May 28, 2024

One Hundred Years of Sustainability

As AY 2023–2024 draws to a close, I find it compelling to dedicate the May issue of the “Forum” to our centennial, underscoring in particular our extended record of survival, sustenance and sustainability. It is exceptionally gratifying that LAU is at its zenith during its 100th anniversary.

For 100 years, our institution derived from its mission enough drive to ride storms, conquer adversity, withstand crises, and always manage to emerge stronger and more radiant. In the process, hard lessons of experience were learned and integrated into our collective institutional intelligence.

The multi-pronged crisis since 2019 put us through the ultimate decisive test. For three long years, we had to grapple with an unprecedented level of uncertainty, existential risks that threatened our very continuity, and several challenges each of which could have been our undoing. There were bleak days indeed that tested our faith and our resolve. They now seem so far removed.

You, the LAU family, made it clear however since day one that yielding was not an option. Your steadfast collective decision was to bite the bullet and stay the course come what may. That you did and, in the process, elevated this university to new heights and yet unscaled peaks. It was a little miracle pulled by people of faith, perseverance, integrity and determination. This led to scoring unprecedented advances during the three crisis years covering key academic dimensions. There was a steady stream of innovation, as well as research, and ranking improvements. Starting with AY 2023–2024 the tide turned decisively in favor of full recovery and a major surge ahead as well. This collective sense of mission was the elixir that kept this institution whole.

What we went through was a severe test of faith and resolve and we scored high on both counts. This was made possible by our being collectively true to the ideals of the founders and the legacy of successive generations who gave generously of themselves for our beloved LAU to thrive and prosper.

You, the loyal supporters and believers in LAU’s mission, all deserve credit for making the LAU Centennial Year a remarkable year of recovery, rejuvenation and rejoicing. On our 100th anniversary, we put the crisis behind us and looked the future in the eye with tested confidence and proven agility. This is a blessing coveted by many institutions but achieved by very few.

AY 2023–2024, our centennial year was for us a year of: 

1. Restoration of a full measure of normalcy.

2. Conversion of the New York Academic Center into a micro campus; a differentiator not available to any other university in the region.

3. Introduction of a $2.5 million Intramural Research Fund to move LAU to the next level in discovery research and knowledge generation.

4. Marked improvement in our ranking position linked to a clear upsurge in our research output. This is a key factor in our positioning process.

5. Launching of new online graduate programs as part of our digital transformation.

6. Establishment of new research centers particularly the PMRC, which will widen our lead in the healthcare sector.

7. Launching of the Center for Policy Analysis, the Sustainability Office and the LAU Leadership Program. All three developments attest to LAU’s readiness for its second century of existence.

8. Kick-starting the Industrial Hub into a promising beginning, thereby scoring a major breakthrough in our links to industry.

9. Introducing equitable and egalitarian measures affecting all levels of LAU academic and non-academic employees. The entire LAU family felt the positive impact.

10. Making significant strides toward expanding our land-locked Beirut campus.

11. Enjoying an increase in undergraduate enrollment that makes us unique in Lebanon.

12. Mounting a lively and animated centennial celebrations program.

Perhaps, however, our most singular achievement is keeping the youth and vigor of our earlier years as we matured and turned into a major comprehensive university. LAU was quick to grasp how radically different the future is going to be. Technology, political uncertainty, generational changes, prevalence of knowledge and cyclical economies, and resource scarcity of all sorts, are all indicators as to how rough the terrain that lies ahead is likely to be. Millions of jobs will vanish to be replaced by technology or techno-intensive skillsets. Market readiness for students is going to become the key challenge for students and universities, and future-proofing is likely to become the most important skill for a leading university. 

Our centennial year comes with good tidings as we surge ahead after having defeated the crisis and demonstrated that we are true to our motto of never yielding. It is incumbent upon all of us to see LAU through to a great first step toward a new century. 

The fact that LAU is as ready for the future as an academic institution can in no way diminish the level of vigilance expected of us in the days and years ahead. The challenges will be many, and I would like to address a few of them: 

• The challenge of resource sustainability given the spiraling cost of quality higher education and our need to generate alternative revenue streams through fundraising and external grants.
  
• The challenge of sustained and innovative high performance in research, teaching and service in an age of intense competition, accelerating globalization, and stressful times afflicting many universities.
  
• The impact of new invasive technologies, such as open AI, which will create opportunities and limitations we have yet to fully comprehend. It will bring about radical changes we cannot fully fathom at this point, but that we have to be fully ready for.
  
• The changing relationship with industry, which will become far more mutually invasive and will require new adjustments on our part. We have to find ingenious ways to engage industry to the fullest while safeguarding LAU’s integrity and independence.
  
• The ever-present challenge of managing change and innovation, including the courage to discard what no longer works and embrace new ways outside our comfort zone. Institutional decline begins when we fail to keep pace with accelerating change, while institutional greatness is invariably linked with being one step ahead. This requires knowledge of which way to go, courage to change course, and sober assessment to always know our position and calibrate our direction and pace.
  

Most of you, I hope, will be around to see our beloved LAU leave its dent on the 21st century as remarkably and as strongly as it did on the 20th. Thank you for a great year, which can only foreshadow many more to come.