Nader sent me this: "I have followed the recent news about AUB and the posts on your blog and
articles in Al-Akhbar. I can't believe it took people this long to realize how
much arrogance and megalomania is wrapped up in this institution. Here are some
quick thoughts that come to mind:
1. They don't give a flying fuck about their alumni. They only care to contact us for one thing: rude and pushy requests for donations. I graduated 8 years ago and they still send my parents in Lebanon letters asking for money. (I was smart enough to not give them my contact info in the USA and to not join the AUB Alumni Association.) They emphasize what a 'privilege' for me it was to attend AUB, implying that AUB enabled me to enter some mythical fellowship that equips me with powerful contacts. Thanks for letting me into your exclusive club, you pompous pricks! How can they expect us to cough up money when they lack all transparency and are engulfed in the stench of scandal and corruption!
2. In their minds, they really are a misplaced Ivy League school - not a Lebanese university. I remember for instance Provost Peter Heath's response (back when I was a student there) when asked about the impossible parking situation: he said that AUB is a commuter campus just like Columbia, which doesn't have to provide or arrange for parking. (He conveniently ignores the fact that Columbia, unlike AUB, is served by a state-of-the-art public transit system. Also he could have mentioned any other urban university to make the same point, but they think they are just like Columbia.)
3. I don't remember a single AUB administrator, from President John Waterbury down to the lowest-ranking employee in College Hall, who wasn't conceited and disdainful of students. Waterbury was always arrogant and condescending and we rarely saw him - and on the few occasions he did walk around on campus he always had a guard with him. For me, it was a stark contrast when I saw Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee, a man who attends fraternity parties, will stand in line behind you at the hot dog line, always takes time to talk to students and parents, and delivers cookies to students studying late at night in the library during finals week.
4. I have kept in touch with a couple of faculty members who taught me and have since left AUB, and they independently told me that AUB essentially treated them like dirt.
5. The student body by and large isn't much better. I remember all the kids driving outrageously expensive cars, hanging out all day long on the oval or the steps of West Hall. There was always this air of unearned privilege, that this is a rich kids' university. (Those were mostly business majors.) Those kids turned their nose up at honest work (in contrast to so many kids I knew at Ohio State who worked in restaurants, convenience stores, landscaping businesses, etc. and were just grateful for getting a shot at an education.) I sometimes wonder where they are now.
How come it took people so long to notice these revolting institutionalized delusions of grandeur!
One last point on Donna Shalala: I can't believe none of the coverage dug this up about her, but this woman is not clean. I know you are not a college football fan, but you can easily find coverage of Miami's football program from the past year and its scandal. It was all over ESPN, Yahoo Sports, and Sports Illustrated.
Basically, Shalala and the university accepted large donations from this ponzi schemer who is now in jail. He was a booster for the Miami Hurricanes football program, and for most of the 2000's was providing impermissible benefits for players, including parties, procuring strippers, and in one case, paying for the abortion of a stripper who had been impregnated by a football player at one of his parties.
You can easily find more on this online if you care. Surely AUB could have found a deserving, non-Zionist, and non-scandal-engulfed university president to honor."
1. They don't give a flying fuck about their alumni. They only care to contact us for one thing: rude and pushy requests for donations. I graduated 8 years ago and they still send my parents in Lebanon letters asking for money. (I was smart enough to not give them my contact info in the USA and to not join the AUB Alumni Association.) They emphasize what a 'privilege' for me it was to attend AUB, implying that AUB enabled me to enter some mythical fellowship that equips me with powerful contacts. Thanks for letting me into your exclusive club, you pompous pricks! How can they expect us to cough up money when they lack all transparency and are engulfed in the stench of scandal and corruption!
2. In their minds, they really are a misplaced Ivy League school - not a Lebanese university. I remember for instance Provost Peter Heath's response (back when I was a student there) when asked about the impossible parking situation: he said that AUB is a commuter campus just like Columbia, which doesn't have to provide or arrange for parking. (He conveniently ignores the fact that Columbia, unlike AUB, is served by a state-of-the-art public transit system. Also he could have mentioned any other urban university to make the same point, but they think they are just like Columbia.)
3. I don't remember a single AUB administrator, from President John Waterbury down to the lowest-ranking employee in College Hall, who wasn't conceited and disdainful of students. Waterbury was always arrogant and condescending and we rarely saw him - and on the few occasions he did walk around on campus he always had a guard with him. For me, it was a stark contrast when I saw Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee, a man who attends fraternity parties, will stand in line behind you at the hot dog line, always takes time to talk to students and parents, and delivers cookies to students studying late at night in the library during finals week.
4. I have kept in touch with a couple of faculty members who taught me and have since left AUB, and they independently told me that AUB essentially treated them like dirt.
5. The student body by and large isn't much better. I remember all the kids driving outrageously expensive cars, hanging out all day long on the oval or the steps of West Hall. There was always this air of unearned privilege, that this is a rich kids' university. (Those were mostly business majors.) Those kids turned their nose up at honest work (in contrast to so many kids I knew at Ohio State who worked in restaurants, convenience stores, landscaping businesses, etc. and were just grateful for getting a shot at an education.) I sometimes wonder where they are now.
How come it took people so long to notice these revolting institutionalized delusions of grandeur!
One last point on Donna Shalala: I can't believe none of the coverage dug this up about her, but this woman is not clean. I know you are not a college football fan, but you can easily find coverage of Miami's football program from the past year and its scandal. It was all over ESPN, Yahoo Sports, and Sports Illustrated.
Basically, Shalala and the university accepted large donations from this ponzi schemer who is now in jail. He was a booster for the Miami Hurricanes football program, and for most of the 2000's was providing impermissible benefits for players, including parties, procuring strippers, and in one case, paying for the abortion of a stripper who had been impregnated by a football player at one of his parties.
You can easily find more on this online if you care. Surely AUB could have found a deserving, non-Zionist, and non-scandal-engulfed university president to honor."
