Commitment renewed
MRS SUZANNE Mubarak has officially inaugurated the site of the new American University in Cairo (AUC) campus situated in New Cairo, some 40 kilometres east of the university's present location. The event, held late last week, also signalled the launch of a new phase in the university's international fundraising drive aimed at raising $100 million, of which more than $50 million has been raised.
The new campus is a $300-million venture and major donors will also be supporting the establishment of academic scholarships for outstanding students as well as endowing professorships to attract internationally renowned faculty. Already among the major donors are Saudi billionaire Walid Bin Talal, Sheikh Youssef Al-Jameel, the Ford Foundation and several members of the university's board of trustees.
Among those attending the inauguration ceremony were Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, Minister of Higher Education Moufid Shehab, as well as Paul Hannon, chairman of AUC's Board of Trustees and AUC interim president Thomas Bartlett.
According to Mrs Mubarak, who is an AUC alumna, "the challenge for AUC has always been that as a private, non- profit university, it must rely on sources of private funding to enhance its programmes to expand its facilities. The challenge of building a whole new campus is enormous. If we consider education a debt due from the present to the future, then it is up to those who value AUC's contributions to Egypt and the region, its friends and alumni, to help AUC translate its dream into reality."
AUC was founded in 1919 as an independent non-profit institution with a mandate which stipulates that the university's mission is "to provide high quality educational opportunities to students from all segments of Egyptian society, as well as from other countries, and to contribute to Egypt's cultural and intellectual life".
The new campus will occupy a 1,055,000-metre-square parcel of land that was acquired from the Ministry of Housing in September 1997. Some 80,000 metres-square will be dedicated to facilities to accommodate a full-time student enrollment of 5,500. The infrastructure of the new campus has been planned to adapt to the expected interim increase of 1,500 students. Its design is claimed to be a model of environmentally friendly green architecture and the facility is to be equipped with advanced systems to ensure the efficient use of water and energy.
In the words of AUC President Thomas Bartlett, "Building this new campus renews AUC's commitment and contributions to Egypt and the region."
The campus is to become operational in September 2007.
