AgEcon News
Department Portrays National Leadership
With Plan To Rebuild
Kabul University
Terrorism really flourishes in areas
of poverty, despair, and hopelessness. We have to show people
who might move in the direction of terrorism that there is
a better
way"
- United States Secretary of State Colin Powell
 In
February 2002, Purdue University hosted the Afghanistan Consultation
Workshop. The workshop was attended by twenty Purdue faculty and
administrators, eleven Afghan experts, and Dr. Sherief Fayez, Afghan
Minister of Higher Education. Representatives from the schools of
agriculture, engineering and technology attended the workshop.
The School of Agriculture was represented by Dr. David Sammons,
Associate Dean and Director of International Programs in Agriculture;
Dr. Wallace Tyner, Professor and Department Head of Agricultural
Economics; and Dr. Kevin McNamara, Professor of Agricultural Economics.
The workshop was the first step in re-establishing
a link between Purdue University and Kabul University. Rebuilding
Kabul University
will give the young people in this Central Asian nation greater
access to knowledge providing better leadership to support
development
throughout Afghanistan.
Dr. Wallace Tyner commented, "Two main roots of terrorism
are poverty and deprivation of opportunity. We hope we will provide
some basis for helping reduce poverty and certainly for reducing
deprivation of opportunity." The objective of the workshop
was to obtain advice from Afghan experts in developing a realistic
rebuilding plan for Kabul University.
The workshop concluded with Dr. Fayez signing an
agreement to work with Purdue in rebuilding Kabul University. This
agreement
allows
the university to seek funding from federal and international
agencies.
The 10-year rebuilding effort began with a fact-finding trip by
three Purdue faculty members in late March. McNamara, who had served
as a Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan in the 1970's, represented
the School of Agriculture.
 McNamara commented,
"I was stunned by the level of destruction. Yet, students -
including women - are flocking back to the University. The level
of optimism is high. They want to move on. They want to rebuild.
They are extremely excited that change is coming."
The three faculty met with Afghan officials to assess the university's
needs after 23 years of civil war, Soviet occupation and Taliban
rule left the university in devastation. McNamara said, "It's
a very different place than it was 30 years ago."
They found Kabul University's inside and outside walls riddled
with bullet holes; laboratories with no equipment; and dormitories
with no running water, no lights, and very cramped living conditions.
Even in the midst of such destruction, about 20,000 individuals
have completed entrance exams for next semester. Kabul officials
hope to enroll about 4,000 - 5,000 students, including many women
who were not allowed to attend college under Taliban rule.
The next step in the rebuilding effort is to prepare a proposal
which will be submitted to various international and national funding
sources. After viewing the destruction, the faculty agreed, "This is absolutely
the right thing to do."
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