Bulletin - American University of Beirut

Cool music at Outdoors
fortune telling, water-dunking, rock-climbing, and much more.
At one of the stands decked out with colorful flags, the
Saudi Club was hosting a Playstation 3 World Cup tournament.
Biology Sophomore Mishari Al Abdulwahed said, “We
brought the World Cup 2010 season early to AUB. Our aim is
to foster friendly competition and contribute to the carnival
atmosphere.”
At the Special Olympics stand, carnival-goers could
play games with people with special needs. “This
stand is a symbol of integration; people can come
and play with our special needs members and know
that [they] are essentially no different than they are.
We are all here and we are all equal,” said Joy Jamal
Eddine, an Education Sophomore.
“Ye Olde Tales” was an improvisation game featured
at the Toastmaster’s International stand. “At Toastmasters,
we specialize in practicing communication and leadership
skills. This fun game with five-question categories allows
the carnival-goers to practice their on-the-spot thinking.
It’s an introduction to the sorts of activities we practice at
Toasmaster’s to make us better speakers,” said Mohamad El
Chami, a Master’s student in Physiology.
President Peter Dorman and his wife, Kathy, were among
the carnival-goers this year. “I think Outdoors is wonderful
not only for the students, who are able to practice their
organizational skills and reflect their creativity, but also for
the community, because it is an opportunity to bring families
onto campus, making AUB an active part of Ras Beirut,” said
President Dorman.
A motley group of clowns, unicycle riders, and jugglers
roamed the Outdoors grounds.
Abed Salam, a third-year electrical and computer engineering
major, was dressed in full clown regalia while he
went about his job as safety officer. “We want to make sure
Outdoors goes off without a hitch, so we dress up as clowns
to blend in while taking care of safety,” he said.
As usual, a medley of bands wowed the crowds at
Outdoors this year. Some of the featured bands included
Pulse, The AUB House Band, Extorted, Bringing it Back,
Payphone Rendezvous, Tim Hassal and the August Company,
Neverland, Fawzi and the Band, and many more. “I really
liked the band turn-out this year,” said English Literature
Junior Lama El-Kallassi. “I think it’s great that AUB is helping
to encourage young artists in Lebanon.”
Outdoors 2010 included a series of carnival-style shows,
featuring puppets, magicians, and clowns in the Kid’s Area,
as well as jugglers, acrobats, unicycles, and parades in the
West Hall area. One of the jugglers, Mohamad Aziz, had
come with the circus group Cirquna Falasteen. “We are a
Palestinian circus team that came into being to help bring
smiles to the children in Palestinian refugee camps all over
Lebanon,” he said. “Today, we’re at AUB to spread that same
sort of joy to the children here at Outdoors,” he said.
AUB Honey Day strives to preserve greener
Albert Einstein once said, “If the bee disappeared off
the surface of the globe, then man would only have four
years of life left.”
This prophecy was the driver behind the motto of AUB’s
Annual Honey Day, “Bee Not Mean, Let’s Go Green!” Held on
May 26, 2010, on the lower campus and hosted by Professor
Rami Ollaik’s honey-making class.
Honey Day this year revolved around bees’ vital function
in the ecosystem.
“Bees play a very important role in pollinating plants;
without them, many plants would not be able to reproduce;
the food chain would collapse; and life on Earth would not
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subsist,” said Ollaik.
The day saw students offering free samples of bananas
drizzled with citrus honey and selling a medley of honey
products, including citrus and Laklouk honey, royal jelly and
honey muffins, with profits going towards AUB’s live apiary.
Participants were treated to the live extraction of AUB
comb honey, which is mostly from eucalyptus trees.
Tamara Kteily, a Business senior, said the event helped
dispel many common fears about bees.
“Before I took the course, I was a little afraid of bees. Now
that I know how to handle them, I have realized that they are
harmless, and help the environment in phenomenal ways.”
Honeybees in particular will not sting or attack a human
unless the human interferes with their hive, she explained.
According to Professor Ollaik, honeybees do not just
produce hives but tremendously impact the ecosystem.
“In mid-2006, the world witnessed a strange phenomenon
called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), where beekeepers
started to notice that bees were disappearing from their
hives. CCD has led to the annual loss of some 30 to 40
percent of honey bees in many countries,” he explained.
Profits go towards AUB’s live apiary.
The phenomenon is possibly linked to factors of environmental
degradation, like climate change, global warming,
and pollution. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been put
into researching CCD.
Keeping apiaries in urban settings has the value of
helping to keep bees active and busy, as well as providing
them with a pesticide-free habitat, Ollaik explained.
“As for AUB, the live apiary has been a part of the campus
for over ten years, before CCD spurred urban beekeeping.
AUB’s apiary brings pollination benefits onto the campus,
thus contributing to maintaining the greenery,” he said.
36th Folk Dance Festival enthralls AUB
Fifteen dance groups, representing schools, colleges, and
dance centers, participated in the 36 th Folk Dance Festival,
held on AUB’s Green Oval on Sunday, May 30, 2010.
As the Master of Ceremonies announced each troupe’s
name, members paraded gracefully, displaying their colorful
costumes before taking their allotted positions.
Maroun Kisirwani, dean of Student Affairs at AUB,
thanked participating schools and trainers, noting that the
dancers had trained hard and “promise[d] to perform beautiful
dances.”
Dancers performed routines from all over the globe,
reflecting a variety of cultures including Indian, Greek,
Sampling free citrus honey-drizzled bananas.
American, Irish, and Lebanese.
While all dances were professionally executed, some
were especially memorable. The “Indian Exhibition Dance,”
performed by Ramel El Zaydaniyeh School, was a particular
delight.
The Howard Karagheusian Center performed an
“Armenian Exhibition Dance” in traditional national dress.
The “Fusion Arabic Mix Dance Exhibition” by Shouf
National College was performed to jazzy Arabic music,
with the female dancers dressed like young Lebanese
princesses.
The “Zorba Dance Exhibition” by the Youth Group of the
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