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| Courtesty of Columbia University/ Anderson hopes to enforce freedom of speech at AUC |
A woman, a member of the AUC board of trustees and a board member of Human Rights Watch: all these characteristics combine for the first time in a provost at the American University in Cairo (AUC).
Lisa Anderson, who was a study-abroad student at AUC in 1976, was appointed provost on April 15 after a year-long international search by the executive recruiting firm Witt/Kieffer.
Anderson replace Tim Sullivan, who has been provost for 10 of his 30 years at AUC. Before becoming provost, Sullivan taught political science and supervised the launch of the now international Cairo Model United Nations (CIMUN).
Anderson will visit campus during the first week of May and return again in August to take over as provost, where she will head the academic side of the university.
Anderson’s appointment comes as a surprise to many, since she was not on the list of finalists announced at the start of the spring term. Those finalists included Ali Hadi, currently vice provost at AUC; Joshua Mitchell, professor of government at Georgetown University and former dean of faculty affairs at its program in Qatar; and Andrew Wachtel, dean of the graduate school at Northwestern University.
Anderson had declined the initial offer from the search firm, then asked to be taken into consideration again when asked a second time.
“There were things that I wanted to get done at Columbia [University] and in the region,” she said in a phone interview with the Caravan, referring to her initial decline. “But fortunately, they asked me a second time and it all worked out beautifully.”
Anderson is a member of the council of the American Political Science Association as well as the board of the Carnegie Council of Ethics in International Affairs. She served as dean of the school of international and public affairs at Columbia University and co-chair of the Human Rights Watch in the Middle East. Prior to that, she was chair of the political science department at Columbia and director of Columbia’s Middle East Institute. She was also assistant professor of government and social studies at Harvard University prior to joining Columbia.
Anderson is also the author of Pursuing Truth, Exercising Power: Social Science and Public Policy in the Twenty-first Century and The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1830-1980.
“The potential that AUC has is remarkable; it is a node in a network of world class institutions from Paris to Singapore,” she said. “I want to make sure that the absolute best people—faculty, staff and students—are there.”
Though she admits that she is unfamiliar with the new campus and issues related to the move to New Cairo, Anderson hopes that she can provide a “fresh eye” in decisions regarding the move.
“I think I can realize what would be more appealing to European or American students more than everyone who’s in Cairo and is so used to the scene,” she said.
Second on her agenda after the move to New Cairo is the “ramping up” of graduate programs, especially the business graduate program. “These could really be extended to make a mark in the international communities,” said Anderson.
Describing herself as a “well-known advocate of freedom of speech on campus,” Anderson also said that she “feels strongly” about providing students with a place where they can express their beliefs and opinions as part of the learning experience. “The whole purpose of education is to try out new ideas and defend them,” she said.
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