well....

Well.... Egypt is still quite an exciting place to be right now. The Revolution is far from over - the military government is still facing a lot of protests by Egyptians claiming that all the demands that were promised are still not met. Some good news is that curfew has been reduced to 2am-5am - which is almost non-existent. It really bothers some that it's still there at all, but many have been pacified by the fact that has been curtailed so dramatically.

Our task force re-designed the Freedom of Expression. See it here :
http://www.aucegypt.edu/about/expression/Pages/home.aspx

We are all very proud of the opportunity to get students, faculty and staff the opportunity to express themselves without fear of reprisal or fear of their speech being stifled and shut down because it doesn't conform to the views of a minority in power - or worse might be critical of them. That is not freedom - and we are trying to deliver freedom to the University community post-revolution.

Spring break is almost upon me.....i am seriously getting cabin fever waiting for it! I want to be on a plane so bad....

I recently got feedback on my latest video too. I have recorded a video for IUPUI to use in their welcome presentations to incoming freshman. They take parts of my graduation commencement speech and then add to it my new speech - one year later from Egypt. I have already received a comment through my cousin Angie that her friend's daughter saw it and was happy that she's attending a University that provided the background and experience for a student to travel around the world after.... I felt really good to be involved in such a great program. Thanks IUPUI.

I also recently circulated an idea to my bosses in Residence Life at AUC and a panel was convened today that I participated in with my superiors and another office and most of my ideas were adopted. I wanted to revise our current penalty program for students. I felt it was too punitive and did not focus enough on education and rehabilitation. In other words - here's a punishment for breaking a rule - but no effort given to working with the student to correct behavior and attitude, to have a chance to be heard, to learn something constructive from the process or incident and in the end - come out a better "member of the community" than before. So the program has been completely re-designed to encompass the elements of balance between learning something and facing punishment. After all - these are 18 and 19 year olds learning what it means to be responsible, mature and independent. They are going to mess up - we have a choice to be standing there with a billy club or to be waiting there to help them learn, grow and develop. I want to be a part of the latter and luckily my bosses agree and we are moving in that direction now.

It's been a great week - except for all that pesky homework :(
Until next week! :)