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AUB To Open Two New Campuses Over The Next Two Years
At the university’s 156th Opening Day Ceremony, president of the American University of Beirut Dr. Fadlo Khoury made an announcement that surprised many. While welcoming students to the new academic year, Khoury also revealed that AUB would be opening two new campuses over the course of the next two years, a statement that surprised many given the harsh economic conditions that Lebanon and the university have been enduring.
“To further diversify, over the course of the next 12 to 24 months, we hope to launch new AUB campuses, one to the West and one to the East of our eternal home in Beirut,” said Khoury.
The University’s Twitter account later issued a clarification on this statement after many thought that AUB would be closing down in Beirut stating that they will “remain strongly anchored in Beirut – our eternal home”.
What the University thought was happy news was met with a lot of scrutiny and criticism from many. This is to be expected considering the fact that nearly one year ago, the university fired 25% of its staff, and forced remaining staffers to take a reduction in salaries. The university also had set an exchange rate of 3900 LL to the dollar for students wanting to settle their tuition fees, leaving many unable to complete their studies.
Khoury’s announcement had many criticizing the university’s decision, and had others speculating where the next two campuses would be. Here are some highlights:
We prompted people to guess the new locations, check out the replies to this tweet.
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“To further diversify, over the course of the next 12 to 24 months, we hope to launch new AUB campuses, one to the West and one to the East of our eternal home in Beirut,” said Khoury.
#AUB President @drfadlokhuri at 156th Opening Day Ceremony:
— AUB (@AUB_Lebanon) September 6, 2021
“To further diversify, over the course of the next 12 to 24 months, we hope to launch new AUB campuses, one to the West and one to the East of our eternal home in Beirut.” pic.twitter.com/p6Cdq7UTg3
The University’s Twitter account later issued a clarification on this statement after many thought that AUB would be closing down in Beirut stating that they will “remain strongly anchored in Beirut – our eternal home”.
Clarification:
— AUB (@AUB_Lebanon) September 6, 2021
We hope to launch #AUB campuses, one to the West & one to the East of Lebanon to reach students who can no longer come here, but will remain strongly anchored in Beirut – our eternal home – which we have helped to shape, grow, & serve for over a century and a half. https://t.co/dFBMgb6YYN
What the University thought was happy news was met with a lot of scrutiny and criticism from many. This is to be expected considering the fact that nearly one year ago, the university fired 25% of its staff, and forced remaining staffers to take a reduction in salaries. The university also had set an exchange rate of 3900 LL to the dollar for students wanting to settle their tuition fees, leaving many unable to complete their studies.
Khoury’s announcement had many criticizing the university’s decision, and had others speculating where the next two campuses would be. Here are some highlights:
Fadlo Khuri admits AUB was never in a precarious position, contrary to all the lies they tried to sell us last year. https://t.co/t0fg7ARPJu
— Firas Haidar (@FirasHaidar) September 6, 2021
Department of Psychology at AUB: 7 out of 12 faculty members have left, extreme shortage of courses, psyc students rejected from grad school bc of weak curriculum, threatened to close down.
— Yara (@yarawx) September 6, 2021
AUB: Let’s spend our money on building new campuses instead of funding our psyc dept. https://t.co/6EkHI8koif
Over a year ago, the American University of Beirut fired 850 hospital employees, blaming the difficult situation.
— Nader Durgham | نادر درغام (@NaderDurgham) September 6, 2021
It then severely increased tuition fees.
Now, it announces that it’s opening two new campuses, one to the West and one to the East of Beirut.
Didn’t you almost almost go bankrupt 3 weeks ago 😅 the hypocrisy https://t.co/U2lg4XdLye
— slizzzinn 🇸🇾🇦🇲 (@BastermaBoy) September 6, 2021
Mesh men yawmen ken badoun funding la masare la2ano 3ambimuto 3alam bel mestashfa w la2ano mafi masare ya3to l asetze https://t.co/AKutYbxBbO
— dراويng (@RawiSaad) September 6, 2021
Y’all coulda spent that money on the 3000 staff you made jobless https://t.co/iT79gQ4dez
— Esme Mesh Sadek (@KeloAyre) September 6, 2021
Weren’t you weeping that AUB might close because of the hardships? Didn’t you fire the poorest of AUB employees to sustain the operartions? Now you are planning to open new campuses? Will you re-hire the fired employees? https://t.co/PfPb1sv9Cn
— Grim المتجهّم (@VeryGrimTweeter) September 6, 2021
We prompted people to guess the new locations, check out the replies to this tweet.
Which two countries do you think AUB will open its two new campuses in? The hint said, “one to the East and one to the West of Beirut”. Guesses:point_down::skin-tone-4:
— Beirut.com (@BeirutCityGuide) September 6, 2021
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