Home / News, Videos & Publications / News /

Launching the American Associates Village at Sde Boker to Make Room for More Students

July 5, 2011

Uncategorized

A moving and exciting cornerstone-laying ceremony for the American Associates Village at Sde Boker took place on May 31, 2011 as part of the University’s 41st Annual Board of Governors Meeting. The new student housing complex will make it possible to double the number of graduate students now studying at the campus.

“I know that the graduates who will come to these institutes for their higher degrees will be ambassadors for BGU and Israel,” said Robert H. Arnow, chairman emeritus of the board of governors; past president of American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Americans for Ben-Gurion University); and the largest contributor to the Village to date.

The ceremony was attended by American supporters and friends of BGU from around the world, as well as members of the board of governors, who came to BGU’s Sde Boker campus as part of this annual “open house” event.

Everyone present had the opportunity to participate in the ceremony by signing the official scroll before it was lowered into the ground at the cornerstone of this new student housing complex. They were also invited to place a small shovel of concrete into the hole. See video of the ceremony.

A minor sandstorm that blew through the ceremony only added to the pioneering spirit of developing the Negev. For many, building a home in Israel’s desert for students from around the world is the continued realization of David Ben-Gurion’s dream.

BGU’s Sde Boker campus is home to the Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies (AKIS), the educational arm of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, and the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism, which just launched the International Graduate Program for Israel Studies.

Both of these international graduate programs are taught in English. AKIS attracts students from around the world. They come from Nepal, Peru, Turkey, Italy, China, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, as well as Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, the United States and Israel.

While Sde Boker has the classroom, laboratory and teaching capacity to double the number of students it can accept into its international graduate programs, there is simply no place to house more students. This housing shortage is having a real impact on the institutes and the students at Sde Boker. For example:

AKIS has been forced to reject the applications of hundreds of highly qualified, motivated candidates who want to come and live, study and contribute their talents in Israel.
Married graduate students studying at Sde Boker looking to start families must take into consideration the lack of available family housing when making their life choices.

Americans for Ben-Gurion University understands the critical role that providing modern housing facilities could play in the lives of students and prospective students at Sde Boker and decided to initiate this project in honor of the 40th anniversary of the University. The Village will be a combination of new construction and renovation of existing buildings to be purchased.

A large portion of the funding for this project needed to start the construction is in place, but much is needed to complete it and grow the number of international students.