Students protest at AUB on Tuesday. (Credit: Mohamed El Chamaa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — The American University of Beirut’s Secular Club was slapped with an official warning for disseminating posters objecting to an anticipated increase in tuition fees.
Here’s what we know:
• The warning, sent via email on April 19 by Lina Choueiri, interim Dean of Student Affairs, said that the club on April 14 had engaged in “posting of unauthorized published materials” and added that similar activities in the future “may lead to the suspension of the club and its activities.”
• AUB’s Student Code of Conduct states that “the public distribution and posting of published materials such as fliers, leaflets, posters, audiovisuals, etc., must be approved and stamped by the dean of Student Affairs.”
• In a statement responding to the warning, the student club stated that “AUB has historically been known as an open space for free speech and public debate. By censoring the club’s activities, AUB sets a dangerous precedent about dealing with dissenting opinions regarding a decision it took without consulting and discussing with the student body.”
• Although AUB has not publicly announced tuition fee increases or change in the dollar exchange rate applied to these fees, many students at a protest Tuesday against these anticipated measures, co-organized by the Secular Club, told L’Orient Today that starting last week they began noticing that their statement of fees on AUB’s online student information system shows their tuition for summer and fall terms calculated at the rate of LL8,000 to the dollar.
• In an internal email AUB President Fadlo Khuri had stated that “the Summer semester will be unaffordable for AUB to conduct at the 3,900 [rate].”
• A spokesperson for the university did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
• A town hall meeting with Khuri which will be open to all students is scheduled for next Wednesday and Thursday.