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The Dentistry School Closes after 30 years of Service

Students at School of Dentistry1, 1920sPh_AUB_1920s-1930s_3_1-90ac.jpg

Students at School of Dentistry 1920s

Archives and Special Collections, Jafet Library, AUB

Thirty years of Dental Education come to an End

After thirty years of splendid service the School of Dentistry was closed in 1940:

"The closing of the School of Dentistry was a direct result of the Depression, which forced a curtailment of University expenditures, and of the  unwillingness  of  the  University  either  to  lower  its dental standards or to oversupply the country with dentists. Few have been the cases in history where a school has voluntarily closed its doors because it has ceased to supply the needs of its constitu­ ents, but at Beirut this was actually done. The  action is typical of the way in which the University has ever tried to adapt itself to the conditions which surround  it."

Penrose, Stephen B., That they may have life: the Story of the American University of Beirut, 1866-1941, Beirut: American University, 1970, p. 231

 

 

 

Last Graduates of the School of Dentistry, 1940.jpg

Last Graduates of the School of Dentistry, 1940

Archives and Special Collections, Jafet Library, AUB

School of Dentistry, 1910-1940

"The School of Dentistry started in a few rooms that stood on the site of the present Outpatient Department. Dr. Dray was called from Philadelphia to found the School. He was Director and sole professor of the dental courses. Dr. Amin Haddad assisted him in the technical teaching.

During the past thirty years the School of Dentistry has provided many of the cities of the Near East with splendidly trained dentists, who are working from Istanbul to Khartoum. Most of them are young men with long careers of service ahead of them. Day by day they are showing the people of their communities honest and scientific methods of dentistry. Although the School itself is closing, these graduates will carry on its work."

al-Kulliyah Review 1939-1940_v7, no. 6