Message from the Provost

I am deeply honored to be serving the Lebanese American University in the capacity of provost and chief academic officer, the culmination of a long career at my home institution as faculty member, chair of various departments and lately dean of the School of Engineering.

Taking into account LAU’s history, its current status and strategic planning process, my vision will focus on three main areas: pedagogy and a liberal arts education; faculty recruitment, retention, promotion and renewal; and research.

With the help of the Council of Deans, I aim to capitalize on LAU’s standing as a regional leader in the liberal arts by developing a global liberal arts-based curriculum that supports global citizenship education.  Keeping up with new trends and fast changes in higher education, we will seek to infuse our courses with active and experiential learning and leverage the use of technology in the classroom.

It is also vital that we boost our faculty’s scholarly productivity and research funding, which in turn will increase visibility for the university. This will entail establishing a vibrant research environment through faculty involvement in graduate teaching and research, and the expansion of graduate programs into multidisciplinary areas.

The emphasis on learning, constituency engagement, faculty participation in the shared governance process, and continuous improvement will, ultimately, drive institutional cultural change.

In these endeavors, the provost’s office will, at all times, serve and support the faculty, reinforcing a culture of excellence, respect, and open communication.

Our raison d’être as an academic institution is simple. It is about making the world a better place through education, research, and outreach and injecting it with a much-needed new spirit at a time when divisions are thriving. What will differentiate us from other universities is how well we implement our strategy, how we benefit our students and ensure the sustainability of what they take away from the experience.

Dr. George E. Nasr
Provost
Lebanese American University