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vol. Xlii, no. 25 | MondAy, MAy 24, 2010 | The IndependenT STudenT PublicaTion Since 1949

USFC strikes deal with administration

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uSFC Sucker-punches Student Body 2

Editorial

What happened this week?...

EditorialEditorial

Mohamad Yahia Hamade Editor-in-Chief

the past week’s events were revolutionary, to say the least. We stood together, united in our mission to over-throw oppression, and we made our voices heard. as we were marching towards Col-lege Hall, picket signs and hopes in hand, we believed that the uSFC had our best interest at heart. However, in light of recent revelations, it has become evident that the uSFC has been work-ing in parallel, with a com-mittee that they had assem-bled to represent them on the grounds as the leaders of this movement, and to come up with day-to-day action plans regarding the movement that the students created. the uSFC has despoiled and mitigated every effort and hope that we, students held in our optimistic hands. this veiled, newly formed com-mittee went behind the stu-dent body’s back and present-ed a proposal to the Provost, which entails nothing that the committee had agreed upon or had even been in-formed of. the said proposal included many suggestions and requests, most of which are improbable and unreal-istic. What pains me most is not the betrayal of the uSFC against the students, but the flimsy, decrepit attempts be-hind the construction of this proposal, which could easily be outdone by an MuN stu-

dent’s poorly written resolu-tion. However, i am not here to analyze the less-than-me-diocre English skills of the uSFC, but to defend the promise made to the stu-dents who supported this movement. one of my favorite proposed ideas is that of a selection committee, headed by uSFC members, which would be responsible for picking and choosing the students who would receive financial aid. Yet, how could it be a fair process if the uSFC itself is selected based on politi-cal affiliation and manifes-to, instead of character and kahunas? Moreover, it sug-gests that “auB [will] cov-er the extra cost of the addi-tional three credits for every student eligible for financial aid, over and above the reg-ular financial aid amount.” Now, i may be slow to com-prehend, but how would this help the original cause? the main reason behind our pro-test is the collective desire to not pay an additional $3000 for our education, regardless of whether or not we are re-ceiving financial aid. This would mean that AUB finan-cial aid will cover the 3 extra credits, but you would still have to pay for the other 12, which will be more expen-sive anyway. i mean, what does that save me, like, $6 to buy a hotdog with?Our “fearsome” leader, Elias Ghanem, sold us out by working hand-in-hand with the administration on postponing and prettifying the policy, without actually changing anything about it. all this was done without the approval or knowledge of the official committee, that was hand-selected by Ghanem himself, which he ended up bamboozling anyway. to top things off, our “leader” had the nerve to publicly state that he did nothing wrong and stands up for every step he took, no matter how det-rimental it could be to our

uSFC Sucker-punches Student Body

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cause. How are we supposed to trust our appointed leaders if they go about deciding our future without even listening to us and marginalizing other committee members and oth-er appointed leaders of this movement? this form of sur-render will not help our mis-sion, but hinder it, because it does not suggest any chang-es, only minor modifications to completely unrelated is-sues. What’s improved finan-cial aid selection going to do for those who do not receive their need-based support? Speaking in economic terms, this policy will cause an over-flow of financial aid applica-tions, which will, in turn, cost AUB more than it will profit from the increased fees. So, to be honest, i don’t get why this policy is being enforced in the first place. As stu-dents, we have a responsibil-ity to succeed in our academ-ic journeys, which includes stuff like occasionally show-ing up to class, paying some attention, and the rare case of actually studying. What this responsibility does not include is working our butts off to pay for our education, which should be rather af-fordable. Just like one of our slogans said, “education is a right, not a luxury.” We’re paying to learn here, not buy-ing a Bentley. We have much to discuss with university officials and student representatives, and we thought that we had made our opinions clear in last week’s demonstration. We realize that this is a cor-porate decision which can-not simply be revoked, but that still doesn’t change the fact that it was done with-out the students’ knowledge or consent. Why did every-one neglect to acknowledge us when this policy was cre-ated, as if we weren’t going to be impacted by its results? Who’s paying? We are. Who’s suffering? We will be.

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oPiNioN

to quote Britney Spears, “there’s only two types of peo-ple in the world, the ones that entertain and the ones that observe.” Disregarding the allegedly vapid medium and context across which these words were carried, they do have some meaning.and last thursday, this meaning hit me like a truck. actually, it was a truck. and to be more specific, I hit it!Standing there, in the middle of the road, exchanging infor-mation with the truck driver, i could not help but notice ev-eryone who was noticing me. rather than simply going on their way, everyone had to ask about what happened, stare, and pass by in slow-motion.But, everyone does this. Ev-eryone likes a spectacle, and that is exactly what i had be-

come, for that brief time at least. the thing is, though, that the people who are spectacles be-come that in the eyes of the spectators, and only that. in other words, to them they are no longer people, but just something to look at.Empathy/sympathy seems to be a thing of the past, and i guess that has to do with the culture we seem to have col-lectively adopted.We currently live in a world where we are bombarded with entertainment oppor-tunities, so much so, that we have grown to acquaint al-most everything that does not enter our lives and af-fect our immediate realm as such.a person protesting at Job Fair is not only a person protesting at Job Fair, but something to look at and be entertained by, albeit tempo-rarily. On the flip side, a per-son making an utter fool out of themselves is not that, but again something to stare and laugh at.More so than ever, we objec-tify one another. this can’t be good.

to quoteBritney Spears

timmy MalkounStaff Writer

Mikhael Naime, in his short story titled the Cuckoo Clock elegantly demonstrates a si-lent yet common tragedy of mankind. He writes, and i quote in arabic to English translation, “the earth sees no shame in culturing its flowers [alongside] its thorns and its wheat grains [along-side] its spoiled seeds, for all that it encloses is pure. People however, ashamed by their thorns and spoiled seeds try with all their might to suffo-cate them when in the end, it is truly them who are suffo-cated.” Up until last week, I believed that i had so far led a role model lifestyle, unsoiled by the filth of inflated pride, and hence, one could only imagine just how disappoint-ing it was for me to discover that a contrary truth lay hid-den within the bounds of my heart. all along, it seems i

was unconsciously a victim of the very poison i was dread-ing, diseased with the sick-ness i so desperately tried to escape. like a prey unto my-self, i felt consumed by my own arrogance and this “par-adigm self,” which had tak-en me such time and mindful concern in building, instant-ly crumbled before my eyes.and to think, that all this time i was humbled by igno-rance, balderdash! Where is the humbleness in fear-ing one’s vacancy of knowl-edge, in securely concealing his ignorance the way one does precious gems and jew-els? Where is the shame in being oneself, in unmasking one’s experience and inexpe-rience alike? Foolishly, i had tried to camouflage my ig-norance, as if somehow and ironically, by some awesome stroke of luck, it would be an open door way into my prun-ing. Where is the sense in that i ask you? Now i stand before you in guilt, but more importantly, i stand correct-ed, cured from the bewitched spell of pseudo-modesty, that devilishly wounding raw yolk of pride. For what it’s worth, i’m glad to have discovered it at long last. So my question to you is, have you too by any

Confessions of a (Self) drunkardrami diabStaff Writer

chance been held captive by your fear of ignorance? When was the last time you felt the resistance of your ego? For how long has your heart of life been leached of its open-minded ignorance, the type which remains unabashed by its own symptoms?there is nothing wrong with weaknesses; in fact, there is nothing better, weakness-es define our benchmarks for self-improvement. like ju-venile crustaceans buried beneath our shells, immo-bilized for the most part by this heavy burden of self. let us prepare ourselves, for the seasons of molting approach high tide, that we may cast away this artificial self and allow time for some earnest personality reform. So i say to you all, let us do away with ignorance by doing away with its root cause, the fear of ig-norance, else a day will come when we will feel no smart-er than broomsticks, no more astute than baboons on hal-lucinogens and not for lack of knowledge mind you, but for lack of proper judgment of what strengthens and what weakens us. Nay, we are no saints of knowledge, only perfectly normal humans - we are only human.

redundecy is bad.

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CaMPuS NEWSMonday: the formation of the Student resistance Commit-teeFouad BadaouiStaff Writer

auditorium a wit-nessed a rather heat-ed exchange of ideas

Monday, May 17 at 6:00pm, during the uSFC’s meeting to discuss the student body’s reaction to what is being la-beled as “the largest tuition increase in AUB history” (Elias Ghanem, VP uSFC). the audience was unusual-ly diverse as representatives from most faculties, clubs, societies and political parties attended and proposed their ideas in all honesty, free from any censorial restraints.Ghanem and uSFC treasur-er Yahya oueini explained the administration’s inten-tions and revealed that one of Ghanem’s emails calling for a general class boycott had not been sent despite approv-al from the dean of Students’ Office (the email was instead sent out the next morning at 12:45am). oueini stated

that the uSFC was “not con-vinced” by the administra-tion’s arguments as to why this sudden change is neces-sary and many students ex-pressed similar dismay and disappointment. Ghanem expressed his disapproval of the idea that students should be discriminated against based on their financial sta-tus in accordance with the new policy and said that this meeting’s purpose is to hear the student body’s opinions and to discuss an appropri-ate mode of action.Several representatives of various political affiliations expressed their eagerness to set aside all differences and to attempt to exhibit a united, organized student front, de-void of any violence or abuse. others noted that the boycott could be costly to many stu-dents, especially with the fi-nals approaching and the

risk of some not being able to graduate as a consequence. As the flow of ideas became overwhelming and progress had slowed down, it was de-cided that only club and SrC presidents as well as polit-ical representatives would meet in room 310 (West Hall) in order to elect a 12 member committee to help legislate, implement and organize the uSFC’s decisions concerning the matter.after much deliberation, the committee had finally been elected and the initial brou-haha of roughly 120 students died down as 20 students re-mained in room 310 (these included the committee as well as outlook and uSFC members). The first matter at hand was to decide wheth-er or not the administration’s town meeting to be held on tuesday, May 18 would be boycotted. The first priori-

ty was to expose the student body as perfectly united and organized and some felt that the administration had al-ready revoked its chance to officially present the 15 cred-it policy. Nonetheless, the committee decided that at-tending the meeting would only strengthen its position since it would have the added argument of having accepted even the very last proposal of diplomacy before the boycott. in light of these facts, the committee decided to attend the town meeting as long as all student questions would be channeled by three pre-selected speakers who would each address, respectively, the justifiability/transparen-cy of the policy, its financial aspects and the united stu-dents’ opinion to revoke it.Shirts and flyers promoting the class boycott will also be distributed starting tues-

day. on Wednesday morning, groups of students scattered around tactical positions on campus will continuously ral-ly others until, at 11:30am, all congregations will merge on Main Gate, which will be the committee and the uS-FC’s base of operations dur-ing the boycott. although the strike may very well have to last several days, it has been decided that outdoors will not be tampered with and will take place normal-ly. the 20 students left room 310 spent yet satisfied, as each rushed to make his/her arrangements for the com-ing days. Suffice it to say the following week will unlikely pass quietly and promises to be an eventful test of the will-power of auB students.

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Tuesday: “This institution is not the rich”-VP for Finance kenneyFouad BadaouiStaff Writer

tuesday, May 18, 2010 saw an escalation in tensions between

student representatives and auB administration in charge of implementing the 15 credit policy for new students. a secret budget-ing task force meeting was crashed and an audience of organized students under the guidance of the uSFC, Clubs and Societies of auB attended the town meeting at 4:00pm.When outlook staff called at 2:45pm to make an appoint-ment with Provost ahmad dallal, his secretary on the line expressed candid sur-prise due to the fact that out-look actually was aware of the budgeting meeting. a few minutes later, as the task force was just starting their meeting in the Saab Medical library building, they were caught unaware by a group of four students that includ-ed uSFC treasurer Yahya oueini and an outlook staff writer. VP for Finance Ste-phen kenney was stand-ing in the middle of a semi-circle of tables as the group walked in and distributed pamphlets and outlook is-sues that clearly expressed the student body’s outrage at the new policy. the staff writer announced to the task force that the newspaper was sacrificing its impartiality

for the sake of a show of unity among all students.in Bathish at 4:00pm, dean of Student affairs Maroun kisirwani had made sure ev-ery member of the audience had received a paper indi-cating auB’s current bud-get numbers and estimates for the 15 credit policy. kisir-wani told the audience that they were all here in the spir-it of dialogue and hoped ev-eryone could keep a civilized nature. President Peter dor-man expressed his gladness in having students attend the town meeting and ex-plained that universities are complex and include numer-ous constituencies including staff, parents, donors and fu-ture employees.VP for Finance kenney then started explaining the poli-cy. the planning has start-ed in october 2008 for 2 main reasons: the administra-tion wished to make auB more accessible to students from all social backgrounds through improved financial aid and loans and the admin-istration intended to make students take the registra-tion process more seriously, as withdrawals from cours-es would mean wasting the money paid for those credits. in February 2010, a survey had been filled by students on campus to measure the students’ aspiration for more

abundant loans and finan-cial aid. What followed were diagrams showing auB’s in-come (47% came from auB-MC patients and 41% from tuitions) and expenses (53% for salaries, 24% went to maintenance and 10% to the administration). kenney said he expects about 2500 stu-dents to take up to 25% loans on their tuitions per year and that, by 2012, $12 million would be set aside for loans. He explained that the annu-al increase (after the policy implementation) would not exceed 4% in order to pro-vide “stability for students and parents.” Finally, he ex-pressed his discontent with losing 20% of his students (kenney also teaches at auB) by the withdrawal deadline and that “this institution is not for the rich, it’s for all stu-dents who have access to it.” it should be noted that ken-ney’s presentation included PowerPoint and was actual-ly much more technical than stated in this article and sev-eral audience members said they were confused and frus-trated by all the numbers ap-pearing on screen and had trouble following the chro-nology of ideas.Jeffrey karam, the elected spokesperson for the Student Committee, expressed con-cern over the “”irreversible damage” the 15 drecit policy

could cause to the auB com-munity and said it was still unclear how it would make Financial aid more acces-sible. His opinion is that it would make more financial sense to stick to the 12 cred-it policy: “we want the cancel-lation of this policy and will fight to see that happen.” He stated that the policy has no real justification and that it will push away auB’s suss-rounding community, mak-ing it an isolated island, which is not a good thing in the Middle East. His rebuttal consisted mainly of numbers as well and he gave several examples of the administra-tion not keeping up with its own deadlines and not reach-ing previously set finan-cial goals throughout recent years. karam also addressed Provost ahmda dallal per-sonally, telling him he must be aware of the negative ef-fects of socioeconomically dis-criminating among students and asked him to “think of our kids.” after a few remarks shared by members of the audience, dallal did admit that the Fi-nancial aid process is not flawless and that there is po-tential room for corruption, but no evidence. He also ad-mitted that more transpar-ency is needed. From the au-dience, Ziad Bouassi of the Communication Club asked

dallal and kenney if what they want out of auB is an institution that only accepts “the filthy rich and the poor genius.” Computer and Com-munications Enginnering student izzat El-Hajj noted that, as far as he’s concerned, it’s just a “larger discount for a larger price.” Sociology and anthropology graduate stu-dent anna reumert asked dallal about the possibility of a “green policy” in AUB in or-der to cut down on useless en-ergy cost.later that evening, in West Hall room 310, the commit-tee met a second time and it was officially decided that they would meet the next day (Wednesday, May 19) at 7:oopm in front of West Hall to start the first day of pro-tests. Several groups, each with a team leader wear-ing a black riP t-shirt, would spread out on campus and campaign near the main buildings that hold classes and at the gates. also, a dem-onstration group would form in front of Bechtel at 9:00am when dorman would be giv-ing a conference there. Final-ly, it was agreed that uSFC VP Elias Ghanem would speak to those assembled at West Hall at noon.

CaMPuS NEWS

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CaMPuS NEWS

the West Hall area saw unusual commotion at 7:00am on Wednesday,

May 19 as the first day of the auB class boycott took off. uSFC VP Elias Ghanem bus-ied about as members of the student committee and uSFC distributed t-shirts, stick-ers, flyers and instructions to the many teams that would have to spend the day con-vincing their fellow students to participate in the boycott. all members of the commit-tee had stressed repeatedly that the protest was non vio-lent and that they did not in-tend to make enemies of the Protection Office. The main event of the day (the one for which the media was expect-ed to show up) was the gath-ering at Main Gate at noon. the different teams were placed at tactical positions around campus: oSB, Bech-tel, FHS, Green oval, lower Campus, Main Gate, Penrose Gate and Medical Gate. the team leaders who wore black t-shirts would be in charge of shifts rotations and the ap-plication of a strictly non vi-olent demonstration.By 7:30pm, they had all reached their respective plac-es and had begun campaign-ing in order to convince other students not to go to class, to join them, and to eventually walk with them to converge with all other teams at Main Gate at noon. throughout the day, two megaphones, one be-longing to the uSFC, the oth-er supplied by the Palestin-ian Cultural Club, circulated around campus, constantly used for chants, slogans and instructions. dean of Student affairs Marun kisirwani had no comment other than “be fair” and VP for Human Re-sources radulski, sitting qui-etly in the zoo area smoking his pipe, reminisced:”this brings him back to my stu-dent days.” He also added that the protest as a form of activism was beneficial to the students if maintained as peaceful.at 9:00am, President Peter

Wednesday: “Be Fair”- Dean of Student Affairs KisirwaniFouad BadouiStaff Writer

to chant “shame on you.” It then made its way back to Main Gate, stayed there for a while and finally descended to oSB, where a few classes were still being held.in room 310 of West Hall that very same evening, the com-mittee members criticized themselves strongly for the lack of organization among t-shirt holders and for the lengthy march that forced the crowd’s numbers to final-ly dwindle to about 400. they condoned the door blocking that took place in some build-ings but congratulated them-selves nonetheless for the impressive turnout and the Provost’s speech, saying that the administration is now surprised and a bit hesitant while they actually listened to dallal’s speech.

dorman was met in front of Bechtel by many students shouting “no way we won’t pay” accompanied by a mega-phone. Nicely was the most inflamed area in the morn-ing as a group held hand-made banners and chant-ed loudly, discouraging most from entering the building (some also wore masks). Peo-ple entering the campus from the Bliss Street gates (Medi-cal, Main and Penrose) were given flyers and the occasion-al megaphone appeared and energized the present activ-ists.Finally, at 12:00pm, the area between Main Gate and Col-lege Hall filled to the brim with what was estimated to be anything between 1500 to 200 students. the sheer strength of the crowd made real organization impossi-ble, but fortunately, the typi-cal fears that come with large gatherings (flash mobs, tram-pling) never occurred and, al-though not many could hear Ghanem’s press release from the few speakers provided by the Office of Student Af-fairs, all seemed to know in-stinctively when to applaud and when to boo. Ghanem in-formed the media of what the students already knew: the administration’s decision to implement an unexpected policy and the students’ reac-tion. at some point, the podi-um was moved to the middle of the Main Gate stairs and Ghanem gave his speech, in-viting the administration to revoke the policy for the sake of the students. Following that, in an act that surprised most present, Provost ah-mad dallal himself made his way to the podium, told the students he respected their resilience and asked for new discussions. a march was then announced and, with the ushering efforts of riP t-shirt wearing students, the bulk of the crowd moved to the Green oval, encircled it clockwise and continued down to the Marquand House where it stopped for a while

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CaMPuS NEWS

in the evening of Wednes-day, May 19, the committee feared that, despite the large number of students that showed up the previous day, the administration may not have been inconvenienced enough. But there were also those who were concerned about the negative connota-tions associated with “non violent escalation.” As Jef-frey karam noted, the uSFC would be held liable and could be thrown in jail if any serious damage or injuries should happen. Some mem-bers complained about the attitude of protesters armed with frying pans and sticks. according to them, this was not the message the uSFC, Clubs and Societies of auB wanted to send. others, on the other hand, praised the frying pan wielders, explain-ing that, before their appear-ance, the ambiance wasn’t sparked enough and that without them, the turnout at 12:00om would have been far less impressive. the Sec-ular Club was praised for its exemplary and unique moti-vation and input, but it was also asked to tone it down a bit as most saw their attitude

Thursday: “You shall all pay for this”- Provost Ahmad DallalFouad BadouiStaff Writer

tial incident was the sur-rounding of Shalak and dean of Student affairs Marun ki-sirwani by protesters. it was unclear whether the protest-ers thought they were acting under the uSFC, Clubs and Societies’ instructions or not but Ghanem condemned the activity, stating that the only 2 administration members on the students’ side were Shalak and kisirwani. What followed was the dissociation of the Palestinian Cultur-al Club from the committee, although not all students in-volved in this incident were from the PCC.

room order to empty it. this provided a sharp contrast to Wednesday’s classrooms (a CVSP lecture in Bathish was cancelled that day be-cause the only ones to show up were the lecturer and two students).Escalations continued in front of issam Fares audi-torium after the Provost’s meeting with faculty mem-bers. Shortly before 5:00pm, President Peter dorman exited and was instantly greeted with a contingent of protesters that launched un-ending salvos of “shame on you” even as he crossed cars in the street on his way to the Medical Gate. Shortly after this incident, Shalak, who was meeting with a member of the police force outside as-sembly Hall, expressed his deep disgust with the new tactics:”Shame on us? Shame on you!” Shalak said he could not believe that this behavior was that of tomorrow’s lead-ers but that they would not go after students who had glued shut Nicely doors or started fire alarms, although it would not be difficult to ap-prehend them.another rather consequen-

dents was the chant “Hell no, we won’t go.” Then Pro-vost ahmad dallal appeared and tried to enter the build-ing, but with great difficulty. at this point, he gave up and blamed the students for vio-lating others’ rights and im-posing themselves. then he announced:”You will all pay for this” and “shame on you.” in response to this, uSFC VP Elias Ghanem raised his megaphone and revealed in a resounding voice to all those present that the Provost had officially threatened them.all around campus, groups of students sat down outside gates to buildings that held classes. this raised tensions greatly not just between stu-dents and faculty/securi-ty, but also among students. Many uninvolved students felt that they were being forced into boycotting their classes, as opposed to the pre-vious day’s policy of “choice, not force.” In addition, sever-al professors expressed that their support for the cause and their disapproval of the sit-ins simultaneously. Some isolated incidents took place where several t-shirt hold-ers actually entered a class

to be slightly more aggressive than was desired. another is-sue would have been the fac-ulty’s support. it was great-est in FEa, where it seems 75% of professors had can-celled their classes in sup-port of the protest and many wondered what their reac-tion would be to escalation, violent or not. It was final-ly decided that civil disobedi-ence would be adopted start-ing thursday, May 20, that a sleep in under College Hall would be proposed for the following night and that the Faculty would be appealed to in an email from the uSFC. at 7:00pm on West Hall, for the second time, active stu-dents met. this time, names were called on a list and the organization was notice-ably better. a group of prob-ably 50 students moved to College Hall and sat down around the door, effective-ly blocking it for anyone who did not intend to step on stu-dents. immediately, Head of the Protection Office Saadal-lah Shalak appeared and or-dered the students to clear the area as he himself at-tempted to push a student aside. the reply from the stu-

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Friday: “I hope we can work together in the future”- Provost dallal

as the committee met the evening of thurs-day, May 20, the at-

mosphere was tense, nega-tive and there was a great lack of trust among those present. Nevertheless, all had decided that, for the sake of the protest, they should clear the air as soon as pos-sible and get back to work. Several members felt the committee’s popularity had taken a blow and that some-thing different needed to be done if Friday was going to be the last day of protests. therefore, the boycott was cancelled. it was admitted that many students did not have the proper motivation and that it was now too late to give it to them. the focus will

instead be College Hall: with the media present, a massive sit-in to block all exits of the building should be enough to shake the administration enough until the town meet-ing at 3:00pm that the uSFC had called for.on Friday, t-shirt wearers were circulating on campus but no one was sitting at the entrance of any building. in-stead, the media was contact-ed in the morning and told about the blocking of College Hall. at around 11:00am, the phones of President dorman, Provost dallal and VP for Fi-nance keney as well as their secretaries (all on the 5th floor) were ringing incessant-ly. Students from 2 areas on

campus kept calling until Se-curity finally shut down the operation. By then, the main entrance to the building was blocked by students form-ing a sit-in larger even than the one of thursday morning as megaphones blared and chants went on. later the registrar, Cashier and a tun-nel that leads into the build-ing were also blocked, to the discontent of both employ-ees and students who had urgent business in College Hall. they were all told the same thing: no one goes in or out. this went on, despite very high tension between students and conflicting in-terests even among commit-tee members. luckily, the

blockade of College Hall end-ed shortly before Shalak an-nounced to outlook that the police had been asked to in-tervene.it ended in Bathish, with the Provost accepting to seriously look into the uSFC’s proposal to delay the implication of the 15 drecit policy by one year in the course of whice a commit-tee comprising of uSFC rep-resentatives and consult-ing firms would convene. In this way, the number crunch-ing would be objective, justi-fiable and transparent to all and the student body would have a year to propose alter-natives. Yet a large portion of protesters were far from satisfied with the consensus, calling the uSFC backstab-

bing hypocrites for making a compromise with the ad-ministration. Supporters of the proposal said that it’s the best the students could hope for in such short notice. the fact of the matter is, the or-igin of the proposal is still shrouded in mystery and the real circumstances and im-plementers have yet to be re-vieled. Although the final at-mosphere in Bathish was one of confrontation, the boycott and protest had both ended and all await the Provost’s approval or revoking of the proposal on Monday.

CaMPuS NEWS

Fouad BadouiStaff Writer

8

CaMPuS NEWSWhy We Failed

it saddens me to see what was promising to be the great-est student protest move-ment become a major failure and even, dare i say, a farce. i was, as usual, following what was happening in auB over the past week very close-ly, receiving all sort of infor-mation on the way, whether from the side of students or the administration. this al-lows me to assertively claim that the failure of this pro-test movement can in no way be placed on the shoulders of any single individual or any single group for that matter. i will start by accusing the administration of failing to communicate to the stu-dents the plan to adopt this policy before it was passed by the Board of trustees. this would not have necessarily quelled students’ complaints about the policy, but i think that publicizing this infor-mation beforehand might have led to a more relaxed and thought of dialogue to take place between the stu-dents and the administra-tion. Secondly, there clear-ly was mismanagement at the level of transmitting the message since hardly anyone knew the details of the poli-cy before Wednesday’s sit-in. Most students at that point believed that they were di-rectly affected by the said policy (and i was personal-ly asking around to check this), which clearly reflect-ed in student participation in

the so-called escalation of the protest; the administration could have done a much bet-ter job at spreading the mes-sage, knowing full well that a majority of students do not check their emails and do not bother to read the news on the auB’s website. Students also contributed the major share in failing the protest. the general student population acted impulsive-ly on many occasions, espe-cially considering how very few of them were really inter-ested in discovering what the problem was all about. Many of them thought of the pro-test as a means to skip class or harass their teachers, and a large number of students did not show up on thursday, comparing the strike to a hol-iday where the goal is simply not to hold classes. others showed a blatant disrespect towards the issue being dis-cussed, as proven by the slo-gans they held on Wednes-day’s sit-in including one calling for the death of amer-ica and another declaring Ji-had on the 15 credit policy! Finally, the organizers of this strike who happen to be representing all political fac-tions, parties, and groups in auB proved, once again, that it was never about the stu-dents but rather about stu-dent elections next year. While i do not want to belit-tle the role of some of these students who were truly in-volved and honestly believed

in what they called “their cause”, they were simply dragged into the political bat-tlefield of student politics, no matter what the excuses or the reasons for that are. Still, failure did not only show its ugly face at that level. Even when considering the actu-al organization of the strike, one cannot but wonder about the unprofessionalism and lack of maturity on the part of some, if not all, of the or-ganizers. First, all decisions were taken without taking into consideration an expect-ed result. What would sleep-ing under College Hall do to the cause? Can it in any way bring forward any reaction from the administration? My personal answer is that this was probably the least pro-ductive activity i have ever seen in eight years of student and political activism. Second, all decisions seemed not to take into con-sideration that the admin-istration was also an active partner/opponent in this con-flict. When students blocked College Hall, hoping to para-lyze the administration and called it peaceful action, they did not for one second think that people inside that build-ing were thinking of them-selves as hostages and would act accordingly. also, these demonstrators managed to alienate, even if it were for a small lapse of time, the per-son most sympathetic to their cause from within the

administration, Provost ah-mad dallal. While i know for a fact that many were wait-ing for the second the ad-ministration cracked down on the strike, Provost dallal was still advocating for stu-dents to have a more active role at the center of the deci-sion making process in auB, earning him bitter criticism from certain members of the administration for his honest opinion. third, the collective action of the organizers seemed to be much disorganized consid-ering the effort being placed in this action. i have heard on many occasions that some decision was taken during a meeting only to see that ac-tion on the ground ran oppo-site to that decision. Further-more, spur of the moment action only served to weaken the strike. For example, mov-ing a very large number of students throughout campus in the midst of the day only served to wear these people down, knowing full well that auB students are not really used to much physical effort as some had expected. Finally, it was clear from the beginning that most or-ganizers were in this for the publicity it was to bring them. let us not forget that most political parties have some of their leaders on the Board of Trustees!! Oth-ers were very quick to claim possession of the strike de-claring to be both its found-

ers and the turbines behind its movement, and the righ-teous representatives of all students who, to be honest, are completely oblivious to this claim. From what i have seen, every single one of them should be credited with both the successes and the fail-ures of this strike, while ac-knowledging where the scale of the balance tips. all i have to say to con-clude is that the uSFC needs to seriously assume its role as the representative of the stu-dent body, for political par-ties to engage this issue with some degree of conscience, for the student body to be-come aware of the problems it faces and think of feasible solutions, or behave the way it always does (i.e. swallow whatever it is being fed), and for the administration not to alienate itself from students, irrespective of their actions now, and to keep moving to-wards further incorporation of students into the decision making process. as for the is-sue at hand, i think that this is a private institution which has the complete rights to the changes it is proposing. How-ever, i also think that for that level of tuition increase, stu-dents have the right to some-thing better than what auB is currently offering in terms of quality of education.

Hisham tohmeuSFC VP 08-09

rEad SHarE rECYClE

Rita Obeid Maroun kisrwani

Cleo Cacoulidis

antonios Francis

Mohamad Yahia Hamade

Marwan Jaafar

Mariam El ali

tala kardasrasha Salem

John Hajjar

Simon Barakat

rachid akiki

Salim Batlouni

rawan abu SalmanMohamad al MedwarFouad BadaouiFatima BuhilaigahMoussa Chalahabraham daniel Hajjarrami diabYasmine FansaNadine GhaithMaryam HoballahMhd izzat HusriehHeather JaberWajiha Jurdi kheirlojine kamelElie El khourytimmy Malkounrita obeidroupen ohannessianYasmine SaabWally SaadSandra SawayaMaya terroilija trojanovictarek tutunjiMohammad El-JabiEmile Zankoul

Qater al Nada Mohsendima Barbirtariq Buhilaigah

deedee Jilani

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10

out oF tHE BoxaDhD in aDUlTS

it is often that we hear of children diagnosed with Attent ion-deficit /hy -

peractive disorder (adHd) which is a neurobehavioral disorder characterized by in-attentiveness, distractibili-ty, hyperactivity, and impul-sive behavior. However, do we ever come to wonder what happens to these children who are diagnosed as kids with adHd? Basically, more than half of the children di-agnosed with adHd contin-ue to have adHd symptoms well into adulthood. as these children grow older, if un-treated become more prone to drug abuse, antisocial behav-ior, and injuries of all sorts.it is common that adults with this disorder are unaware that they might have adHd, they often think that they have a problem in sticking to appointments or getting orga-nized. Simple and daily tasks such as getting to work on time and being productive in work seem to be major chal-lenges for adHd adults.diagnosing an adult with ADHD is a difficult task, of-ten when a child is diagnosed with this disorder the parent

will recognize that he/she has the same symptoms that their child has and will begin to un-derstand some of the traits that have been causing them problems for years such as: impulsivity, restlessness and distractibility. others might seek the help of a profession-al for their depressive symp-toms and only come out to find that the root for such symp-toms is due to their adHd.For an adult to be diagnosed with adHd, this adult should have childhood and current symptoms of adHd. Making such a diagnosis is a difficult and serious task and should be done by clinicians with great expertise in the area of attention dysfunction. this is a very difficult task because the patient’s childhood histo-ry should also be assessed to check whether adHd truly had a childhood onset (which is a critical factor in diagno-sis). it is important to note that comorbidity with other disorders such as anxiety or specific learning disabilities is common.When addressing the causes of adHd, health professionals are still unsure. this disorder

Psyched out

might have a genetic predis-position, it might be caused by neurobiological dysfunctions (levels of brain activity relat-ed to levels of attention). oth-ers studies show a correlation between the use of cigarettes and alcohol during pregnan-cy with the risk of developing adHd in the child. Moreover, environmental toxins, such as lead, may lead to problems in brain development which might in turn lead to adHd. Moreover, there is little evi-dence that states that adHd is a cause of the environment at one’s home.adHd treatment plans in-clude:

addressing the appropriate professionalEducating the individual about the disorderMedicationSupport GroupsPsychotherapyCoaching in organizational skillsVocational/educational coun-selingappropriate accommodations for work or school

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11

out oF tHE BoxHeads up on Health

Maya Terrohealthy foods nowhere close to being ‘healthy’

Some of you might know that anything starting with the word ‘fried’ is a calorie cow that needs to be fought with a stick! However, do not be fooled—apparently some foods famously tagged as be-ing healthy are actually worse for your weight than snacks in vending machines and junk food. Below are some of these so-called smart snacks are just junk food in disguise.Sushi rolls –apparently the veggies and seaweed wrap that makeup sushi rolls are low in calories, but a lot of the most popular rolls served usu-ally come with cheese or mayo (like in that spicy sauce that comes on many options), not to mention that sometimes the seafood inside might be dipped in batter and deep fried. owing it to these in-gredients, a standard roll can contain 500 to 600 calories. also, soy sauce is loaded with sodium ---it won’t make you gain weight, but it’ll cause you to retain water, meaning that your jeans will feel (and look) tighter.dried Fruit –on a cup to cup basis, and because of its dehy-drated nature, dried fruit has

five to eight times more calo-ries than the fresh kind be-cause. Fresh grapes, for ex-ample, have 60 calories per cup, while raisins have 460. and many brands add sug-ar, amplifying up the calorie count even more.Granola –While it’s true that granola cereals are loaded with good-for-you nuts and oats, but oil and sugar are usually added to make it crisp and yummier. Calorie wise, one bowl of granola racks up around 500 calories. other ce-reals with the same nutrients but less oil and sugar pack half that.Wraps –No matter what you put in it, the average wrap can pack up to 300 calories. Since the surface area is way bigger than two slices of bread, you will unintentionally be coat-ing it with a lot more mayo or dressing than you would a regular sub or sandwich.rice Cakes –Yes, it’s true that these light snacks are fat-free and low in calories, but they’re also completely lacking in fi-ber and protein—ingredi-ents that experts say actually curb hunger. in other words, downing two or three rice

auB: Prideor

Shame?

asking auB students ‘not to worry because the new tuition policy will not affect them, but only new-coming students’, is asking the responsible citi-zens that they are ‘not to care because only the rest of the community will be worse-off with this decision, not them-selves’! this goes against all auB tra-ditions of nurturing respon-sible citizens who are the drivers of change for their communities and societies and who are equipped with the tolerance, maturity, criti-cal thinking and strong sense of belonging and involvement to make it happen. So even if the new tuition pol-icy does not affect us, WE CarE. and even if you reit-erate this a thousand times, we will still care and will con-tinue to fight against it for the sake of our younger brothers and sisters, cousins, neigh-bors and fellow lebanese and international youth. So please StoP using this as an argu-ment. it is such an insult for all of us concerned auBites: students and alumni! How can we allow ourselves to

say that the students receiv-ing Financial aid will only pay 25% of the extra cost aris-ing? do we not know that the students receiving Financial aid many times cannot even afford an extra 1%, and would be actually working their blood off - together with their parents - to try to make every extra dollar available to cover the rest of their tuition (that which is not covered for by Fi-nancial aid)? do we not know how many students receiving Financial aid petition - times and times again - for an added coverage, be it through F. aid Work, Student Employment or even an extra grant? i always used to say: “if you love someone, wish for them to get into AUB”. But to be honest, i am not sure any-more this is the auB i want them to join! I cannot but stop to say that i am not proud of what auB might turn into. the auB we pride by is this of the current student move-ment to revoke the new tu-ition policy. this auB we will carry in our hearts, always. don’t give us an auB that will shame us...

cakes won’t do anything but add more calories to your dai-ly total and leave you craving something with substance. Moreover, it is advised to lim-it the flavoured kinds because they don’t satisfy you more and tend to have lots of sugar or sodium in them.Salads –Sure there’s nothing better for you or your waist than naked veggies, but the things that come with your sal-ad –namely; shredded cheese, candied nuts, croutons, and globs of dressing – often make salads as caloric as an over-sized dish of pasta. and nutri-tionists are quick to point out that innocent-sounding vinai-grettes, though not as fatten-ing as ranches, can be almost as high-cal.tofu –order this “healthy food” at a restaurant and what you’ll most likely get is a plateful of sodium, calories, saturated fat, and even sugar. However, tofu itself isn’t the issue—the problem is that the white stuff lacks taste and is accordingly often deep-fried to give it flavour and texture and finally is served doused in sauces, making it literally a ‘‘diet disaster’’.

Nariman S. Hamadeh