Last blog message:  June 18, 2012

 In my last message I promised a note to our readers about what the first commencement at AUIS was like.  This message is a fulfillment of that promise. 

 AUIS staged its first ever undergraduate commencement ceremony on Saturday, June 16.  It was held on the plaza outside the main administrative building.  The announced time of starting was 5:30, with an actual planned time of 6:00 p.m. The 30 minute discrepancy between stated and planned time was to accommodate the local habit of showing up late for whatever event is being planned, and the planning worked.  Had we tried to start at 5:30 many people would not have been there.  The other local wisdom is that the more important the person, the later he will arrive, and this too was played out.  No further comment.

 The weather was beastly hot – about 115 degrees Fahrenheit.  By the starting time of 6:00 p.m. it was cooling off a bit and there was a breeze, but it was mostly blowing around hot air.   With a couple of hiccups out of the way we processed into the venue to Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance: stage party first, followed by faculty, followed by students.  When the faculty were led to their reserved places, they discovered that a group of faculty from a nearby university were sitting in the AUIS faculty seats.  These guests would not move as, I was told, to do so would be a sign of dishonor. So they stayed in “our” seats and the last six AUIS faculty had to find seats scattered among the other VIPs.  The unfortunate student who had been charged with getting us to the seating area and out of there at the end was completely confused.  He came to me, in the middle of the speeches, to ask what he should do.  We got things worked out.  Then another student usher, charged with responsibility of getting the stage party away from the stage, came to me with a question based on the fact that certain key members of the stage party refused to be in a line of march.  We had worked out many details, but none of us expected this turn of events.  Again, we got it worked out, even as the speeches were being delivered.  At times, we were just making up the rules as we went along, but apparently it did not appear that way to others as I had several people, even those who had attended commencement ceremonies in the States, tell me later that the ceremony went together well.

 I wish I could say the same of the speeches.   Two local dignitaries spoke, and both chose to deliver their speeches in Arabic, Kurdish and English.  While I admire that kind of facility with language, the multiple translations of speeches that would be considered long even when delivered in one language stretched out the length of the program considerably, especially considering the fact that there were also speeches by the president of AUIS, and by the invited commencement speaker from the US.   Four speeches by “adults”.  Ugh.  Whatever happened to the virtue of brevity?  Then there were two shorter speeches by graduates, one by a representative of the MBA class, and one by a representative of the baccalaureate grads.   By far the best speech of the evening was delivered by the undergraduate student named Kurdistan Fatih.   She was prepared and she was passionate about what she said.  With all the speeches, a ceremony that should have lasted no more than one hour, ended up lasting closer to two hours. 

 The highlight of the event was seeing the students receive their diplomas.  They were joyful beyond description.  They seemed to sense the moment:  the first ever AUIS baccalaureate degree recipients. 

After the reception we met the families of two students with whom we have been especially close:   Kurdistan (see above) and Peshawa. 

Kurdy already has a job in the accounting department of a local business.  Peshawa will shortly be leaving for the US to attend Syracuse University on an all expenses paid master’s program.  He comes from a family in which neither his father nor his mother is literate.  What a change in one generation!

 The last of the graduation events was a party for the grads and their family and friends on the night following graduation.  This party was in the form of a traditional Kurdish dance like those we have attended in the past:  they announce a starting time of 6, start showing up at 7 and begin in earnest around 8; start the music, do a lot of dancing, take a break while the food is served, and then continue dancing until midnight.  Carolyn and I lasted until 10 p.m., long enough to celebrate with them and to say our goodbyes.  Some students came attired in their finest Kurdish traditional clothing.  Some of the women, who chose not to dress in Kurdish clothing, wore party dresses that, in their brevity, stood in stark contrast to the idea of the modestly covered female that we associate with areas of the world where Islam is the predominant religion.  What a fascinating culture to live in!  Party photo of the graduating classes of February and June is below.

Many more pictures are available at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/110654129069574667039/AmericanUniversityOfIraqSulaimaniGraduationActivities#

We have three more days here in Sulaimani before we leave early on the morning of June 21.  In this time we will have dinner with some students and with a faculty colleague.  I have cleaned out my desk, turned in my university-issued computer, keys, and ID card, and I have picked up my last paycheck .  How could I have guessed that a commitment to two semesters of teaching  in 2009 would lead to three and then to four and that they would loom larger in my imagination than many of my previous experiences as professor and administrator?  What an experience! 

As always, thanks for reading.

Next to last.....

Next to last blog message from Sulaimani.  June 15, 2012

It has been a little over a month since I posted a message on May 4, 2012.  Not much that was noteworthy occurred, hence no postings. 

This is the day after the last day of the spring term, and all of my grades are turned in.  I felt a great sense of relief when I clicked on the send button to submit my grades to the registrar.  Since my last posting, I have continued to be busy in preparing for my classes in US history and in the history of fine arts.  In general I have found the students more responsive to the contemporary periods than to the earlier periods in each of these courses.  In US history, the post-WWII era is of interest here because the Cold War, the US-Israeli relationship, and the world and US demand for oil have all had a direct effect on them.  This is also the period in the US when we see the culmination of several movements of freedom, especially for Blacks and women.  The role of the fiercely independent US woman runs counter to the tradition of the woman as the one who carries major responsibility for sacrificing self in order to be protector of the family and family honor that is so much a part of life here.  We had several interesting conversations about the respective roles of women here and in the West and of the changes taking place here. 

I have been impressed, as always, with the life stories that students bring to their classes.  In one class I had three young women from a town near to Sulaimani.  As I became acquainted with them, I came to understand that all of them have grown up fatherless, their fathers having been killed in conflict between Kurds and Saddam Hussein.  I was in conversation with one male student and asked him about his father’s name which is a part of the student’s name.  (A quick lesson on names in the Kurdish area:  people typically carry three names, their own given name, their father’s name and their grandfather’s name.  So my name, in this region, would be Carl David Victor.  Carolyn’s name would be Carolyn Glenn Cecil.  [Women always carry a name that unique to women, plus a second and third name that are unique to men.  Women do not change their names on marriage.] Only rarely is there a tribal or place name.  And there is no such thing as a family name, or surname, like Smith, Jones, Caldwell or Falls.  Most names are also nouns or adjectives, such as Jwan = beauty, Jwana = beautiful, Hanar = pomegranate, Dana = intelligence, etc.)  This student’s second name, his father’s name, had quite a noble quality and I asked if his father had lived up to his name.  The student’s response, “I don’t know.  He died when I was 1 year old.  He along with my grandfather and two of my grandfather’s brothers were killed by Saddam.”  Of course, I felt like a fool for probing where I should have known better.  I apologized but he assured me that no apology was necessary as they have come to live with their situation.  

His story and the stories of the three women noted above remind me of the intense respect that these fatherless students have for their mothers as they understand what it must have been like to raise children without the presence of fathers.  The idea of some sort of teenage rebellion against a mother or father is just unheard of in this culture.  Their respect for parents also serves as a painful reminder of a fact of US life, presented in the US history book and discussed in class, about the number of children growing up these days without fathers, not because of war, but because of the casual way that children are conceived and left by their fathers to grow up in a largely matriarchal culture.   Many of my students, both male and female, would prefer to hold on to local traditions about the roles of men and women rather than adopt US models and risk allowing the same destruction of family that they perceive as happening in the West.  It’s hard to present the more subtle aspects of a complex story when dealing with main points. 

In fine arts, in addition to the study of Baroque, Rococo, Classical, Romantic and Modern schools of art,  I asked students to listen to excerpts illustrating the evolution of music in the West from monophonic music of Gregorian chant to the development of polyphony.  We discussed contrapuntal music by listening to and watching Glenn Gould play Bach’s Art of the Fugue, and listened to music of the Classical, Romantic, and Impressionist eras, and to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, and Steven Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, a piece of late 20^th c. minimalist music.  One student admitted to me that he really did not like Western music because “it all sounds alike.”  What honesty!  Several students have commented to me as we ended the courses that they have learned a lot and enjoyed the classes.  That’s about the best that a teacher can ever expect to hear. 

Two other noteworthy events:    

1.  AUIS is holding its first ever commencement for undergraduate students on Saturday, June 16.  The undergraduates receiving degrees are the first and second cohorts of students who signed on to AUIS in 2007 as English language students, and then began baccalaureate degree work in 2008.  They are brave people, indeed.  All of them are bright; all did well enough on the exit exam from high school to qualify for high placement for free education in local universities, and yet all chose to believe the offer that a brand new university in very modest surroundings could provide more.  Once they gave up the local university option, there was no turning back.  Carolyn and I had a number of the students from the first and second cohorts in our classes in 2009-10, so this is as special a moment for us as it is for them. 

I have put to use my knowledge of planning commencement ceremonies in assisting in the planning of this one.  Anyone familiar with an AU commencement will find similarities between it and what will happen here tomorrow. I borrowed ideas in the creation of the program booklet and in the writing of the script that will be used by the AUIS president and other campus speakers during the ceremony.  I borrowed with the full knowledge of both institutions.  What I was reminded of as we decided on how to do commencement here, is that it’s great to have a tradition of dignified commencements, the various pieces of which are managed by people who have done their parts for a long time.  Here, in contrast, we are just beginning, and making up the rules as we go along.  I am just hoping that it goes smoothly, but I know that at a certain point, I will have to take my place in the line of march and give up on any further effort to make the parts fit together. 

2.  Carolyn has re- joined me here in Sulaimani.  Her arrival just prior to commencement was planned, so she too could participate in this ceremony.  She arrived here in the wee hours of Tuesday, June 12 after spending somewhere in the range of 30 hours in planes and in the departure lounges of airports in Indianapolis, Chicago and Istanbul.  The Chicago to Istanbul leg of the flight was the longest at around 11 hours; the Istanbul airport wait was the longest at just over 7 hours.  There is no easy way to get here.

When she arrived on campus later on Tuesday she met former students and talked with a number of staff people that she had worked with in 2009-10.  The university is still using the Quickbooks accounting system that she helped to bring online here during her year of residence.  As rewarding as this knowledge is, it is more rewarding to know that the people she worked in business office have on their own expanded their knowledge of the use of the software to a larger number of functions. 

On Wednesday evening, we invited all of her former students to come to our apartment for a time to meet and talk with her.  A majority of them came, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy talking with her and with each other.  Virtually all business majors who will graduate on Saturday were in her accounting classes.  To say that I am proud of what she accomplished here is an understatement.  See attached photos. 

We leave here on June 21, go to Istanbul for four days of site-seeing, and then fly on to our home on June 25.  It will be good to be home. 

I will post a last message from Sulaimani next week after commencement so you can get a sense of what this event looks like. 

As always, thanks for reading.