UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1988-05_Page-045

The American University in Cairo: Board of Trustees Minutes of .the Government Relations Committee. Monday, March 9, 1987 . Cairo, Egypt Attending: Dr. Bartlett, Ambassador Eilts, Dr. Pedersen, Mr. Greiss, Dr. Lamont, Mrs. Na11e, Mrs. Bartlett Chair: Dr. Bartlett Reporting: Mr.s. Bartlett The agenda was approved~ Visit of James Bond:. Mr. James Bond, the minority staff member of the Senate ' Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, visited Cairo and AUC in February. Mr. Bond was the key person in the Congress. in esta­blishing the LESO million trust in the U.S. Embassy of whi~h AUC is the bene­ficiary. Mr. Bond was well received.at AUC,.giving.two or three lectures on the formulation of policy through the appro~r~ationsprocess . in Congress .and attending commence­ment. He was also hosted at various dinners by Egyptian officials, among them the Minister of Defense, Abu Ghazala. . Both Dr. Pedersen and Mrs. Nalle stressed that Mr. Bond is a strong supporter of AUC. However, they agreed that he ought to be approached only when AUC has something of real import to request. Debt Conversion of Foreign Military Sales; Dr. Pedersen and Mrs. Nalle are ex­ploring various methods to· support AUC financially. Currently Egypt owes the U.S. some $9 billion for U.S. military sales •. Realistically, it will be u~likely that Egypt will be able to pay either interest or principal in hard currency. It is the hope of Dr. Pedersen and Mrs. Nalle that some portion of debt obligation might be turned into Egyptian pound obligation. Perhaps, then, the U,S. Embassy in Egypt could accumulate pounds as payment. Those pounds could be turned into a trust to support U.S. educational enterprises in Egypt, such as AUC, the Ful­bright program, the American Research Center, Amideast, etc • . Endowment for International Education; Senator Simon and several higher education ass~ciations are interested in establishing an endowment to fund area and lang­uage studies. Dr. Pedersen and Mrs, Nalle are exploring the possibility of at least parially funding such an endowment through the mechanism of repayment of debt obligations/local currencies. i, Inclusion of AUC in U.S. Legislative Language: The Education Act which authorizes money for educational purposes often ~efers to beneficiaries of appropriated . money a~d authorized programs as Ituniversities in the U.S. and its territories." Even though AUC is incorporated in-the U.S. and is accredited in the U.S., the legislation has been interpreted to ex~lude AUC, i.e., AUC is not "in the U.S." Dr. Pedersen thinks that legislation for programs dealing with language study, international business, area studies, and scholarships for such study should allow for AUe participation. Mrs. Na11e is working on this is s ue