Firm Belief in the Power of Relief

The way LAU handled the crisis since its onset in 2019 is the stuff of which great case studies are made. Our response was an integrated mix of left- and right-hemisphere initiatives that covered all segments of our constituency: Students, faculty, staff, physicians, patients, nurses and of course families. The result was a level of solidarity that saw us through the crisis and set us on a steady course out of it.

Naturally, our first concern was our students and patients. To support students, our Board of Trustees authorized tapping our endowment to the tune of over $70 million for financial aid. External grants and fundraising initiatives allowed us to top up the figure to $104 million. Eighty-five percent of our 8,300 students were covered. By the same token, precious university and fundraising resources were used to support our patients, particularly cancer victims. We led the country in COVID-19 vaccination, online delivery and student support; we subsidized internet packages, patient care at our two medical centers, and leadership simulation initiatives to ensure that LAU students were at home in the emerging future ushering in a world of change beyond our wildest imagination.

Those of us who have spent a lifetime in higher education and healthcare know, however, that you can only take care of your students and patients in proportion to the support you extend to your faculty, staff, and physicians. This is your long arm that touches every aspect of your mission and allows you to deliver you products be they educational, healthcare-related or community-centered. You cannot impact what you cannot reach, and you can only reach as far as your faculty, staff, and physicians take you. A university is only as good as its human capital; a lesson we are all too familiar with.

Knowing, however, is not the same as doing. We grasped immediately the need to introduce relief measures to ease the burden afflicting the throbbing heart of the university: faculty and staff.

We had no time to lose as talent attrition started staring us in the face. We lost faculty, physicians, staff and nurses who were no longer able to cope with the pressure of the crisis.

A Talent Retention Fund fueled through a combination of university resources and fundraising was immediately launched, and it proved very helpful in decelerating the tide if not stemming it altogether. This was soon followed by a series of relief measures involving fresh cash percentages of salaries offered at a heavily subsidized rate. It first covered all full-time faculty and staff with floors and ceilings to make sure that what was available was spread as wide as possible with as many beneficiaries. Percentages paid in fresh cash kept on growing to mitigate the worsening crisis. They also covered school fees for dependents in fresh dollars with K-12 institutions starting their shift to fresh dollars. The relief package was recently expanded to a higher percentage and broadened to cover part-timers and adjuncts as well.

The effect was easy to observe. Talent attrition slowed down considerably, morale improved, and an air of cautious optimism started to be felt. These were the first pangs and it was clear that the budding optimism can either grow or be chocked depending on what happened next. The challenge was raised to a new level: a quest for sustainability through resource continuity.

This latter challenge is of a strategic nature and in facing it the university, supported by the Board of Trustees, made the decision to shift to dollars. This came after three years of havoc caused by operating through multiple currencies and a handful of exchange rates. It became obvious to us that the mismatch represented by getting paid in one currency and having almost all of our expenses in another is no recipe for maintaining, let alone improving, our status as a world-class university.

Switching to dollars, however, was done carefully, thoughtfully, and compassionately. It was linked to a major expansion of our financial aid policy where, on average, no student had to pay more than 30 cents to the dollar. With all these measures in place, the university would still incur an annual deficit of well over $15 million which will have to be covered through endowment withdrawals and fundraising. Through such measures, however, we are now looking forward to regaining our financial stability and our ability to plan, project, and operate within a far narrower margin of uncertainty.

Whatever resources and risks the relief package entails are well worth it for LAU. Our human capital is by far our most significant asset and none of our future plans is achievable without it. Enhancing our present lead in ranking, upgrading our research profile beyond its present advanced level, launching our industrial park, going beyond borders, attracting and retaining outstanding faculty, are strategic priorities at the core of our mission. This is our resolution for the new year and for every year hence as LAU celebrates its first centennial and braces for another century of excellence.

Together we prevail as one united family bound together in the pursuit of excellence in scholarship and healthcare. May the new year be a period of renewal and fulfillment for all of us in the service of our beloved LAU.