The new University of Cairo
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The American University in Cairo (AUC) is at last fully operational, having realized a 15-year-old aim of moving its campus from an 8-acre plot in the heart of traffic-clogged downtown Cairo to a 260-acre site on a desert plain outside the city.
The university bought land to the east of Cairo in 1997. By 1999, 52 architecture firms had submitted bids to design the new campus. The list was quickly whittled to five firms, one of which was Egyptian. These five, university officials determined, would collaborate to build the project.
A decade later, AUC’s 5,500 students made the commute — which from some parts of Cairo topped an hour and a half — for the first day of classes.
The campus today is a tribute to Egypt’s vast historical legacy and to the university’s academic ambitions. The campus’ main thoroughfare is an open promenade, the academic buildings looming on either side. Broad arches recall Cairo’s old city; black-and-white designs on the buildings represent a throwback to Mamluk architecture; the sandstone used in much of the construction was brought from Upper Egypt — a subtle nod to Egypt’s poorest region. And construction of a satellite city around the campus, dubbed “New Cairo,” is well under way.
With the creation of a new physical environment, administrators are looking to boost the school’s academic reputation from that of a regional powerhouse to that of a world-renowned academic center.
Part of the effort is better integration of Arab and American students, many of the latter being enrolled in study abroad programs, and more participation in sports and athletics. The recently opened athletic facility features tennis and squash courts, an Olympic-size pool, a track and countless playing fields — all of which were absent from the old urban campus.
The university is pressing ahead with several new programs, including a Masters degree in education by 2010, and the establishment of a business school and a school of public affairs.
Excerpted from and article by Theodore May for Global Post
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