This piece was co-written with Sahar Khamoosh.
Before coming to Al Akhawayn University you must have encountered one of its social media ads, advertisement signage, info sessions, and receptions in different hotels and student forums. Or, some AUIers might have visited your high school with booklets containing appealing images of centers, and opportunities that you would find, if you decided to join the university. It is a marketing strategy that heavily highlights that AUI offers a different place filled with various possibilities that are American-themed, promising a flourishing experience that you’ll find nowhere else in the country.
Seduced by all these promises, you successfully applied and were accepted at Al Akhawayn University. Unfortunately, you didn’t exactly find what you came for. Between internal miscommunication, the disinterest of students, understaffing, and more, how real and accurate is AUI’s marketing strategy? Are we only trying to impress the outside sphere while neglecting the inner issues?
Hillary Clinton Center for Women’s Empowerment
In 1999, only 3 years after the university opened its gates to the public, the Hillary Clinton Center (HCC), was launched, after Hillary Clinton visited campus. On paper, the HCC’s initial goal is to advance scholarship and knowledge production about gender and women’s rights in North Africa. It also aims to empower rural women associations to become economically self-reliant through workshops and programs.
“I have been at AUI for two years already, and I have never heard of this center before.”
Asmae, a Sophomore student
After taking a look at the page dedicated to the HCC in Al Akhawayn University’s website, all that was found was an inactive Facebook page, no information about ongoing projects and partnerships, or information about the people involved in the program. However, a video posted back in 2018 showcases a series of workshops and talks organized by the HCC, since Fall 2013, hosted and presented by caucasian western women scholars in English or French. They presented and discussed political and international issues.
The lack of diversity in these initiatives is noticeable. A center that puts at its center rural women should have had workshops in local languages. Empowering women figures that they can actually relate to, speaking about subjects that could have an added value to their everyday life.
On another note, no records were found about any scholarship given to any North African student to pursue their students as claimed by the mission statement of the HCC. As much as this initiative is used as a marketing tool for new students, it is not favored nor popular among AUIers for its lack of inclusion of the student body in its initiative. “I tried to attend one of their workshops in the zero decibel room, but I got kicked out pretexting that it was not an event for students” assured Imane a junior student.
The “mystery” behind the sudden inactiveness of the HCC resides behind two majors factors: The lack of Human and Financial Resources. As a matter of fact, the creation of the center should have been backed up with a sponsorship from the Hillary Clinton Foundation but it, unfortunately, did not work out. Furthermore, the process of looking for speakers and opportunities to help rural entities needs a solid and sustainable structure of committed staff which was missing.
No Violence Alliance
The No Violence Alliance (NoVA) core mission was to promote a strong message that sexual violence and harassment have no place in the AUI community. Through communication, education, training, and advocacy for victims, NoVA provided support and guidance to a victim and assists her/him in the development of solutions in any case of physical, psychological, or structural sexual violence and harassment.
The idea of having such an entity started way before. As much as it was a marketing strategy then, it was a core value of the members of the community to get educated and address issues around bullying and harassment. Before NoVA, Sexual Harassment Adjudication Council (SHAC) had the responsibility of following up these cases with respect and confidentiality as it was otherwise before. The volunteer faculty and staff were contacted several times and many cases of sexual harassment were piled up for the president’s final conclusion. Yet after several repeated attempts to get the attention of the president of the time no response was received. The same happened to NoVA after trying to take the place of SHAC.
“He [the president] did nothing, said nothing, and ignored it… Finally, they [SHAC volunteers] said that we’re just gonna disband and dissolve.”
Dr. Duncan Rinehart, a member of NoVA
Leadership Development Institute
Leadership Development Institute (LDI) was founded by Dr. Duncan Rinehart, yet originally was a student’s idea to bring an American style of leadership program on campus. Since then, it has educated and trained 12 cohorts of more than 150 students about leadership skills and opportunities. It has come a very long way implementing projects through students and contributing to the region of Ifrane and wider communities. LDI alumni started working for NGOs or their own businesses and organizations while associations that they had worked with continued to adopt the informed strategies they and proposed to them. It also brought and eased the process of getting 60 CIP hours for many AUI students through which the students represented AUI’s image by sharing their knowledge and experience working with the local associations.
While words like “leadership” and “development” did sound very fancy being put in the AUI booklets for newly-admitted students and parents, it seems like their recruitment has stopped and their activities suspended. This happened at the beginning of this Spring 2021 semester which means that those who just joined AUI along with students who did not know about such an institute on-campus might not even get to experience it. It all started with some concerns about how the LDI would function while its coordinator is not on campus from senior administration. “I don’t get any real, direct, real clear answers about that except for some concerns about how can the LDI run without those people on campus? But when I answer that question, I don’t get any response or we don’t have any further discussion of it.” Dr. Rinehart told us.
“There’s a family member or a friend that you no longer like. You just stop communicating with them, right? and eventually they just go away and that’s kind of what happened with LDI.”
Dr. Duncan Rinehart, Coordinator of LDI
Therefore, seemingly this was decided that the two interns who would come from Nigeria also wouldn’t get the support needed to get the Moroccan visa. And lastly, with minimum communication, no support was given to the institute and therefore implied to be suspended. But even in the past, since 2008, LDI has been working with no actual budget dedicated to it except for a coordinator pay and some lunches that were sponsored after several back-and-forth emails.
“LDI is AUI’s program; it is for them to decide what they want to do with it. What is troubling is that they don’t seem to be deciding. So it is just slipping away like NOVA and Sexual Harassment Adjudication Council and some other things.”
Dr Duncan Rinehart, Coordinator of LDI
Tonny and Tosin were two hired interns who were planning to stay even more than the one-year LDI program to contribute and help with bringing diverse visions on the topic of leadership. However, they were asked to resign from the administration after spending one semester and giving up on other commitments they had. They were promised that they will receive support with their visas yet that never happened.
“I had worked several months without being paid, which I eventually got paid but after so many emails and I don’t feel like that is the kind of condition I want to work with.”
Tonny Silas, former LDI intern
What is seen in parallel in all these different initiatives undertaken, including the ones that we haven’t mentioned due to lack of information and people to talk to (Student Mobility Grant, etc.) first and foremost is that no one has ever heard about them after being admitted to AUI. But those that we do hear about seem to also face a lack of interest, support, and investment from the administration’s side both in their advancement as well as in the construction of their solid background. The desperate attempts to impress the outside world have somewhat worked considering the growing population of AUIers. However, the question of whether or not these marketable entities inside AUI are of any importance keeps some wondering.
