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Photo courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center.
American University of Beirut, view of campus in the 1920s, exact date unknown.
After World War II, the Cold War prompted the Fund to focus on democratic education in areas of strategic importance. Support for the Near East College Association, Inc., began in 1946 and continued into the mid-1950s. The Association was a service organization established in the 1920s by the trustees of eight American colleges operating in the Near East, including Athens College in Greece, Robert College and the American College for Girls in Turkey, Damascus College in Syria, and the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, which the Fund also supported directly. The Association handled the endowments, administrative costs, and fundraising for the colleges. It also disseminated information about their mission, which was to promote democratic ideals such as academic freedom, individual opportunity, non-sectarianism, and modern methods in science, medicine, engineering, and public health, to students in the Near and Middle East.
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Photo courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center.
American University of Beirut in the 1920s, exact date unknown.
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Photo courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center.
American University of Beirut in the1920s, exact date unknown.
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Photo courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center.
American University of Beirut President Zurayck makes opening remarks at a 1953 conference of educators from universities in the Near East College Association.
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