UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1972-10-18_Page-062

Mohamed Nowaihi (left) is a professor in the Arabic Studies Department: Dr. Laila Hamamsy ow, left) is director of the university's Social Research Center and Dr. Cynthia Nelson, heads the Sociology Department. Department of English, the English Lan­~ Ie Institute, and a large auditorium. ce then, the university has added Hill House, a hostel later converted into the uni­versity library; a six-story Science Building, and two nearby secondary schools, which comprise a second campus housing the social tmd political sciences, the cafeteria and the student lounge, A wing of one building has also been reconstructed as a modern 350-seat theater for drama and lectures. If he founder and first president of the university was Dr. Charles R. Watson, who served from 1920- when the university enrolled 142 students in only two programs- to 1945, by which time the institution was developing rapidly. ~hen Mr. Thoron took over in 1969, A.U.C. students were working for advance degrees in seven major disciplines. The university awards graduate degrees in each academic department. Since the first degrees were awarded 44 .years ago, graduating classes have grown S.·ly in size; to date the university has ~ ed more than 2,000 degrees. The quality of the American University's programs is suggested by the consistent acceptance by major American and Euro­pean universities of A.U.C. graduates with good records. In recent years, A.U.C. graduates have completed master's or doctoral programs at such institutions as Bryn Mawr, the University of California at Berkeley, Cambridge, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Denver, Harvard, Indiana, Ken­tucky, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Princeton, Smith, Stanford, Tulane, Utah and Yale. In addition to having full-time students, A.U.C. has a public service division, run along the lines of an American adult educa­tion program, which provides classes for some 4,000 Egyptians. There are courses in secretarial skills, English and Arabic typing and shorthand, electronic data processing, accounting, business and commercial prac­tices, English and other languages, com­munications, photography, social studies, art and psychology. This division also sponsors public lectures, concerts, art exhibitions and other cultural events. Not long ago a black Mercedes limousine rolled up to an A. U .C. building and a well-dressed Egyptian got out of the back seat to attend one of the public servIce courses in English. His chauffeur parked the car, and then he too entered the same building, to take a course in photography. "I believe that the American University is essential for Egyptian education," says Gamal Hamamsy, former lecturer in jour­nalism. "It provides a valuable alternative to the national universities." The late President Gamal Abdel Nasser shared this view and sent his daughter, Mona, to A.U.C. After obtaining her B.A. in 1968, she returned for non-credit evening courses. Egypt has five big national universities, which together have enrollments of some 200,000 students; 60,000 of these at­tend Cairo University. Thus the national universities are comparable to American megaversities, with similar strengths- all­star faculties, vast plant, and big librar­ies- and similar drawbacks- inflexibility, impersonality, and an overly high ratio of students to teachers. "I can say with confidence," says senior Ahmed Amer, "that we receive more general knowledge here at A.U.C. than a student does at a national university. We are trained to develop our own point of view and we are able to spend more time with our own instructors.