Lebanese American University

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**Lebanese American University**
Established	1835
Type	Private
President	Joseph G. Jabbra
Students	6,000+
Location	Beirut & Byblos, Lebanon
Website	www.lau.edu.lb

The Lebanese American University is an American institution chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York and operating in Lebanon. Currently, LAU has two campuses: one located in Beirut, and a second in the Mount Lebanon city of Jbeil (Byblos). The university offers programs leading to Associate's, Bachelor's, and Master's degrees in the arts and sciences, and Doctorates in Pharmacy. LAU is the only institution in the world with an ACPE-accredited pharmacy program outside of the United States.

1 History
2 Politics in LAU
3 external links
4 Notable faculty
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

LAU was founded in 1835 by American Presbyterian Missionaries as the American School for Girls. In 1924, the high school was expanded to include a two-year Junior College program. Three years later, the College broke away to become the American Junior College for Women, and moved from downtown to Ras Beirut. In 1933, it relocated once again to its present location in Koreitem, West Beirut.

From 1948-1949, the College was developed into a four-year, university-level institution, and changed its name to the Beirut College for Women. In the same year, it received provisional accreditation from the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York; in 1955, the Board authorized the College to grant Associate's and Bachelor's degrees.

In the early 1970's, the College began accepting a limited number of men into selected programs. In recognition of this changing reality, the College once again changed its name to the Beirut University College (BUC). BUC became fully co-educational in 1975.

Off-campus programs were initiated in the North and South of the country over the following years. After the Board of Regents extended BUC's charter to include these programs, a new branch of the college was founded in the foothills above Byblos in the north. Classes began at the Byblos branch in 1991.

On January 24, 1987, Jesse Turner, Alan Steen, Robert Polhil and Mithileshwar Singh, academics working at BUC were abducted from the campus and held hostage most likely by Islamic Jihad or another Hizb'allah offshoot.

In 1994, the Board of Regents granted BUC permission to change its name to the Lebanese American University. In 2005, over 6,000 students were enrolled in the four schools of the University: the School of Arts & Sciences, the School of Business, the School of Engineering and Architecture and the School of Pharmacy.

[edit] Politics in LAU

The Lebanese American University also has an important role in the politics. The main sects are represented as follows :

1-The Sunna muslim represented by The Jamaa al-Islameyyah الجماعة الاسلاميّة under the name of Rabitat al-tullab al-Muslemeen رابطة الطلاّب المسلمين and Future youth (شباب المستقبل).

2- The Shia represented by Hizb Allah and Amal.

3- The Druze represented in the hizib Takadomeh Ishterake.

4- The christians for Michel Aoun and very weak presence of the Lebanese Forces and the Armans

5- Finallly some other small groups such as Palestinian Club and Shabab of Bekaa.

The University elections on 2005 took a huge media and security coverage. A big number of the special units in the Lebanese Amry were surrounding the university and that did not prevent the parties to clash atleast once. There were two major allience in the elections. The first was between Al-jama3a al islameyya رابطة الطلاّب المسلمين and the Future with the Druz and the Lebanese Forces. The second was the Shia with the Armans. Another group of christians were also present under the name of Aoun and the Arman to support the Shite alliance and to weeaken the Sunni allience. The elections are on 10 seats. The Jamaa Islameyya (rabita) and the future youth (sunna) and their allience went he elections on 8 candidates while the Shia went on 6. The university turned to be a huge battle field of election papers and democratic speeches. And after some hours they declared the win of the Allience of Jamaa Islameyya(rabita) and the Future by the 8 seats and A recognized loss for the Shia except for one candidate and one for the Arman. The big surprise was that Hizbollah who had 2 candidates fail to win in any seats in the council.

Many critics said that this win "Must" be "expected" because the University is well known for its Beirutian students and origins.

In Byblos, most of the seats were taken by Aoun (free patriotic Mouvement)