UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1956-09-01_Page-120

1 FACULTY MELTING CAIRO December 15, 1956 — 11 AM Dr. McLain presided at the meeting. Report from Council: Dr. McLain reported to the Faculty that the Council had set the date of December 26 for the reopening of our classes. Although the date was definite enough for the Faculty to plan for reopening, the mailing of announce-ments was withheld until the dates of reopening of the Egyptian universities was officially announced by the Ministry of Education. Dr, McLain proceeded to mention that the University was requesting the State Department of US for the return to Egypt of our Geneva Faculty by the opening date. In case the wives were left in Geneva, their husbands would be allìwed to stay over for Christmas. This means that few substitute teachers will be asked to teach classes other than their own for two or three days. Reporting on the return of the first group from Geneva, Dr. McLain under-scored the fact the Faculty members were all delighted that the group had come back and that they were all anxious to hear from the group of what had been going on in Geneva, in the same way as the Geneva group would like to become fully aware of what was going on here. The President expressed the hope that, on exchanging our news, the Geneva group would forget that they had been away from the campus, except at those points where their experiences in Geneva had contributed to the enrichment of the Univer-sity life and had strengthened the ties that bound the Faculty together. Dr. McLain then called upon Dean Hollenbach who had acted as chairman of the Geneva Faculty since iir. Culbertson left for the US on November 26, to address the Faculty. Report of Dean Hollenbach: Dr. Hollenbach extended the greetings of the Geneva Faculty to the staff members here mentioning that they were all eager to come back to start the program again. Although their stay in Europe had been enjoyable, they often felt concern over the people, who were here working under strain, The Evacuee Council started on November 4th on board the troop carrier and three decisions were made: to have headquarters in Geneva, to spend the time as constructively as possible, and to form several committees to study and plan for the different activities of the group., At first a lounge in the ship was used as an office for the Faculty and then in Geneva the bedroom of Mr. Culbertson was used as the office, while the conference room of the :Jorld Council of Churches was gra-ciously offered for the Faculty tc use for their sessions, The Geneva Council presented a number of proposals to the staff: each tc try to jot down his evacuation experience, a committee to edit and write the full evacuation report, group sessions to meet at least once each week, individual staff members to use his or her time creatively in pursuing professional study, in read-ing, or in planning something that might contribute to the advancement of the Uni-versity. Libraries in Geneva were explored and they proved to be very helpful, particularly in the field of social sciences. Many attended lectures given by the University of Geneva. Some started to learn or to develcp their proficiency i