The history of AU, and the honors program's place in it, was celebrated on Wednesday at a tea talk in Hurst Hall. Professor Abdul Aziz Said, a veteran of the school for half a century, explained to the audience what it means to be from AU and how its alumni have "a lineage to be proud of."
The hour-long lunch was inaugurated by two poems read by two of Said's students. The first called for solidarity with the victims of war, while the second implored listeners to "honor our humanity and ourselves."
Said, who came to AU as a student in the mid-1950s, traced back his personal history with that of AU through anecdotes about past students and faculty, and suggestions to the audience about carving a sense of history for the school.
"This university has a heart as big as the universe," he said. "This university has never used quotas and has never closed doors. ... This is sacred ground. This blessed [Hurst] hall helped bring in a Jewish fraternity" after one fraternity refused to admit Jews, blacks and Catholics.
Said described AU as an institution that produced global leaders, but often suffered from "a sense of transience" that prevented it from developing a conscious community. He encouraged students to be proud of the school and said that wherever he traveled in the world, he always came across someone who was associated with the school.
In particular, Said cited Patricia Harrison, a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, and Ghazi al-Yawwar, the interim Iraqi president, as successful people who passed through AU's doors. Yawwar, who took classes at AU but graduated from George Washington University, spoke at the school twice over the past year.
Said spoke with warmth and gratitude about the famous and less famous people who passed through the school's doors and were a part of history.
At a rally in the '70s, Said witnessed one of the splits between the anti-war and civil rights movements when a black student from a poor area rebuked students from more wealthy areas for demanding an end to AU's police training program.
"We need educated cops," the student told the crowd, according to Said.
Other events Said cited were negotiations between Holland and Indonesia for the latter's independence from colonial rule, President John F. Kennedy's 1963 speech and even The Eagle's role in getting a library in the '70s through reporting and editorializing.
"This school is a mountain of gold," he said. "To paraphrase [Winston] Churchill, never before has so much been done with so little."
Dr. Maria Green Cowles, associate director of the University Honors Program, praised Said after the talk ended.
"He is one of our treasures," she said. "I think Abdul Aziz Said says important things about how knowing who we are is important to know where we're going."
Cowles declared the event a success and said that the honors program intends on having more events in the future, such as a talk with Susan McElrath, the University archivist, on March 30 in Bender Arena.
The event drew 20 people to the University Honors office.
