The 2006 opening ceremony saw President John Waterbury grasping the opportunity to credit the AUB community for its relief efforts as he commended the Crisi Response Team (SCRT) for its performance.

“All those who had to leave did so with a heavy heart. Some may have felt relief but none were happy,” he said.

Waterbury described in details the efforts and strategies adopted by the CRT in shifting around the essential personnel of the different divisions at the university to accommodate the tragic situation. With over 700 members from the hospital, the power plant, the campus protection and the Computer Networking System (CNS), Penrose Hall became “a village in its own right” and the Green Oval became a gathering place for children of all ages to play, laugh, and romp through the campus.

Other areas of the university were further recognized for their cooperation in maintaining their services as well as they possibly could. According to Waterbury, the CRT played a great role in securing fuel supplies to the university power plant in case of a power outage from the government. The CNS carefully preserved all the data and functinos of network systems that could have been knocked down by effects of thw war. Furthermore,

The Development Offices in Beirut and New York, took on a major campaign to raise money for the Emergency Medical Fund and succeeded in raising $1.2 million. “AUB is a machine with thousands of moving parts,” Waterbury stated, “If only a few parts are missing or broken, the machine will seize up and come to a halt.”

Waterbury’s speech was welcomed with various reactions. While members of the AUB community were thankful for the credit, some faculty members felt that he had went into details in naming administrative staff, but he did not give due credit to members of the faculty who had stayed in AUB and guided the students when summer classes were suddenly suspended. Many professors told Outlook that they were happy to hear Waterbury acknowledge Deputy President George Tomey’s role during the crisis, alongside the role of other members of the AUB community who were thanked for their efforts in the speech.