Civic and Social engagement and Co-education: A modern University at the service of a changing community
The Institute of Rural Life
"In 1930 the Institute of Rural Life was formed, as a joint effort between the University and the Near East Foundation. Farm boys were given practical training, extension work was organized in the plain south of Baalbek, short institutes were held to teach modern methods of fruit growing, bee-keeping, poultry breeding, and seed selection. Over thirty bulletins were issued in simple Arabic, a rural health center was established, and texts were published for adult education.
At the same time the Foundation aided the government of Palestine in training village school teachers how to adapt their work to village needs. Mr. Humphrey Bowman, the Director of Education, was especially interested in this project. Summer conferences also helped teachers from Lebanon, Syria and Transjordan to make their methods of work in the village schools more practical."
Dodge, B. (1958). The American University of Beirut: A brief history of the university and the lands which it serves. Beirut: Khayat's. p:64-65
A spirit of service
"This spirit of service became so active, that many students conducted a night school, inoculated school children, helped the refugees, and performed other forms of service. It was a splendid thing for the University to become so much interested in peasant conditions, at a time when few other agencies in the Arab world were giving the matter serious thought. After a number of years this led to some inexpensive experiments in teaching practical farming and finally to an application to the Ford Foundation to start a School of Agriculture."
Dodge, B. (1958). The American University of Beirut: A brief history of the university and the lands which it serves. Beirut: Khayat's. p:95