Classes at Lebanese universities resumed Feb. 5 after being shut down for 10 days when a political argument in a cafeteria started a riot resulting in four deaths.
AU has had a study abroad program at the American University of Beirut since spring 2005, but AU Abroad suspended the program when Israel attacked Lebanon following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier in July 2006. AUB's summer program was cancelled and three AU students were brought back to the United States.
A political argument that started in the Beirut Arab University spread outside the campus to the Tarik el-Jadideh district of Beirut. The street riots killed four people and set multiple fires throughout the city, the International Herald Tribune reported. As a result, police instituted curfews and shut down the university, according to the Tribune.
Sara Dumont, director of AU Abroad, said AUB recommended that AU not send students to Beirut until the situation stabilized and AUB is ready to have U.S. students again.
"Security is always a concern, everywhere," Dumont said. "But we never send students anywhere we don't believe that they can be safe and secure, as long as they follow all the advice given to them in their orientations and elsewhere."
Sara El Hashem, a senior in the School of Public Affairs, was one of the three "guinea pigs" that went to Beirut in spring 2005. She stayed through the fall semester, studying politics and Arab studies.
Despite visiting Beirut as a child and having family in the area, El Hashem said she was not prepared for what Lebanon would be like.
"I don't think we were really briefed on the situation," she said. "We weren't really prepared. It was a last minute thing when we went. There was no preparation really in our case."
Soon after arriving, the situation got worse, El Hashem said.
"I was there after former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated," she said. "I got there a week and a half before he was assassinated, and there was a lot of chaos. I waited so long to start classes. Of course I didn't feel safe - one mile away someone was assassinated."
Although El Hashem said her time in Lebanon was the best experience of her life, she said she never felt an overwhelming level of safety.
"There's not a great sense of security," she said. "You become desensitized sometimes because it becomes routine, which is kind of unnerving. It's a way of life, people live with it, and you begin to adapt that attitude too."
Sarah Johnson, a senior in the School of International Service, was enrolled in an intensive Arabic course at AUB during the summer of 2006. She was there four weeks before Israel attacked Beirut and she was evacuated. She said she had no idea that war would break out.
"I think that when Hezbollah initially kidnapped the Israeli soldiers, we thought that Israel's response would be very limited, so it was quite a shock when Beirut was attacked," Johnson said. "They hit in the southern suburbs of Beirut and the missiles were fired from the sea, which is right next to AUB's campus, so our buildings were constantly shaking from the overhead bombings, but in our area of Beirut, we were not in any significant danger."
Johnson said she was saddened to have to leave Beirut this summer, but she plans to return to Beirut to get her master's degree.
"I was initially extremely disappointed by the fact that I was not going to be able to return to Beirut for the spring semester, but I can understand that AU would not want students to go back given the heightened political tensions and the potential for the semester to be interrupted again," Johnson said.
Johnson said she visited Beirut over winter vacation, but left on Jan. 15, 10 days before the fatal riot that led to the closure of the universities occurred. Even then, Johnson said she could feel the tension in the air. Still, she said, she felt safe.
El Hashem said she agreed with the decision to close the universities, because the environment is so politically charged - especially at the universities - that violence can erupt at any time. Someone she knew was caught in the riots and hit in the head with a rock. Her friend suffered a concussion and is still in the hospital.
"It's a smart idea to close down the universities - they're political hot spots," El Hashem said. "It's a smart idea to let tensions go down. The universities would only perpetuate the situation. People don't take well to someone else having different views."
While she said she hoped AU Abroad would soon reinstate the Beirut program, El Hashem expressed doubts about whether that was best.
"It's hard to assess. I don't know if it would be a good thing for students to go, it could change at any time," she said. "It's a bit too iffy right now. Tensions are too high right now and everyone's too volatile."
El Hashem said despite the violence and the political instability, if Lebanon can get some strong, good leaders, it could be a leading nation in the Middle East.
"Lebanon has great potential. It's all a matter of time," she said.
