The American University of Beirut, along with most other Lebanese universities, resumed classes today after being closed for more than a week. AUB reopened with “cautious optimism,” its president, John Waterbury, wrote.

Gunmen allied with Hezbollah are off the streets of Beirut, the airport has reopened, and life in Lebanon appears to be getting back to normal — for now.

Mr. Waterbury was cautious because the country’s feuding political leaders have decamped to the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, where they are attempting to work out their myriad of differences. Lebanon is waiting to see if they can hammer out an agreement that will prevent the kind of sectarian fighting that closed Lebanon’s universities this month.

On Lebanese campuses the task now is to sort out how to make up for all the missed classes so that students can finish the semester on time.

At the Lebanese American University, President Joseph G. Jabbra announced that weekday classes would be held on the next three Saturdays and the last day of classes would be pushed back two days to allow for two additional makeup days. Commencement ceremonies will take place as scheduled.

The administration at AUB has yet to announce its makeup schedule, but in a letter posted on AUB’s Web site, Mr. Waterbury appealed to students not to allow the country’s crippling political differences to seep into campus life.

“This is not the first time that AUB has aspired to function normally in a difficult political environment,” he wrote. “In fact we have done so several times across our 141 years of dispensing education and medical care. At this critical time for Lebanon and for AUB, we ask you to remember that great legacy because you are now responsible for it.”

Mr. Waterbury also invited the international students who fled Lebanon when fighting broke out in AUB’s neighborhood to return to Lebanon no later than May 26.

“You are a very important part of AUB, and we want to see you back,” he wrote. —Andrew Mills