The Constant and the Changing in Our Hundred Years’ History

For a hundred years, LAU has been a stunning example of the co-existence of dogged continuity and rapid change. While the heart of the institution remained set on fundamental core values that defined our identity, its mind changed repeatedly in an accelerating and continuous improvement process. What is unique to LAU is that it evolved a culture that has successfully accommodated the diametrically opposite forces of rock-solid continuity and sweeping change in a harmonious institutional texture that can be seen in every aspect of our work. 

The core values that made LAU what it is are six, namely:

1. An unequivocal emphasis on pursuing the truth in any situation without blemish or compromise. This covers our belief system, professional practices, academic endeavors, and relationship to the outside world.

2. Absolute integrity at all levels, in all areas, and at all times. Integrity for us is of the essence and a defining feature of who we are and what we are.

3. Commitment to service to the best of our ability and in all that we do. Service to our students as individuals and to their families has always been the cornerstone of our educational philosophy. By the same token, service to the community(ies) and society(ies) of which we are an integral part, and more recently, service to patients whatever their situation or circumstances. This same spirit of service is what we inculcate in our students, our faculty, our alumni and all groups associated with LAU. Our financial aid policy is an accurate reflection of the premium we assign to service as a core value.

4. No less central to us as a core value is diversity. We exist on several campuses (Beirut, Byblos, and soon enough New York and later on in the MENA region), and our students come from all over Lebanon and all walks of life. They also come from more than 20 nationalities including most countries in the region. The same can be said of our faculty and staff. Diversity to us is a guarantor of pluralism, respect for others, harmony among people of goodwill, and cross-fertilization of visions and perspectives.

5. Diversity is the key to inclusion, which we also believe in and have always promoted since our earliest days. Our commitment to inclusion can be seen in our decision in the 1970s to become a co-ed institution. To the same degree, it can be seen in our concerted effort to make LAU accessible to the most underprivileged strata of society, in our genuine belief in Title IX and gender equality and, of course, in being at the service of Lebanese society in all its differences and colors.

6. The crowning core value that has been espoused by us over the years is empowerment. Our very reason for existence was women’s empowerment as early as 1835 and uninterruptedly thereafter. Empowerment of the underprivileged, empowerment of marginalized groups, and empowerment of talent in whatever form it was detected.

From Constant to Changing

Against this rock-solid base of core values, LAU has witnessed six key changes in its hundred years’ history.

Change Number 1:

From an All-Girls College to a Co-Ed College, to a Comprehensive University.

This was a change of scope and scale, a timely modification of philosophy, but not a change of essence or identity. The institution grew many-fold, became dual gender, started offering a much broader range of bachelor’s degrees, introduced master’s degrees, and made it to the top of the pecking order. All this was done with the six core values outlined above remaining intact and gaining wider acceptance.

Change Number 2:

From a Uni-Campus Institution to a Multi-Campus University.

The transition outlined in the previous point went hand-in-hand with a geographic expansion not experienced by any other university in the country. Major expansion took place on the Beirut campus (new library/school of business building, Gezairi building, and countless renovations). Even with that, we soon ran out of space and the Byblos campus was started in Blat in the 1990s. It is now a full-fledged campus throbbing with life and housing the schools of engineering, medicine, pharmacy, and nursing in addition to major parks of arts and sciences, and business. The old office in New York gave way to a new academic center a couple of blocks away from the UN. It is soon to become a fully empowered micro-campus offering global degrees under license from the New York State Education Department.

Change Number 3:

From a Simple Liberal Arts College Offering Arts and Sciences and Business to a Major Comprehensive University Leading in Professional Education.

What started as a small Liberal Arts college adorning the Mediterranean shore, grew over the years to a major university that is now at or near the top in rankings, and fully accredited institutionally and programmatically. This took place through the addition of schools of engineering, architecture and design, pharmacy, medicine, and nursing. In addition, of course, to two major medical centers in Beirut and Jounieh. What is noteworthy is that the institution managed all this expansion while keeping its Liberal Arts philosophy as the cornerstone of our approach to higher education. This is truly a feat that not too many universities can claim. From three female students in 1835, a handful in 1924, to 8,700 students today, what started as a drizzle in our early days has now grown into a torrent. LAU today has more than 8,700 students, 750+ faculty members, a similar number of staff members, scores of physicians, technicians and nurses. Our phenomenal growth in size, however, was a process of carefully planned growth synched to our absorptive capacity and assimilation ability. It turned the institution into a bigger and considerably more complex entity within the same values implanted by our founders and enriched by a rich heritage going back to our Presbyterian Church origins and equalitarian roots. 

Change Number 4:

From Non-Existence on the Healthcare Scene to a Major Provider.

LAU today at the age of one hundred is one of the country’s major providers of quality healthcare services through the LAU Medical Center–Rizk Hospital in Beirut and the LAU Medical Center–Saint John’s Hospital in Jounieh. We provide primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare services to thousands of patients. In so doing, we adhere to one of our major core values: service, whereby patients receive state-of-the-art medical care with compassion, and patient-centeredness. Already, patients at our two medical centers are often helped financially through fundraising campaigns that have yielded millions of dollars over the past few years. This important change brought with it a plethora of related changes including, as hinted earlier, establishing schools of medicine, pharmacy, and nursing, a degree program in nutrition, state-of-the-art simulation labs, specialized centers of excellence like the Comprehensive Stroke Center, the new emergency room, the model hybrid OR, and the Department of Human Genetics.

Change Number 5:

From a Teaching Institution to a Major Research Entity.

Prior to the turn of the century, LAU was mostly a teaching institution with relatively minor emphasis on research. This was due to several reasons, not the least of which was the near absence of graduate degrees. These were times that now seem long gone. The LAU of today has scores of degree programs including a broad range of graduate degrees, post-doctoral fellows, and a faculty body in the hundreds of highly talented professors educated at some of the finest universities. This has turned LAU into a major research hub that publishes more than most other institutions in Q1 journals, attracts major external research grants, and has a very active deanship for Graduate Studies and Research with a wide network of partnerships.

Change Number 6:

From Classical Academic Programs to Digital Education, Online Programs, Experiential Learning and Stackable Degrees in the Context of Market-Readiness and Innovative Education.

LAU did not waste the crisis that was visited upon Lebanon in 2019. Through a mix of resilience and planning, we turned the lean years into years of innovation, renewal, and future-proofing. LAU led the country in digital transformation and online delivery during the pandemic. We also introduced graduate online degrees and, whenever needed, adapted existing programs to open Artificial Intelligence applications, and commenced work on such digital programs as AI, machine learning, robotics and data analysis. This is indeed a huge change from where we were five years ago, but such is the pace of change at LAU. This account will not be complete without mentioning the center-spot importance LAU assigns to experiential learning and market readiness in all our programs. Our students get their specialized education with an applied hands-on flavor and a foretaste of the rapidly changing world of work. The recently established LAU Industrial Hub is a case in point.

Essence and Capacity: The Dialectic of Continuity and Change

With its core remaining intact and its capacity building snowballing with accelerating velocity, LAU gives a live example of an organic body that knows how to manage change and keep pace with innovation. The dialectic between what is constant and immutable, and that which is improvable and mutating is very difficult to manage. It requires the kind of institutional maturity we have gained over the years and embedded into our culture and even our operating systems.

As the dawn of our second century breaks, LAU looks with confidence to a future of sustainable educational and professional excellence commensurate with its glorious past.