American University in Cairo

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American University in Cairo
Established: 1919
Type: Private
President: David D. Arnold
Staff: Full-time 310
Part-time 256
Undergraduates: 3,890
Postgraduates: 1,013
Location: Cairo, Egypt
Campus: Downtown, Cairo
Website: www.aucegypt.edu/

The American University in Cairo (AUC) is a private university located in Cairo, Egypt. The university provides high quality educational opportunities to students largely from different segments of Egyptian society, as well as from other countries, and contributes to Egypt's cultural and intellectual life. The university offers programs at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels, as well as an extensive continuing education program. The language of instruction is English.

The university advances the ideals of American liberal arts and professional education and of life-long learning. As freedom of academic expression is fundamental to this effort, AUC encourages the free exchange of ideas and promotes open and on-going interaction with scholarly institutions throughout Egypt and other parts of the world.

Contents

[edit] Historical Development of the University

The American University in Cairo was founded in 1919 by Americans devoted to education and service in the Middle East. For its first 27 years the university was shaped by its founding president, Dr. Charles A. Watson. He wanted to create an English-language university based on high standards of conduct and scholarship and to contribute to intellectual growth, discipline, and character of the future leaders of Egypt and the region. He also believed that such a university would greatly improve America's understanding of the area.

Initially, AUC was intended to be both a preparatory school and a university. The preparatory school opened on October 5, 1920, with 142 students in two classes that were equivalent to the last two years of an American high school. The first diplomas issued were junior college-level certificates given to 20 students in 1923. At first an institution only for males, the university enrolled its first female student in 1928, the same year in which the first university class graduated with two B.A.'s and one B.S. degrees awarded. Master's degrees were first offered in 1950.

Originally AUC offered instruction in the arts and sciences and in education. In 1921, the School of Oriental Studies was added to the university, followed in 1924 by the Division of Extension. This division was later renamed the Division of Public Service, and finally evolved into the Center for Adult and Continuing Education. AUC's high school division, known as the Lincoln School, was discontinued in 1951.

In 1956, the School of Oriental Studies was incorporated into the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as the Center for Arabic Studies. The English Language Institute was added the same year. After the Faculty of Education was discontinued in 1961 and degree offerings were dropped from the Division of Public Service, university degree work was consolidated into a single academic structure, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Programs in sociology, anthropology, political science and economics were added to the curriculum and the natural science offerings were significantly expanded.

Two applied research units, the Social Research Center and the Desert Development Center, were established in 1953 and 1979, respectively. Another landmark in the history of the university was the development of professional programs: the departments of Engineering, Computer Science, Journalism and Mass Communication, and Management now offer several degree programs at the Bachelor's and Master's levels.

In 1960, AUC enrolled approximately 400 academic students. By 1969 the university had more than tripled its degree enrollments to over 1,300 students, 450 of whom were pursuing graduate studies. Since then academic program enrollments have grown to 3,890 students at the undergraduate level and 1,013 students at the master's degree level 9 (Fall 2006). Adult education expanded simultaneously and now serves approximately 30,000 individuals each year in non-credit courses and contracted training programs.

In 1993, the academic programs offered through 13 departments were organized into three schools: Humanities and Social Sciences; Sciences and Engineering; and Business, Economics and Communication.

In 2007, the university's Center for Adult and Continuing Education was renamed the School of Continuing Education and in 2008, the Adham Center for TV Journalism was renamed the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism, Training and Research.

[edit] New Campus

In the summer of 2008, AUC will be relocating from the old campus Downtown Cairo to New Cairo. The campus will have an area of approximately 280 acres (1.1 km²) compared to the current campus of only 7.8 acres. The campus will accommodate about 5,500 full time students as well as 1,500 faculty and staff. Construction of the new campus is estimated to cost around $ 400 million making it the largest in Egypt[1].

[edit] Research

AUC is dedicated to conducting research within Egypt and the region that advances insight and understanding and addresses current social needs. An important aspect of the university's mission is to enhance and encourage research and provide a climate conducive to maintaining the university at the cutting edge of research and scholarly activities. AUC faculty engage in a variety of research projects and creative activities covering every area of academic inquiry.

Research centers at AUC include the Social Research Center, the Desert Development Center, the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program, the Institute for Gender and Women's Studies, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud Center for American Studies and Research, and the Science and Technology Research Center.

[edit] Student Community Service Program

The university’s community service program includes more than 10 student-run community service organizations addressing a range of social issues. Students work with children, the elderly, cancer patients, orphans, the blind and the needy. Every service program offers hands-on experience with civic action, an enhanced awareness of the meaning of citizenship, and the opportunity to find solutions and assume a leadership role in the community.

AUC’s Community Service Program connects student clubs with NGOs and other service-based agencies to provide a far-reaching and long-term range of services and activities that target the needy.

[edit] Student Organizations

The American University in Cairo's flexible environment enables its students to freely participate in extracurricular activities.

[edit] Controversy and Censorship

[edit] Censorship of books

The American University in Cairo came under the microscope in May 1998, when a group of alumni, provoked by a journalist's attack, forced the university to stop teaching the controversial book "Mohammed" by French Orientalist Maxime Rodinson.[2] The faculty met and the acting President said that for the "greater good" the faculty must defer to their government liaison's guidance. The faculty were not in agreement that a long list of books designated "not for circulation" should be treated as censored books. The instructor who assigned "Mohammed" did not return to AUC the next year. The Censorship Authority (of the Egyptian government) had earlier demanded the revision of some 450 books, and banned four outright for violating religious, cultural and traditional beliefs: "Islamic Political Thought" by Montgomery Watt, "Political Islam" by Joel Beinin, "Muslim Extremism" by Gilles Kepel and Alifa Rifaat’s short story collection "Distant View of a Minaret". Rifaat's book was assigned in AUC's core Seminar required of all students, which paradoxically aims to instill "liberal thought." The controversy came as the university itself was under attack for being "American" and "conspiring" to "corrupt the minds" of its impressionable young students.

Less than a year later, in January 1999, Samia Mehrez, an AUC professor of modern Arabic literature, came under fire for assigning her class the fictional autobiography of Moroccan writer Mohammed Choukri "Al-Khubz El Hafi" (For Bread Alone). Students complained to their parents about the book's "pornographic content', and a public campaign ensued against both Mehrez and the university.

The curriculum committee was forced to consider removing Sudanese novelist El-Tayeb Salih’s "Season of Migration to the North" from the following year’s reading list.

[edit] Niqab Controversy

In 2000 a female student started wearing a full black veil or Niqab, covering her entire face. A 1994 law bans women from wearing such garb on campus. Although initially allowing the student to attend for a semester, the school's top officials prohibited her from attending classes unless she removed the veil before classes started on January 28. American University officials said that this was a tendency towards extremism, incompatible with AUC's image of being a liberal institution encouraging face-to-face dialogue. Amid public controversy and anger of some students for not allowing her to wear the veil, the student in question decided to enroll in a government university.[3]

[edit] Notable Alumni/ae

  • Suzanne Mubarak, Egypt's First Lady.
  • Rania Abduallah, Jordan's Queen.
  • Gamal Mubarak, Secretary General of the National Democratic Party Policies Committee; and President Hosni Mubarak's son
  • Nabil Fahmy, Egypt’s ambassador to the United States.
  • Tarek Amer, deputy governor of Egypt's Central Bank.
  • Akil Beshir, Chairman of Telecom Egypt.
  • Omar Samra, First Egyptian to climb Mount Everest
  • Sadek Wahba, Managing director, global capital markets, Morgan Stanley.
  • Hoda Badran, Chair of the Alliance for Arab Women.
  • Azza Karam, UNDP senior policy research advisor.
  • Hassan Abdalla, Vice Chairman & Managing Director of Arab African International Bank
  • Haytham El Mayergi, Director, Citigroup.
  • Mervat Tallway, Executive Secretary of the ESCWA.
  • Haifa Al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia's first female filmmaker.
  • Lamis El Hadidi, class of '90, managing editor of Al Alam Al Youm newspaper.
  • Mona Al-Shazli, Famous Egyptian talk show host
  • Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author
  • Khaled Dawoud, UN correspondent of Al Jazeera.
  • Amr Waked, Actor.
  • Hisham Abbas, singer.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ New Campus
  2. ^ et - Full Story
  3. ^ A veil drapes Cairo campus in controversy | csmonitor.com

[edit] External links