In His Own Words

Dear members of the LAU Family,

It is time to bid you all farewell. It is very difficult to leave a university and a family that I have so profoundly loved and so passionately admired. But it is time for me to go!

I am grateful for the privilege the Board of Trustees and you gave me to serve the LAU family for sixteen years. I appreciate the professional, caring, and trusting relationship you have accorded me, and I am proud of the respect I dearly hold in my heart for each and every one of you. Our beloved university is blessed to have such faithful alumni, superlative academic deans, a devoted President’s Cabinet, capable General Council, caring Deans of Students, remarkable faculty, impressive staff, terrific students, committed physicians, nurses, and medical administration and staff at both LAU Medical Center-Rizk Hospital and LAU Medical Center-St John’s Hospital, dedicated middle management and executive assistants, and a classy group of drivers, gardeners, maintenance technicians, and maids. Without you all, LAU would not have reached the standing and respect that it currently commands in Lebanon and beyond. I take this opportunity to salute and thank you all, and urge you to continue to be indefatigable in living and carrying out with joy the noble mission of our beloved institution.

Together we created a unique, even epic, spirit that embodied our mission to serve society by offering an excellent American education to the largest number of qualified young men and women in Lebanon. That unique spirit continues to animate all of us, becoming a magnet, which attracts Lebanese youth and is much coveted by our sister institutions.

You have all been the vibrant soul of our beloved University. Everywhere I have gone, I have spoken with pride about your passionate commitment to our sacred mission to serve. People remain in awe of your inspiring dedication to the education of Lebanon’s young people, who are our most precious gift and the only remaining hope for our beloved country.

Your profound commitment to the primacy of academics has been impressive, to scholarship, a source of pride, to the education of the whole person, edifying, and above all, to the well-being of each other as members of the LAU family, moving. You all have made LAU known by its daring acts, and celebrated for its caring actions.  

You all have worked hard to strengthen and promote the city of light that is LAU, on three coveted hills, Quraitem, Ashrafiye, and Byblos, with a major Headquarters in downtown Manhattan, New York, and a new hospital in Jounieh; and you did it together to the cheers of everyone.

I am leaving LAU with a great deal of love, and memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life. At the moment, my heart is filled with joy, my mind is set at ease, as I passed the presidential baton last evening, with full confidence, to Dr. Michel Mawad, Dean of the Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine, and President Elect. Since his election to the presidency of LAU, we have both pledged to work together to create a seamless transition. The trust between us has been exemplary, the commitment to LAU, passionate, and the willingness to serve, so rewarding. During this period of transition, Dr. Mawad has developed great communication channels with the faculty, staff, and students, impressive understanding with the physicians, nurses and medical staff, an admirable relationship with members of the President’s Cabinet and the Council of Deans, and excellent rapport with the Chairman and members of the Board of Trustees.  

I can assure you that on October 1, 2020, Dr. Mawad will hit the ground running, and that he will be unstoppable in taking LAU to the next level of excellence. With all due respect, I ask you all to support and work with him closely, to help him shepherd LAU to the shores of safety during these most difficult times. Just keep in mind that at every hazard and by every sacrifice, LAU must be protected as a shining educational star, and a haven of true democracy, hope, safety, and peace in this entire region.

I have one exhortation to make: I urge all of us to stand by LAU, and urge LAU to stand by all of us. I am confident that as one family working together and supporting each other we will weather all the storms that are currently raging in our beloved Lebanon.

Finally, let me tell myself what I have been telling graduates at commencement exercises for the past sixteen years: JGJ, wherever you are, wherever you go, whatever you do, don’t forget LAU. And I never will!

Thank you and love to you all.
JGJ