UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1934-11-16_Page-016

133 I leave with you both sides of the picture, but wish to share with you three convictions which seem to me to guarantee the permanency of the American University at Cairo. The first is the certainty that the basic need for ed-ucation will continue in Egypt. We are dealing not in some luxury that society might dispense with, but in one of thos3 fundamental community needs which is bound to continue. It is hard to believe that, given courage, perseverance and creativeness, we could be shut out from the educational market. The second point is our strategic location in the Moslem world. Not unless you picture to yourself the total abandonment of all foreign missionary work in Moslem lands, pan you imagine work at so strategic a center as ours and work of such a strategic type as ours being given up. The third consideration is the-abiding worth of the Christian message and life. Allow for a thousand adjustments and readjustments in the methods of our approach to the Moslem, in the end you still have values to impart which Islam needs and will want and which are found nowhere eioe than in Christ. So we may rest assured: this work of ours is secure. Turning from this general survey of broad conditions and trends, I claim your attention for an appraisal of each sector of the work. 1. The College of Arts and Sciences For the Faculty of the College, I would bespeak the special sympathy and appreciation of the Trustees for the heavy teaching schedules they have carried during the past year in their effort to maintain as many of the classes and activities as could be saved from discontinuance, threatened by the unfortunate coincidence of a falling enrolment and a reduced support from America. By ingenius scheduling of classes and by a careful husbanding of the teaching strength of the staff and by the generous contribution of help from outside the College Faculty, a far stronger program was maintained than at first seemed possible. Especially wortYy of note was the operation of an Adviser System during the past year. "every student was assigned", reports Dean Galt, "to some member of the staff, both Americans and Egyptians cooperating in the plan. Office hours were posted, interviews held, and monthly report cards distributed personally by advisers rather than impersonally from the Registrar's office. As a result, hundreds of personal contacts that had not hitherto been possible came into exist-ence. No longer was any student able to say that no one paid any personal attent-ion to him. Even if nothing else had been done but distribute the monthly cards through the advisers, this foundation bond of personal interest would have been created. But in addition to the hundreds of contacts resulting frol4 this one feature of the system alone, the advisers' reports record a variety of other definite accomplishments such as discovering the need of glasses and pressing until they were actually secured, helping in the settlement of a personal civarrel, discussing with the girl students their personal problems, improving the study habits of a failing student, advising on the possibilities of foreign study, advising on the problem of masturbationt launching a student in a much needed athletic program, getting a student with very bad teeth into the hands of a dentist, correcting a bad attitude held by a student toward his teachers, help-ing a maladjusted conservative student, correcting an over-emphasis on sport and love novels, and counselling on problems arising out of the conflict of religion and science." I quote this testimony at length for I believe the feeling of marry Trustees will be that one might also be consoled for a reduced enrolment if it makes possible so rich a contact of student with teacher. The most important proposals affecting College policy came up for discussion on my arrival in Egypt last spring. I shared deeply in these discussions and have reported upon them to the Com ttee on Education whose Report will in due time come before you