LAU Bestows Honorary Doctorate upon His Royal Highness Prince Alwaleed
By LAU Staff
By LAU Staff
LAU bestowed upon His Excellency the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Humane Letters, on April 28, 2010. A crowd of members of Lebanon’s Council of Ministers, members of parliament, diplomatic corps, as well as faculty, students, staff and friends of LAU attended the event, held at the BIEL Pavillon hall in Beirut. LAU faculty from both the Beirut and Byblos campuses marched in caps and gowns in honor of the convocation ceremony. Their participation was a symbol of their pride and support for the university’s decision to bestow the degree upon the inspiring regional leader. Provost Dr. Abdallah Sfeir opened the ceremony by thanking the crowd gathered to honor the Qatari leader, “who has set an example to follow on how to bring people together to resolve their disputes through dialogue and the power of argument.” In his speech, LAU President Dr. Joseph Jabbra stated: “We are gathered here to celebrate and honor a great man who has always taken life at the flood levels. … He is endowed with a decisive personality, an innate ability for mediation, and unshakeable loyalty and commitment to the state of Qatar.” The Qatari leader expressed his appreciation to LAU for awarding him the honorary doctorate, in a speech in which he praised Lebanon’s role in knowledge production and the dissemination of culture through its institutions. He said, “You have proved to the world that knowledge is an effective tool in promoting communication and the holding of dialogues, conflict resolution and introduction of the concept of a harmonious national work.” At the end of the convocation, the fanfare offered by the internal security forces played the LAU Alma Mater, which was followed by the recessional of the faculty.
LAU bestowed an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Humane Letters upon His Royal Highness Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud , at LAU Beirut on June 24, during a ceremony that shed light on his years of charitable contributions to organizations and academic institutions around the world, including LAU. The honorary degree was awarded in recognition of HRH Prince Alwaleed’s major contributions “to understanding and dialogue among civilizations, among the religions of this globe, to helping the poor, and supporting noble causes and charities,” said Dr. Joseph Jabbra, LAU president, during his opening remarks. Upon receiving his honorary doctorate, HRH Prince Alwaleed said: “After 9/11, Islam and Arabs in general became under attack, so I decided to use the world of academia to try to bridge the gap between both communities — Islam and Christianity, West and East, and more importantly, between the United States and the Arab world.” At LAU, the Alwaleed Bin Talal Humanitarian Foundation established a partnership with the university’s Model United Nations (MUN) program in 2008, which led to the program’s “exponential growth,” according to Elie Samia, the MUN program director, who is also the Byblos Guidance Office director. Established in 2005, the program gathers thousands of high school students from across Lebanon for a series of training sessions, to teach them negotiation and conflict-resolution skills and prepare them for the annual MUN high school conference at LAU each spring. During the ceremony, current and former participants of the LAU MUN program spoke of their achievements and successes over the years, particularly during the international United Nations Association–USA Model UN Conference, held in New York from May 13–15, where five high schoolers from the program took home six awards.
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LAU Honors Leader of Qatar with Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters
VOLUME 12 | issue nº 3 | Fall 2010
Honorary Degrees