When the American University of Kuwait opens its doors for the first time next fall, it will do so with the advice of those experienced in offering a liberal arts education, members of the Dartmouth faculty and staff.
To meet the challenge of creating the first private university in Kuwait to focus on the liberal arts, AUK president Shafeeq Ghabra sought the advice of Dale Eickelman, the Ralph and Richard Lazarus Professor of Anthropology and Human Relations at Dartmouth.
"Dartmouth's commitment to outstanding liberal arts education is well known, and we are excited to learn from its experiences as we forge together a new path in Kuwait," Ghabra said. "It is vitally important to expose our new generations of leaders to the values inherent in the liberal arts."
Ghabra's aim is to establish a "quality private liberal arts institution" that would not only meet Kuwaiti accreditation standards but also those set forth in the United States, Eickelman said.
What has emerged since the initial contact is an advising relationship -- formally announced yesterday -- which Eickelman now coordinates.
"To teach critical thinking ... related with a sense of civic virtue is a value that I think we should be very proud of helping cultivate in a different environment," Eickelman said of his goals for the program.
The relationship includes several other members of the Dartmouth community, each addressing a different challenge the AUK faces. According to Eickelman, others involved include Associate Librarian John James who will advise AUK on digital collections, English professor William Cook who will work with the university's English and comparative literature programs and history professor Pamela Crossley who will help design the history major at the new university.
Christian Hummel '01 is also working with the newly appointed dean of students at AUK to develop a student handbook, which is "very deliberately going to take some of the key features of the Dartmouth handbook," Eickelman said.
AUK faces other challenges that Dartmouth advisors will address, as well, including the justification of the value of a liberal arts education in a region less familiar with its methodology and the instruction of all courses in English to a student body raised speaking another language.
"None of the students will have English as a first language. Yet, English will be the first language of the university," Eickelman said.
Another issue that Eickelman said was particularly interesting are the scholarship programs that AUK will institute to make its educational opportunities "accessible to a wide range of people."
In the future, the program will also provide opportunities for Dartmouth students to go to Kuwait for exchange programs or internships, Eickelman said, citing the AUK Media and Dialogue Center, similar to Dartmouth's John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, as a possible venue where students would work.
"Everybody I know on this campus is finding this a really exciting thing to be involved in," Eickelman said.
Though Dartmouth has been involved with other institutions overseas in a similar advisory capacity, including a relationship with the Hanoi School of Business in Vietnam, "this is the first in a long time that we're kind of going to the core of another undergraduate institution," Eickelman said.
The Dickey Center is working with Eickelman and the others involved with the program to develop "sustainable and appropriate" opportunities for conferences and student exchanges, Eickelman said.
