Abstract
Universities exist to prepare young men and women for useful and productive lives. Many also aim to produce thinkers and leaders who will embody social responsibility by devoting all or a part of their professional lives to the public good. Social responsibility is at the heart of two new civic engagement initiatives at the American University of Beirut (AUB): The Center for Civil Engagement and Community Service, located in the Office of the Provost of AUB and founded in spring 2008; and The Neighborhood Initiative, located in the Office of the President and launched formally in autumn 2007. This chapter uses the challenges facing these young initiatives to raise broader questions about the civic engagement of universities, particularly in the Arab World, which is in the throes of an unprecedented popular uprising against the corrupt, unjust, and undemocratic status quo. While many of the challenges identified here will be familiar to institutions in other settings, the experience of a university located in a place of war and conflict puts questions about the fundamental values underlying this work into stark relief.
Graduates will be individuals committed to creative and critical thinking, lifelong learning, personal integrity and civic responsibility, and leadership.
(American University of Beirut 2011)
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© 2012 Lorraine McIlrath, Ann Lyons, and Ronaldo Munck
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Myntti, C., Mabsout, M., Zurayk, R. (2012). Through Thick and Thin: The American University of Beirut Engages Its Communities. In: McIlrath, L., Lyons, A., Munck, R. (eds) Higher Education and Civic Engagement. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137074829_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137074829_13
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