Chancellor leaves with best wishes to his University

By Mahdi Abdulla Murad

AUIS Voice Staff Reporter

www.auisvoice.org

Joshua Mitchell, the acting chancellor of AUI-S, will leave AUI-S for good at the end of this semester. Mitchell said that many wonderful events happened at AUI-S during the nearly two years that he has been the top campus administrator at the University.

“I came here at the beginning of August 2008,” he said. “There were only 50 students. The administration was very small. There were very few teachers, we had a very small operation, and we had huge challenges. There have been many moments during the last two years when I wondered whether something wonderful was going to happen. And it did.”

Raz Jaff, Mitchell’s executive secretary, said from the first day she worked with him, she felt she was dealing with “a person in charge of looking towards creating a distinguished high level of education and teaching” in the region.

“He learned a lot about Iraqi society in general and about American attempts to create a better society in Iraq,” Jaff said. Rosalind Warfield, director of EWPLI, said Mitchell should be proud of creating a University that is the finest in the Middle East.

“Dr. Mitchell has had a leading role in establishing AUI-S as an eminent university in Iraq,” she said. “Because of his careful guidance, we will move to a magnificent new campus next year. Building a university is something only a few people have the honor of doing, and Dr. Mitchell should take pride for his part in creating what we all believe will be the finest university in the Middle East.

Mitchell’s work at AUI-S was not only as the acting chancellor but also as a teacher. He taught political philosophy last semester.

“I found that [the AUI-S students] are full of wonder and naturally interested in their world,” he said. “They are very different from my Washington students and in some respects better than my Washington students. I was very happy with them.”

Aisha Qais, 22, from Baghdad, who was one of Mitchell’s students, said that she felt like she was in the ancient time during the class with Mitchell.

“I wish I could take more than one class with Dr. Mitchell,” she said. “It was a class that full of information, enjoyment, critical thinking and experiences. I felt like I was in the ancient time, during Plato’s time, and I could think same as the people thought at that time.”

Some AUI-S students and faculty members are unhappy about Mitchell leaving.

“I really feel sorry about his leaving,’ Qais added.“Sure we’ll have a new chancellor and he is good enough, but it’s impossible to have another Dr. Mitchell.”

Jaff added that his departure at the end of the summer will be a real loss.

“The responsibility of achieving the vision and mission has not been an easy task,” she said. “He has succeeded because his approach to communicating with others in the organization is motivated by the desire perform actions to further common goals to lead toward desired outcomes.”

Mitchell said he is sad to go and really wanted to be involved at AUI-S in the future.

“I have a great sense of satisfaction that we have done important works during the last two years,’ he said. “And I will be sad to go.When I came first, I was a little bit nervous, because I wasn’t sure how it was going to work. Now when I look back I think that we have done some amazing work. I really feel great sense of satisfaction, and I really look forward to be involved at AUI-S in the future. I don’t know how that it will be, but I’m pretty sure that it will work out that way.”

Mitchell added that AUI-S students have tremendous opportunities but also tremendous obligations. ‘This is a very noble project,” he said. ‘We can’t remember that during the days when we are fighting with each other or arguing with each other, and feeling discouraged. We always have to remember that the smaller problems will always get solved.[Students] have to be able to spread the words about this University. You have to support your teachers; it is a private University. It is, finally, your University, and you have to be responsible for it to grow.”