Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT — March 29, 2026 — Dear members of the AUB community, I write to inform you that, following the explicit threats issued today by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps against American universities operating in the West Asia region, AUB will suspend all in-person instruction effective Monday, March 30, 2026. Classes, exams, and most administrative functions will continue remotely until further notice. Only essential personnel — including AUBMC clinical staff and AUB Protection — are authorized to be on campus. AUB Protection will conduct bag checks at all campus gates. While we have no evidence of a direct, specific threat to AUB or AUBMC, this step is taken out of an abundance of caution and reflects our absolute commitment to the safety of our students, faculty, staff, and patients. AUB has stood with Lebanon since 1866 and reaffirms today its commitment to peaceful self-determination, nonviolence, and the principle that educational and healthcare institutions must be spared from conflict. Warm regards, Fadlo R. Khuri, President
This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.
Khuri's phrase 'out of an abundance of caution' is the verbatim language used in his Sunday statement and was quoted by Al Arabiya English, Naharnet, and JNS — the closest U.S.-style risk-aversion idiom in AUB's institutional vocabulary
The bag-check intensification at all campus gates is the same protocol AUB instituted after the August 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion — it was reactivated rather than newly created on March 29, 2026
AUB Protection is the university's in-house campus-security function; AUBMC clinical staff remained on campus throughout the closure because the medical center cannot suspend inpatient care
UPDATEWebsite+14 h
Approximate reconstruction·623 chars
AUB Status — March 30, 2026: All in-person classes and exams are suspended through further notice. Remote instruction begins today. Essential personnel only on campus; bag inspections at every gate. AUBMC remains fully operational for patient care. Visitors are not permitted except for clinical appointments. Students living in AUB residence halls should remain in their rooms except for essential needs and should not gather in common areas. Faculty and staff who are not essential personnel should not come to campus. Contact AUB Protection at the Main Gate for any safety concern. AUB stands with the people of Lebanon.
This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.
The residence-hall instruction is consistent with AUB's published emergency protocols; residence halls were not closed because most residents are international students with no immediate alternative housing in Beirut
AUBMC's continued operation reflects the same dual-function tension AUB managed during the September 17, 2024 pager attacks — clinical care must continue regardless of the broader campus posture
Inside Higher Ed described this as the first time since AUB's 1866 founding that the campus had been emptied in this manner
ALL CLEAREmail
Approximate reconstruction·535 chars
Dear AUB community, Following two weeks of remote instruction and continuous monitoring of the security situation, AUB will resume in-person classes and exams. AUB Protection will maintain enhanced bag-inspection protocols at all gates. We thank our students, faculty, and staff for their patience and our AUBMC clinical colleagues for their unwavering presence throughout this period. AUB's mission to serve Lebanon and the region — through education, scholarship, and healthcare — continues uninterrupted. — Fadlo R. Khuri, President
This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.
The enhanced bag-inspection protocol was not lifted with the campus reopening — a posture choice consistent with AUB's post-2020-port-explosion security baseline
Khuri's repeated framing — 'AUB's mission to serve Lebanon and the region' — is institutional language that emphasizes AUB's role as a Lebanese university chartered in New York, not as a U.S. outpost in Lebanon
Context
Background
The American University of Beirut is chartered by the Regents of the University of the State of New York, accredited by Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and operates a roughly 9,000-student campus on Bliss Street in west Beirut alongside American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC), Lebanon's largest tertiary-care teaching hospital. On the evening of Sunday, March 29, 2026, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps published a statement declaring that all 'American universities in the West Asia region' were legitimate retaliation targets for U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iranian universities, and demanding a U.S. government condemnation by 12:00 noon Tehran time on Monday, March 30. AUB President Fadlo Khuri's response — a community PDF dated March 29, 2026 — announced suspension of in-person instruction effective the next morning, with only essential personnel on campus and bag inspections at all gates. The closure was reported by Al Arabiya English, Naharnet, L'Orient Today, and JNS within hours. The case sits within the same March 2026 IRGC-targeting wave that drove NYU Abu Dhabi, NYU Tel Aviv, Carnegie Mellon Qatar, Northwestern Qatar, and Texas A&M Qatar into shelter or closure posture, and it is the only one of those responses where the institution is itself a Lebanese university operating under U.S. accreditation.
Analysis
Key Findings
01AUB's March 29, 2026 closure was the first time since the university's 1866 founding that its Beirut campus was emptied — a designation that places this incident alongside the post-1976 civil-war suspensions in AUB's historical record
02President Khuri's framing — explicit acknowledgement that there was 'no evidence of a direct threat' alongside an immediate full closure — illustrates the precautionary calculus a U.S.-chartered university must run when an actor with capability and stated intent publicly names it as a target
03AUB's response differs structurally from the Gulf-state responses (NYUAD shelter-in-place, CMU/NU Qatar partial closures) in that AUB operates a functioning trauma center that could not suspend clinical care — the closure had to preserve AUBMC operations while emptying the academic campus
Outcome
AUB suspended in-person instruction for approximately two weeks; classes and exams were conducted remotely. No attack against AUB materialized. The American University of Madaba (Jordan) and the American University of Sharjah (UAE) made similar moves the same week.