The president of the University of Dammam, Dr. Abdullah M. Al Rubaish, recently addressed a conference on The Role of Universities in the Community on Thursday, June 11, 2015 CE/ 24th Sha’baan, 1436 AH that was sponsored by UoD’s Office of the Dean of Community Service and Sustainable Development. Dr. Al Rubaish emphasized the crucial role the University plays in serving the community and reaffirmed UoD’s commitment to fulfilling its duties and obligations towards the community.
HRH Princess Abeer bint Faisal bin Turki, the wife of the Prince and Governor of the Eastern Province, gave a presentation in this conference, along with leaders in the field of community service who have contributed to reviving the community while enhancing and empowering numerous social institutions in the humanitarian, volunteer and development areas. HRH Princess Abeer stated that, “Community service cannot be sustainable unless the community is aware of its importance”. She also noted that the Eastern Province Council for Social Responsibility is currently planning a forum to determine the future goals and visions for all social institutions and that this forum would be a great opportunity for UoD’s Deanship of Community Service and Sustainable Development to work together, creating partnerships, encouraging the interaction between social institutions, strengthening their roles in government institutions and keeping the lines of communication open between all community institutions in order to activate this role.
Dr. Nagah Muqbil Algaraui, the Dean of Community Service and Sustainable Development expressed her gratitude to the conference’s presenters and attendees noting that they all shared the belief that community services was a duty and responsibility for everyone. She also mentioned the results from an electronic survey that the participants had filled out prior to conference, which assessed their impression of the cooperation of University of Dammam with regards to community service and their level of satisfaction with the services that were provided. Dr. Algaraui noted that more than 88% felt that UoD’s services were on the right track.
The Social Responsibility consultant for Saudi Aramco, Ahmed Al Ramah, gave a presentation highlighting the cooperation between Saudi Aramco and the University of Dammam. One of the fives areas in this partnership is concerned with social partnerships where various enrichment and strategy programs have been planned that have shared benefits that contribute to the development of the Saudi community as well as strengthening the concepts of sustainable development in the community at the individual, family, small institution levels as well as for the whole community.
