UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1983-05_Page-017

- 4 - be moving to Cairo around the first of June. Mr. Bates has been a professional fund raiser for universities and hospitals most of his life, and we hope he will be able not only to help us complete the campaign successfully but also put into place a fully articulated structure for continued fund raising there­after. Mr. and Mrs. Bates will be present at the Board meeting. We are also in the process of appointing a new Chief Engineer to replace Yahia Fahmy. He is an experienced civil engineer with extensive construction experience and we expect him to strengthen the engineering staff markedly as we go into our new construction programs. The appointment had not been finalized when I left Cairo but should be before the Board meeting. He will supervise Housing Services, construction and major renovations, and main­tenance and repairs (now each under separate engineers). Building services (cleaning, etc.) has been reorganized under Mr. Shurbauqi, reporting directly to Dr. Fawzi. Gardening, also under Mr. Shurbaugi's supervision, has been contracted out to an independent contractor, with immediate improvements in the calibre of the work. Dr. Rodenbeck is leaving his position as Director of the Press at the end of this year to return to English and Comparative Literature as an Associate Professor. He will also retain a consulting role in the Press. We have just appointed Mr. Werner Mark Linz, President of Crossroad/Continuum Press in New York and former President of the Seabury Press, as the new Director of the AUC Press. Mr. Linz is expected to come early in the fall. We hope he and Mrs. Linz also will be able to attend the Board meeting. ALUMNI MEETINGS Following the Board session in March we had our second large alumni reunion weekend, with two days activities at AUC and an alumni dinner at the Nile Hilton. Over 800 alumni attended. Distinguished Alumni awards, were presented to Dr. Hanna Rizk ('34) former Vice President of AUC, and to Adel Dajani ('52), Senior Manager of the Arab Bank (Jordan) branch in London. In April alumni dinners and consultations were held in Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, attended by Mr. Saunier, Miss Iskander and myself. About 140 persons attended the dinner in Kuwait and some 40 in Abu Dhabi, mostly of Palestinean or Egyptian origin. AUC alumni in those countries are extremely loyal to AUC, and we believe that our associations and contacts in the area can be greatly; developed through them. At about the time of the Board meeting Dr. Allam and Miss Iskander also will be holding an alumni meeting in Jordan, where we have several hundred graduates and an AUC alumni club. An Egyptian-Arab Alumni Scholarship Fund - to be endowed with $1 million - was launched last fall at the suggestion of Mr. Dajani. We are asking alumni who can afford to do so to contribute $5000 to this fund, over five years if desired. Contributors would become members of the President's Club and would receive other special attention. Two hundred alumni would make this endowment a fully-funded reality, and we believe we will achieve it. Contributions and pledges already are over $200,000