A Message from President Mawad to the LAU family: A New Academic Year for Resolve and Renewal
Dear LAU Family,
Thanks to your loyalty and devotion, we enter the year marking our centennial stronger and more determined than ever before. Last year, we took concrete steps to ensure financial stability, maintain enrollment figures, retain talent and defy the crisis.
Our strategic readiness is solid, as plans for the NYC degree-granting campus are underway, while online degree programs are multiplying, as both efforts will help us realize the “LAU Without Borders” vision.
In parallel, new faculty talent has been attracted, significant new partnerships have been forged, and the health of our institution is at an all-time high.
As we get ready for a new academic year, 2023-2024, I wanted to share with you some of the uplifting highlights and in-progress plans that make all of us proud:
- Solid enrollment figures
- Faculty, physicians, and staff sufficiency
- Financial stability away from multiple currencies and exchange rates
- SP IV implementation program is progressing as planned
- Strengthening our global fundraising arm in NY for North America
- Enhancing our brand positioning ranking, and societal impact
- Building new networking inroads outside Lebanon
- Making solid progress on the LAU Without Borders front
- Making a move toward PV energy
- Extending our presence in Lebanon beyond Beirut and Byblos
- Enhancing our position as a premier healthcare provider in the country
- Culminating the year with our centennial celebrations
The list of forward-thinking initiatives that will become part of the LAU landscape in 2023-2024 also includes:
- Creating a Center for Public Good
- Launching a Sustainability Office
- Establishing an Office for Professional Ethics and Standards
- Introducing two strategic programs: the LAU Leadership Program and the Healthcare Executive Program
- Accelerating our pursuit of a satellite campus outside Lebanon
- Preparing for and executing a centennial celebrations program that befits a flagship institution with a great legacy and a greater future
- Planning and implementing a major new capital campaign
We will make every effort during this forthcoming year to enhance the earning ability and purchasing power of our faculty, physicians and staff. Your wellbeing and welfare are of cardinal importance to the university and a top personal priority for me. You are giving the university your best and you certainly deserve the best in return.
The fact that we have so much to celebrate and be proud of does not diminish the enormity of the challenges this university is facing. Three in particular warrant our undivided attention.
Our first challenge is to rally behind the university as a towering lighthouse in Lebanon and the region, which is getting ready for another hundred years of leadership. This should cover academia - including research, innovation, community engagement, professional practices, healthcare - and the pursuit of excellence in line with international best practices. Anything less will be unbecoming of this great institution we feel privileged to belong to.
Our second challenge is to carve out our respective roles in materializing this vision. This requires building sustainable excellence, generating the requisite resource base and creating internal and external synergies to propel continuous improvement. If we succeed, we will truly become a determined, performance-driven institution that is capable of shaping the future.
The third challenge is to collectively, and sustainably secure the means that allow LAU to continue to be a major university with a big heart. This is crucial for us to keep supporting our students - to whom we owe a future - and to our patients, whose very life is at stake. Both are vulnerable groups that I am certain none of us would accept to let down.
The achievements are heartwarming, the prospects are very promising, and the road ahead is clear in its beckoning for a great future of our own making. To be sure, the challenges are in proportion to the promises but together and united we will prevail.
My sincere thanks and best wishes to every one of you for a new prosperous academic year.
Best regards,
Michel E. Mawad, M.D.
President