Former United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was the keynote speaker and the honorary degree recipient at AUC’s 86th graduate commencement that took place at the university’s New Cairo Campus on Tuesday. Addressing the 117 graduates from various disciplines including business administration, public administration, journalism and mass communications and computing, Ghali highlighted the five major global problems that must be resolved to achieve “great international solidarity and purpose.”
According to Ghali, the problems include the crisis of the international organization; the fact that the time of fundamental and absolute sovereignty of the state has passed and that commerce, disease, communications and environmental facts transcended state borders and are immune from state control; the impact of globalization on the average citizen; the various conflicts and chaos worldwide and the international economic and financial crisis.
Boutros-Ghali calls for “states, non state actors, civil society (to) take on new responsibilities,” he adds, “it is still not too late to create a New United Nations for a new era, this new organization will be more than an instrument for peace and development and democratization among nations, it will be the repository of hope for humanity.”
“From time to time, the American University in Cairo recognizes men and women of distinction in the fields of scholarship, science, public affairs and the arts who have made lasting contributions to the life of Egypt, the Arab World, U.S. – Middle East relations, or to AUC itself,” said AUC President David Arnold in honoring Boutros-Ghali the honorary degree.
During the graduate ceremony, several awards were also presented to faculty and graduate students. The Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors Award, established to recognize excellent research and creative endeavors of full-time faculty, was awarded to Professor of Mechanical Engineering Salah El Haggar. This award is a testament to the contribution of scholarship to the academic life of the university. The decision is based on scholarly achievements, with major weight being given to the work published, presented, performed, or exhibited while in the service of AUC within the last three years. In addition to this public recognition of the winner, the award consists of a certificate and $5,000.
Other awards included the Frank G. Wisner Award for Scholarly Excellence and the Tawfiq Pasha Doss Award. The Frank G. Wisner Award, established to recognize the graduate student with the most outstanding thesis on modern Egypt, was presented to political graduate student Hadeer El Shafie for her thesis on fishermen of Lake Nasser. El Shafie graduated from AUC with a bachelor degree in political science and plans to pursue her Ph.D. in environmental policy in Egypt.
Moreover, the Tawfiq Pasha Doss Award, given to the best thesis in English and comparative literature and political science, was awarded to Martino Lovato who wrote his thesis on the comparative analysis of historical novels, including Italian and Egyptian novels. Lovato plans to pursue his Ph.D. in comparative literature in the United States.
According to Arnold, graduate studies have become an important landmark at AUC. “Whereas graduate degrees used to constitute less than 10 percent of the total number of diplomas conferred by AUC, last year they represented more than 25 percent of the total degrees awarded by the university,” said Arnold.
The American University in Cairo (AUC) was founded 90 years ago and is major contributor to the social, political and cultural life of the Arab Region. It is a vital bridge between East and West, linking Egypt and the region to the world through scholarly research, partnerships with academic and research institutions, and study abroad programs. An independent, nonprofit, apolitical, non-sectarian and equal-opportunity institution, AUC is fully accredited in Egypt and the United States.
