GW Team Visits the Middle East

For ten days last October, GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Donald R. Lehman, and SEAS Dean Timothy Tong traveled through the Middle East in an effort to reconnect with GW alumni living in the region and to assess the opportunities for educational partnerships between GW and local institutions.

During recent years, the University has received several friendly inquiries regarding partnerships from individuals and institutions in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan. In response to these inquiries, President Trachtenberg, Executive Vice President Lehman, and Dean Tong met with officials from the University of Kuwait, the University of Jordan, and Hashemite University, which is also in Jordan. They also met with individuals in Bahrain who are involved in building a private university there. The principals of the new university in Bahrain would like to work with GW to create its academic programs, and they are especially interested in working jointly to build a computer science program. Discussions are now underway between GW and this new university to create an agreement that would facilitate possible future cooperation.

During their Middle East trip, the team held planned meetings with GW alumni in each country, including a meeting with Mr. Fahmi Bin Ali Jowder, the minister of works and housing in Bahrain and a GW/SEAS alumnus.

The team also had the good fortune to run into several alumni with whom they did not have scheduled meetings. In each instance, they were gratified to hear the alumni speak fondly of GW and say that they feel they received a good education from the University.

While the team had a full schedule of business meetings during their trip, they were able to wind up the trip with a visit to Petra, Jordan’s famous “City in the Rock.” Their guide for the visit was Mr. Edward W. “Skip” Gnehm, the U.S. ambassador to Jordan and another GW graduate.