and habitable as possible,
despite facing many challenges, tight budgets and the pressure of time always bearing
down. Whatever the challenge, the word “no” is not in their lexicon, and we are
fortunate indeed to benefit from their care and guardianship throughout the year.
In addition to his role as PPD director, Jean is also manager of AUB’s colossal power
plant on lower campus, whose steam boilers, turbines, and generators thunder
through the day at nearly full capacity to keep our lights, computers and airconditioning
units working, as well as providing essential uninterrupted power for
patients and staff at AUBMC and server rooms in the IT department. The power
plant—like so much of what PPD accomplishes—is not a luxury that can fail; our vital
work and lives depend on it. And so our sincere thanks go to those extraordinary
individuals who endure the extreme heat and deafening, tenebrous conditions to keep
us connected in the face of Lebanon’s pitifully unreliable public utilities. A last word on
the toughest jobs at AUB, the unprecedented nomination and selection of an
extraordinary university janitor, Jamal Omar, in last month’s President’s Service
Excellence Awards was a testimony to the unrelenting efforts of those members of our
community who undertake work that few of us would be able to sustain. Far be it for
me to underplay the service excellence of the other deserving awardees, Samia Azar of
IT, Nurse Surgical Technologist Ali Juni, and Clinical Educator Rafika Zaatari; on the
contrary, each stands out in their field and merits their recognition. But Jamal’s award
is shared by all at Physical Plant, especially those least celebrated yet who carry out
the most essential and difficult work, and I know the news was appreciated by the
whole department in a spirit of true collegiality. Congratulations.
FPDU building our future
One cannot talk about Physical Plant without also highlighting the outstanding
contribution of the Facilities Planning and Design Unit (FPDU), which sprouted from
PPD in 2002 to take charge of the previous Master Plan launched under my
predecessor John Waterbury. Most of FPDU’s work happens offstage, as it takes
projects through the lengthy and complex process of concept development, to
detailed design, through construction, to handing over finished buildings. Back in
2002, following the reconstruction of our bombed College Hall, it was vital to kick start
campus development after the hiatus of war lasting nearly 30 years. Since then, the
FPDU team, under the leadership of Bassem Barhoumi from September 2007, has
developed its own expertise and had incalculable impact. The 2002 Master Plan focus
was on providing space for student athletics (Hostler Center), business education
(OSB), and an engineering compound (IOEC), to name a few. This has been followed by
further transformative projects, including the Aga Khan Award-winning Issam Fares
Institute and recently, under my presidency, a set of more than two dozen projects
needed prior to the formal adoption of our next Campus Master Plan interdigitated
with AUB’s Strategic Plan for 2030. If you visit campus this summer, you will not miss
the intensive works in progress on the new Munib and Angela Masri Building , the
demolition/reconstruction of Penrose Hall, renovation of Reynolds Hall, work on the
Jesup facades, and starting today, the replacement of the Green Field artificial turf and
synthetic running track.
If successful, the 2017 Master Plan, will instigate a transformation of the University
campus on a scale not seen since the nineteenth century, when a bold new college
campus was laid out above the cactus-covered escarpment by the Mediterranean
undertaken by Daniel Bliss and his associates. We will rely heavily on FPDU to realize
the visions that will fuse together in the coming years, underpinning the five main
components of the BOLDLY campaign: to enrich our educational research experience,
to enhance our healthcare experience, to put innovation and entrepreneurship at the
core, including the humanities, to solidify and expand our community relevance, and
to ensure sustainability. There are of course major challenges ahead. When it comes
to designing new buildings and curricula, it is impossible to please everyone, or
sometimes anyone, given the inevitable clashes of taste and end-user requirements.
Nor is this bold plan being conceived on some remote, wide open space, but here on
our most prized material possession, AUB’s beautiful green campus, and alongside our
most important constituency, our students, for whom being given the room and time
to think and learn is sacrosanct. Bassem and his team of skilled engineers (civil,
mechanical, and electrical engineers, architects, and landscape architect) are wellversed
in safeguarding these precious commodities and we shall be drawing heavily on
their expertise in the coming years.
Best regards,
Fadlo R. Khuri, MD
President