The American University of Beirut's motto is "So that they may have life and have it more abundantly"; yet over the past few years, the administration has been slowly increasing the cost of attendance, with the latest development being a massive 6% fees increase to be implemented next year, without sufficient reason as to why they are doing so. In 2010, the fee system went from only paying for 12 credits to having to pay for 15 credits (with the maximum amount of credits students are allowed to take being 17, and most required courses costing 3 credits each), and since then the total increase has been 37%.

The student committee (USFC) has conducted investigations into the matter, and found out the following:

1- Administrators at AUB earn on average 19% higher than the US administrators while professors earn 43% less than gross salaries in the US.

At AUB, administrators earn 3 times more than a full time professor.

Examples of administration salaries. Information available on the website of the Economic Research Institute :

- President Peter Dorman: salary + compensations 455,205$ /year equivalent to 37,933$/month

- Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and AUBMC: Mohammad Sayegh: salary + compensations 601,271%/year equivalent 50,105$/month

- Vice President of Finance: Stephen Kenny: salary + compensations 300,467$/year equivalent to 25,038$/month

- Vice President of Human Resources: James Radulski: salary+ compensation 227,326$/year equivalent to 18,943$/month

- Provost Ahmad Dallal: salary+ compensations 278,815$/year equivalent to 23,234$/month

- In parallel, the highest salary a professor at AUB does not exceed 79,000$/year equivalent to 6,583$/month

2- Evidence of inefficiency in the system: AUB has two offices that do the same work with huge discrepancies in costs: the Facility Planning and Design Unit (FPDU) charges at least 3 times more than the Physical Plant department for the same service.

Other facts include:

The minimum wage is less than $400/month in Lebanon.

- President Peter Dorman: 37,933$/month MORE THAN 94X THE MINIMUM WAGE

- Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and AUBMC: 50,105$/month MORE THAN 125X THE MINIMUM WAGE

- Vice President of Finance: 25,038$/month MORE THAN 62X THE MINIMUM WAGE

- Vice President of Human Resources: 18,943$/month MORE THAN 47X THE MINIMUM WAGE

- Provost Ahmad Dallal: 23,234$/month MORE THAN 58X THE MINIMUM WAGE

Thus far, we students have held protests and strikes, and the movement has made it to several news and media outlets:

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/aub-student-uprising-horizon

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1109817?ref=feeds%2Flatest

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2014/Feb-27/248679-hundreds-protest-aub-tuition-hike.ashx#axzz2wavDrFoK

The official student pages can be found here:

Stop The Tuition Fees Increase

Education Renaissance Lebanon

UPDATE:

Provost Ahmed Dallal has resigned his position. http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/203048

Education is a right not a privilege. Student demands include stopping the steep fee hikes and transparency from the administration with regards to this issue. The Board of Trustees met on March 21st - help us pressure them even more by signing this petition and preventing the tuition fee increase!