Beyond the Walls: The American University of Beirut Engages Its Communities

Institutions of higher education exist to prepare young men and women for useful and productive lives. Some aim even higher: to produce a new generation of thinkers and leaders who will in their professional lives contribute significatnly to the development of their countries, and to produce research that expands the realm of the known. Through these actions, institutions of higher education fulfill their social responsibility. This paper employs a wider definition of social responsibility, one that incorporates the notion of service, of working explicitly for the public good, and connecting to the people and the place in which we live and work.

This wider notion of social responsibility is at the heart of three new initiatives at the American University of Beirut (AUB): the Center for Civil Engagement and Community Service, founded in 2008, which aims to develop a culture of service and civic leadership at AUB; the Agricultural Research and Education Center (AREC), established in 1953 as the university's farm, which strengthened and deepened its commitment to sustainable rural livelihoods nd reach out to create an AUB campus in the Bekaa in 2008; and the Neighborhood Initiative, launched in 2007, which aims to link AUB faculty, students, and staff to the district of Beirut immediately surrounding the university through outreach, research, and partnerships. This paper highlights the challenges that must be addressed to enable these three young initiatives to develop to their maximum potential.