Divided no more: New road improves safety
Dr. Joseph Jabbra, Mrs. Leila El-Solh Hamadeh and Beirut Mayor Mr. Abdel Menem Al Ariss.
LAU students, faculty, staff and visitors are able to walk freely between the Beirut campus and the School of Business and Riyad Nassar Library complex after an old road that ran through the Beirut campus was closed and a new one was built around the complex.
The Alwaleed Bin Talal Humanitarian Foundation donated the generous amount of $500,000 to fund this project, which, with the support of the city of Beirut, took about a year to complete.
At the road inauguration ceremony in February 2008, LAU President Joseph Jabbra thanked the donors for their generosity. “This institution has been able to construct a road and bypass the two buildings to make sure our students, staff and faculty are protected from any risk,” he said.
Abdel Salam Marini, the foundation’s vice president for academic and humanitarian affairs, reminded students “to keep believing in Lebanon, and not to count their college years as a gateway for immigration.”
At the end of the ceremony, the foundation’s president, Leila Solh Hamade,unveiled a plaque on the new road, accompanied by Jabbra, Beirut Mayor Abed El Menem Al Ariss, Beirut Internal Security Chief Ghassan Barakat, LAU ’s president emeritus, Riyad Nassar, and LAU board members and officials.
