September 26, 2012
Vol. XLV, No. 11 December 4, 2012
Potential changes in student ACT for the Disappeared: Remembering gov. ‘a major revolution,’ the civil war victims missing in Lebanon Lujain Rabat Geukjian, a professor in the and briefly explained says Nizameddin Staff Writer Political Studies and Public meaning of the display. Ghida Ismail Staff Writer
This year’s student government elections saw a major policy change— voters could directly elect the University Student Faculty Committee. While many see progress in the policy change, there may be more work to be done regarding the distribution of representatives. In years past, students voted for the 109 Student Representative Committee members who then chose the 17 USFC seats. This year, voters directly elected representatives to those 17 seats. Naji Aoun, vice president of the Secular Club, described the new policy as “more democratic.” Nonetheless, he pointed out some setbacks. “The Faculty of Engineering with around 1,500 students gets only two seats in the USFC, while the Faculty of Health and Science with a very small number of students gets one seat,” said Aoun.
“This division is not logical and not fair.” On the other hand, he noted that it is unreasonable that the engineering graduates and the architecture and graphic design undergraduates, who do not have any interaction with one another, should all elect one common USFC representative. Dean of Students Affairs Talal Nizameddin affirmed that the USFC electoral process will remain that of a direct representation next year. Based on the feedback and opinions of the students however, further modification will be implemented. “I have a vision of making the SRC numbers a bit smaller,” he said. He explained that 109 representatives is too many, especially because many of them “disappear” after the elections. Other students proposed making the elections proportional and intradepartmental. In other words, each department Continued on page 5
During the Lebanese Civil War, more than 17,000 Lebanese citizens went missing. Thirty years later, their families are still looking for answers. “Are our beloved ones alive or dead?” “Are they imprisoned?” “If dead, where are they buried?” “If imprisoned, where and by whom?” The Lebanese human rights association ACT for the Disappeared held an exhibition last week at AUB displaying the developments and efforts of the past 30 years to find out what happened to the disappeared. The exhibition, which is also expected to take place in several other Lebanese universities, is part of a bigger campaign that aims to raise awareness among the youth and make sure that the disappeared are not forgotten. “[This] is a humanitarian issue that should not be ignored,” said Ohaness
Administration department. The exhibition started Wednesday, after a word by William Thomas Haase, the chairman of the PSPA department, who expressed his solidarity with the cause
the
The opening speech was followed by a short documentary about Odette Salem, the main organizer of the sit-in for “Friends and families of the missing Continued on page 3
Photo Credit : Hayder Al Shakeri
Founders Day ceremony stresses ‘we are all descendants of Daniel Bliss’ Frederic Abou Jaoude Staff Writer
Photo credit: Hayder Al-Shakeri
One hundred forty-six years ago, Rev. Daniel Bliss and a
group of American Protestant missionaries reached the Mid-
dle East and founded what was then known as the Syrian Protestant College. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed and European mandates were applied in the 1920s, the SPC became AUB. AUB commemorated this history with a Founders Day celebration Monday. Outside the ceremony in Assembly Hall, students from a translation class, some dressed in period costumes, distributed a project booklet they had been working on for Founders Day. They had translated a collection of letters that Bliss, one of AUB’s founders and its first president, wrote to his family during the construction
of the AUB campus between 1873 and 1874. Students also handed out Bliss’s favorite fruit, mishmush (apricots), and bread and jam. Rula Baalbaki, the literary translation course instructor, said the project was meant to get “AUB students and professors to know more about the founder of AUB and to read about his quotes in translation and in original English.” During the ceremony, president Dorman stressed that AUB provides a safe haven to pursue personal experiences. He said this day is when we “reflect on those who had the vision and determination to Continued on page 4