UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1984-02-22_Page-026

- 2 - c. Alternatives to Trust Account Agr.eement (LE approach vs. $ approach) Dr. Pedersen emphasized that the difficulty in getting U.S. dollar support would lie in convincing the Administration to request the funds - he was con­fident that Congress would approve the expenditure, as long as AUC prepared the way ahead of time. Mr. Dutton noted that it would not be easy to get money from Pres. Reagan, because the current feeling in the Administration is that too much money is being spent in the Middle East - in Egypt and Isreal particularly. As far as latching onto the curret $750 million goes, Mr. Dutton felt that this was more likely than adding onto that figure, but then again as Mr. Eilts pointed out, we would incur criticism from the Egyptians for taking what they consider to be their money. Special caution should be taken, since the Egyptians would, in this case, be angry at AUC not just the U.S .. The consensus was that we should let AID handle the situation at this point. For instance, AID could approach the Egyptians about replacing the PL480 funds. 3. Public Relations in Washington Mr. Dutton mentioned that funding for AID would come up in Congress fairly soon, as the Administration wishes to avoid dealing with the Agency at the end of the year or next year at all. At the end of the meeting he also mentioned that AUB hosted an all-day IIteach-in ll in Washington recently. Keeping with trends over the pas five years, the teach-in was directed more at Washington media than at the Congressmen personally. Closing Remarks Dr. Bartlett emphasized that AUC should avoid the mistakes of many universi­ties in the past, who have tacked on grants for additional programs and de­faulted on their core programs as a result of lack of funding. AUC should concentrate on a IIbig pushll for fundamental funding. Mr. Eilts asked that the committee members receive interim reports on the progress of negotiations with AID and the Embassy~ Adjourned 5:00 PM February 22, 1983 minutes by Elizabeth Thompson Government Relations Cairo, Feb. 198