Difficult times
Effects of the war: Crowded Classes
"Because of the war it has been difficult to maintain high standards. Numerous professors have left or entered government service. Publications and new equipment are difficult to obtain. Members of the faculty have been over worked and cut off from contacts with other centers of intellectual study."
Report of the President of the American University of Beirut for the Seventy-Eighth Year, 1943-1944: p. 6
"We are going to be crowded worse than ever, and are buying beds and squeezing them into every available space. No textbooks have come from America, so it is rather a mystery what all these students will do when they do get there."
William West Collection, September 29, 1943
"All the classes are jammed full. Chemistry majors are more than twice as many as ever before, and other courses are about the same. Our academic standards, I fear, will reach a new low this year, but that does not worry the powers that be."
William West Collection, October 17, 1943
Great Fluctuation in Expenses and a first American Federal grant
"The great fluctuations in expense are due to the fact that valued changed as currencies changed value and as the depression and war modified prices. The Hospital was especially affected by such fluctuations."
Report of the President of the American University of Beirut for the Seventy-Eighth Year, 1943-1944. Of statistics for the schools of medicine and nursing, the University Hospital, C.P.D, and Health Center, p. 2
A first Federal Grant
"It was voted to accept the grant in aid from the Cultural Relations Division of the State Department, through the Near East College Association, with the understanding that it is to be done as a war emergency and in line with the principles expressed in aforementioned Resolution adopted June 10,1943, by the General Advisory Committe of the Division of Cultural Relations."
Minutes of Board of Trustees 1930-47: p. 186
"During the year 1943-1944, the board of trustees has received special aid from Washington, so that it has been possible to finance the medical school and hospital even better..."
Report of the President of the American University of Beirut for the Seventy-Eighth Year, 1943-1944. Of statistics for the schools of medicine and nursing, the University Hospital, C.P.D, and Health Center, p. 2
The Clinical Departments have suffered the most
' The clinical departments have suffered to a greater extent, as many of the professors left Beirut in 1941 and only a few have so far returned. One of the most urgent needs of the University is to fill the vacancies casued by the war, so that the clinical departments can function in a normal way."
Report of the President of the American University of Beirut for the Seventy-Eighth Year, 1943-1944: p. 6
"...on the conditions in the Medical School and the Hospital, revealing a decline in the standard of the work, due to the war. He emphasized the need for giving the local teachers, particularly, additional training in medical work in the United States following the war and spoke about the possibility of sending young interns from American hospitals to Beirut for a year of service."
Minutes of Board of Trustees, 1930-47: p. 186
First BS in Engineering
In the past it has been the policy to teach preliminary courses in engineering, but to send the students to Robert College of some other foreign school, in order to obtain an Engineering degree. As it has become impossible to go abroad in war time, the faculty has decided to give a complete course in Civil Engineering at Beirut, leading to the B.S degree in Engineering."
Report of the President of the American University of Beirut for the Seventy-Eighth Year, 1943-1944: p. 8
New Hostels for Arab Students
"During the past year the British Council has founded a hostel for Arab students, who are studying at the University. A distinguished Orientalist from Oxford, named Professor Alfred Guillaume, has come to Beirut as advisor to the students in the hostel and as a lecturer in the University."
Report of the President of the American University of Beirut for the Seventy-Eighth Year, 1943-1944: p. 23
