AJCW graduates its first cohort who go on to become pioneers in their own right: Munira Barbir Naamani, Saniya Habboub al-Naqqash and Armenouhi Der Mugrditchian. Habboub al-Naqqash becomes the first female doctor to practice in Beirut and Mugrditchian founds a maternity hospital in Homs.

As William Stoltzfus becomes AJCW’s president, he extols the diverse backgrounds and nationalities of the student body, as young women from all over the Middle East—Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Palestine and many other countries—joined the college as boarders to acquire a Western-style education in the East. Stoltzfus’ leadership is the start of a long relationship between the university and his family that lives on to this day.

Rhoda Orme, who had served for close to 15 years as academic dean, is acting president for a year. She is succeeded by Grace Louks Elliot for a year as well, until the appointment of Frances Gray as College President. In 1965, the building housing the women’s dormitory and the president’s residence is named Orme-Gray in their honor.

Dr. Salwa Nassar (‘33) takes over the presidency from Frances Gray. Not only is she the first Lebanese woman to head BCW, but she is also the first nuclear physicist in Lebanon. In her inauguration speech, Dr. Nassar outlines her vision for establishing a program in Lebanese Studies and empowering women to serve their community through Continuing Education. Previously, as chair of the Science Department in 1956, Dr. Nassar introduced physics and enhanced the physics, chemistry and mathematics curricula, and as once president of the Alumnae Association she added an alumnae seat to the Board of Management of the College.

Dr. William H. Schechter is appointed as president of the college. He establishes a participatory governance system that includes faculty, staff and students, and an Executive Council, a governing body reflecting all college stakeholders. He also lays the groundwork for admitting male students, to have men and women collaborate as intellectual equals for the good of the society they are building.

Outgoing President Schechter announces that the college would become a Church-related, not Church-controlled institution “as a necessary step” in its “growth and development as an institution.” The Board of Trustees votes to admit male students, transforming the historically women’s institution into a fully coeducational one starting in October 1973. To formalize the decision, BCW is renamed Beirut University College that same academic year.

Fall of 1975 was to President Badre the university’s “darkest hour.” Street battles, shelling, and faculty and staff kidnappings are the everyday reality of the Lebanese civil war. Yet, faculty and staff pull together and keep campus gates open, reverse enrollment numbers, and seek external sources of financial aid. Perhaps the most telling resilient sentiment on campus was that of the communication arts faculty, staff and students, who, adamant that the show must go on, continued to stage plays.

In the summer of 1982, Dr. Badre and Bob Stoddard, BUC director of development for North America, lead a successful emergency campaign to keep the institution running and repair war damages. American faculty who had left Lebanon are called back for the college’s planned reopening in October 1983, and student enrollment reaches 1,835. The US Congress passes a bill recommending substantial emergency assistance for BUC.

Faculty members Mishelishwar Singh, Robert Polhill, Alan Steen and Jessie Turner are kidnapped. The BUC community mobilizes through protests and petitions for their release.

The war rages on and access to Beirut campus from the eastern side of town becomes a growing challenge to students, faculty and staff. The president himself has no choice but to relocate from his residence in Orme-Gray to his hometown of Munsif. Three consecutive temporary branches in Louaizeh, Amchit, and Sidon are set up to cater to students unable to reach Beirut. The new Byblos campus opens in the fall of 1991.

The Board of Trustees approves the founding of the School of Architecture and Engineering and the School of Pharmacy. The first class of architecture is held by Dr. Rachid Chamoun, who was recruited from the US, to teach the program, to 30 students in the Amchit rented buildings as the Byblos Campus is still under development.

The Doctor of Pharmacy program becomes the only one outside the United States to earn accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education.

Amid wartime conditions, with the outbreak of the July 2006 war in Lebanon, Dr. Jabbra secures the approval of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges* to expedite the university’s accreditation process. Dr. Kamal Badr is appointed by the Board of Trustees as founding dean of the medical school.

* Presently the New England Commision of Higher Education

LAU is granted full accreditation. A series of additional program accreditations ensues over the following 14 years, in engineering, computer science, business, hospitality and tourism management, design, architecture, nutrition and dietetics, nursing, and medicine.

The Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury Health Sciences Center, housing the schools of medicine, nursing and pharmacy, is inaugurated and becomes a hub for interprofessional education which includes the departments of nutrition and social work. Social medicine distinguishes LAU’s medical, nursing and pharmacy programs.

The Fouad Makhzoumi Innovation Center is established as a hub for incubating and accelerating new ideas and providing seed funding for entrepreneurial projects by the youth. That same year sees the opening of the new Joseph G. Jabbra Library on the Byblos campus, and the acquisition of Saint John’s Hospital in Jounieh.

Teaching and university operations are not hindered by the lockdown as faculty, staff and students make the swift shift to online learning and communication. If anything, the university and its medical center go above and beyond to sustain their service to the immediate and broader community with initiatives such as the LAU Mobile Clinic that administers PCR tests and vaccinations free of charge across Lebanon.

The return to campus after the pandemic is accompanied by Phase II of the LAU Emergency Financial Aid Fund against the backdrop of a worsening socioeconomic crisis. By 2022, LAU’s financial aid budget reaches $100 million, the largest such offering in Lebanon, covering close to 85 percent of the student body.