Dear members of the AUB community,
I hope you are safe under these difficult circumstances. Like many of you, we learned early this morning of threats issued against American universities in the region. We have been looking into these reports diligently and gathering facts amidst the many rumors circulating on media outlets. Please rely only on official communications from the university for updates.
At this time, we have no evidence of direct threats against our university, its campuses or medical centers. At the same time, out of an abundance of caution, we will operate fully online on Monday and Tuesday, with the exception of essential personnel. Accordingly, there will be no instructional activities or exams on campus during these two days. Our highest priority has always been and will always be the safety of our community and the people we serve.
At this moment, it is imperative to reinforce what we as an institution, and I personally, stand for. The American University of Beirut has stood for the peaceful emancipation and progress of the people we educate and serve for more than a century and a half. For 160 years, we have been an inclusive, empowering, and independent institution of higher education, one that has welcomed people from every faith, political affiliation, and background. Our medical centers continue to treat, heal, and cure people from all walks of life. We hold true to these principles as firmly as ever today.
Like many of you, I have spent my life abjuring all forms of violence, no matter the situation. I believe deeply in the principles best exemplified by Mahatma Gandhi, of peaceful self-determination for all peoples. That must be the role and mission of all educational and healthcare institutions the world over. We strongly urge all parties, without exception, to spare such institutions in prosecuting their conflicts.
We remain especially committed to teaching, healing, and serving those less fortunate, at all times. We at AUB will not be driven from our mission, by threats or violence. Not now, and not ever.
Sincerely,
Fadlo R. Khuri, MD
President
The two core sentences are quoted word-for-word from news accounts of Khuri's statement; the original statement announced online operations 'on Monday and Tuesday' (later extended to roughly two weeks), not an open-ended suspension
The bag-check intensification at all campus gates is the same protocol AUB instituted after the August 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion, it was reactivated rather than newly created on March 29, 2026