Friday, June 24, 2011

AUB: as a colonial racist instituion

I strongly believe that AUB is a colonial racist institution.  I believe that the curriculum, especially in the social sciences and the humanities, reflect the racist and colonial inclinations of founders (and present-day funders in US Congress).  But the best example of the colonial bent is in the extent to which the Board of Trustees exercise such unusual influence over its affairs.  Worse, the Board is based in NYC and it sees fit to issue dictates from afar to tell the natives (who are mostly led by the White Men on campus) how to behave and what to do and how to best contain anger and expressions by faculty and students.  Boards of US universities play a much different role, of course.   The solution? Since my student days, I have argued that it should be nationalized.  Yesterday, while in a London Taxi cab, I thought of the new name once it is nationalized.  It should be called The Palestinian University Of Beirut (or PUB) in order to pay tribute to all the Palestinians who have had positive influence on the campus since its founding.  I like the ring of the new name: PUB (it also offends Muslim religious conservatives--what else do I want?)