Dartmouth College and American University of Kuwait(AUK) Extend Partnership to 2013

Dartmouth College Provost Barry Scherr and officials at the American University of Kuwait renewed the agreement between their two institutions today at a press conference on the AUK campus. The memorandum of understanding signed by Scherr, Chair of the AUK Board Sheikha Dana Nasser Al-Sabah, and AUK President Marina Tolmacheva, extends the partnership until 2013. Under the terms of the agreement, first signed in 2003, Dartmouth and AUK collaborate on numerous programs, and Dartmouth provides a wide range of administrative and academic consulting services to AUK. Over the years the two institutions have developed a flourishing relationship that involves faculty, students, and staff in both locations. Dartmouth experts in engineering, information technology, library sciences, communications, governance, and other areas routinely visit Kuwait and students, faculty, and staff from Kuwait travel to the United States to work with their counterparts at Dartmouth. 

"It is a great honor to be here with you as we celebrate the renewal of the partnership between our two institutions," said Scherr. "We are proud to have assisted the university since [2003] through a broad range of projects that help further an awareness of liberal arts education here in Kuwait and throughout the Arabian Peninsula." 

Scherr thanked his Dartmouth colleague, Professor Dale Eickelman, for the key role he has played in developing the partnership. Eickelman serves as the relationship coordinator for the Dartmouth-AUK project.

"By signing this document today," continued Scherr, "the bonds we have already established will continue to deepen, leading us both in exciting new directions. I am confident that as we approach 2013, we will celebrate a similar occasion."

"We admire Dartmouth's commitment to the liberal arts and want to emulate that commitment in our own country," said Sheikha Dana Nasser al-Sabah, chairwoman of the AUK Board of Trustees. "Dartmouth's academic strength, its focus on undergraduate education, and its international reach, are all strengths that we have been grateful to draw on over the last several years. As our university continues to grow, we look forward to an ever deepening partnership with our friends in Hanover, New Hampshire, and to a long and mutually rewarding collaboration." 

Scherr said that both Dartmouth and AUK are committed to excellence in higher education with an emphasis on the liberal arts curriculum. "At Dartmouth, and at the American University of Kuwait," he explained, "we know that higher education knows no national boundaries. We understand how important it is to provide our students with an education that equips them to deal with the issues we face as a global society." 

"AUK is required by Kuwait to have a foreign partner institution," said President Tolmacheva, "but the relationship between AUK and Dartmouth is closer, richer, and warmer that a mandated cooperative arrangement. Faculty and staff, administrators and students alike benefit from consultations with Dartmouth which pertain to our academic programs, organizational practice, legal advice, and professional development."

"Dartmouth students who come to AUK as interns add to the experience of student life at AUK, while AUK interns at Dartmouth gain invaluable experience learning and working in a superior academic environment while living in a quintessential American college town in New England," Tolmacheva said.

"No one," she added, "has been as instrumental in building this extraordinary collaborative process as the Dartmouth-AUK Relationship Coordinator, Munassiq al-Alaqat - a term he proposed himself - as Dr. Dale F. Eickelman, the Ralph and Richard Lazarus Professor of Human Relations at Dartmouth. Since 2003, he has been the key proponent of this collaboration and has continued in his role as a guide, friend, and colleague to both sides. From my first conversation with Dale in Spring 2005 to this day when we sign the renewed Memorandum of Understanding, he has offered kind and generous advice to myself and many other individuals at AUK. He is also known in Kuwait's higher education circles and beyond AUK as a champion of liberal arts and of academic quality and innovation. It gives me special pleasure to recognize Dr. Eickelman five years of service to AUK in the presence of the assembled educators, the press, AUK Board members and Provost Scherr of Dartmouth College." Tolmacheva then presented Eickelman with an engraved crystal plaque as a tribute from the AUK community.

Scherr also paid tribute to the members of the AUK Class of 2008, saying that they "occupy a special place in the history of this new university, and in years to come, will be honored for the legacy they will surely create."

Dartmouth College, founded in 1769, is a member of the Ivy League. Renowned for its focus on undergraduate liberal arts education, Dartmouth is also home to three historic professional schools: The Dartmouth Medical School, founded in 1797; Thayer School of Engineering, founded in 1867; and the Tuck School of Business Administration, founded in 1900. Its 4,300 undergraduate and 1,200 graduate students hail from across the United States and around the world.

The American University of Kuwait, founded in 2003, offers a learning environment based on the American model of higher education. It is dedicated to providing students with knowledge, self-awareness, and personal growth experiences that can enhance critical thinking, effective communication, and respect for diversity.