BEIRUT: The Lebanese American University’s campuses in Beirut and Byblos awarded degrees to 1,011 students over the weekend and conferred honorary doctorates on former first lady Mouna Hrawi, Ambassador Gilbert Chagoury and his wife, Rose-Marie Chagoury.

LAU’s Beirut campus also bestowed degrees Sunday on 675 students from its School of Business and awarded an honorary doctorate to Saeed Khoury, the head of Consolidated Contractors Company.

Among those in attendance were MP Ali Bazzi, who was representing President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker Nabih Berri. Ministers Nazem al-Khoury and Walid Daouq, as well as MP Serge Torsarkissian, representing former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, were also in attendance.

At the start of the commencement exercises on the Beirut campus, LAU president Joseph Jabra gave a speech recognizing the university’s progress in its drive toward excellence and introducing its new five-year strategic plan.

According to Jabra, the plan, which was approved in March, is “academically focused and will take LAU to a higher level of excellence, still.”

“We have adopted the best practices in student recruitment and enrollmentmanagement, and augmented our financial aid and merit scholarships to over $12 million,” Jabra said.

According to Jabra, the university’s Byblos campus recently inaugurated the Frem Civic Center, a signature building, and is about to complete the construction of the Gilbert and Rose-Marie School of Medicine building.

Two other buildings, the Gibran Library and the engineering lab, are currently being designed and there are plans for a major building on the Beirut campus to house the School of Arts and Sciences.

Jabra called on the graduates to remember their time at the university.

“No matter where you are, no matter where you go, no matter what you do, don’t forget LAU,” Jabra said.

In her speech, Hrawi thanked the university for honoring her and described her work, which has focused on issues such as women’s rights and the country’s national heritage.

“The doctorate degree in Humane Letters that you are conferring on me is a degree I have dreamt of for so many years,” Hrawi said, adding “having lost my father at a young age, I was unable to pursue my university education … I had to work hard to educate myself.”

Hrawi attributed her success in achieving some of her goals to her optimism, determination and the support of her late husband, former President Elias Hrawi, who “firmly believed in the importance of education.”

Addressing the graduates, Hrawi asked them to “dream this evening of a Lebanon where human dignity, integrity and respect of diversity prevail … where allegiance to our nation has priority over all other considerations.”

At the Byblos campus graduation, Chagoury stressed that education was the answer to the ills of country as well as those across the Middle East and North Africa.

Addressing the graduates, Chagoury said, “Ethics has been eroding even in the best of democracies and it is your responsibility and ours to work together and restore a sense of ethics to the world.”