1997_03 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper March 1997

              March 1997
Hye Sharzhoom
5
A Semester at Berkeley
By Dr. Dickran Kouymjian
What was it like to teach at
Berkeley? I have been asked that
many times since returning to
Fresno. Not much different than
teaching at Fresno State. The best
students in my classes at the University of California were about
the same as the best students at
Fresno State, except mat there were
proportionately more of them in an
average class up there.
The teaching load is more
merciful at Berkeley, usually two
courses instead o f the four at Fresno.
But each course is four credits instead of the three here and meets
four hours a week, so it is eight
hours of lectures versus twelve at
CSUF. Classes are on the whole
bigger and so is the campus and the
student body, twice the size. The
greatest difference seems to be the
general seriousness of purpose one
feels at UCB, and I suppose at any
UC campus, because they are universities which are considered research institutions awarding the
doctorate in nearly every discipline.
Thus, even on the undergraduate
level the competition is clearly felt.
Students want their money's worth
(tuition is several times higher than
at Fresno State) and insist on getting it.
At the beginning of the semester the average student shops around
attending up to ten courses in the
first two or three weeks or multiple
sections of the same course before
finally deciding which one offers
the best instruction. I was warned
by staff and faculty that class size
in the first weeks can be inflated by
as much as 50% and was even discouraged from taking attendance,
and reporting absences.
Student attitudes toward work
and grading are both similar to
Fresno State and different. There
was the same complaining about
grades. On the other hand written
assignments were handed in remarkably promptly, with students
demanding precision about due
dates. Students also made much
more use of office hours, to such a
point that I had to schedule a sign
up sheet some weeks. Some stu
dents came back over and again
setting up a barely disguised private tutorial.
This seriousness seemed to be
a reflection of students as interested in getting an education as
getting their degrees. I was pleasantly surprised during my first
weeks on campus in August and
September to have been asked by
secretarial and administrative staff,
"Is there anything else we can do
for you to make sure you are giving
our students the best education they
can get?" This is a literal quotation
that was repeated three times to me
from three different sectors of the
campus and I
wondered if it
was in the
policy manual,
a kind of greeting like grocery
store clerks -;^
who say hello
to each customary at the cash
register. I discovered it was
a genuine concern.
Berkeley
has its problems, for sure.
I was told that it
has the lowest
graduation rate in the UC system
and that probably many fewer freshman finally end up with their degrees than Fresno State students.
My specific experiences involved my duties as the second
William Saroyan Visiting Professor of Armenian Studies. This endowed chair program has been trying for a decade to raise sufficient
private funds to establish a regular
fulltime position at UC Berkeley,
similar to the ones at UCLA and
Fresno State. In 1995 they bad
enough of an endowment to invite
a professor for one semester, thus
creating a visiting position until
such time as the endowment allowed for a regular professor. Administratively I was in four different sections of the university with
four separate mailboxes! The
Saroyan Chair is housed in the
Slavic and East European Studies
Program, which in turn is part of
International and Area Studies. I
taught an upper division English
Department course on William
Saroyan (only appropriateconcern-
ing the clever naming ofthe chair)
and a second course on Armenian
Cinema in the Film Studies Program, part of the Department of
Rhetoric. Each department integrated me wholly and offered me
office space, a mailbox, an e-mail
address, but unfortunately a computer only with great difficulty.
Among the rewards of the experience was teaching William
Saroyan to English majors, a rare
occurrence for the Saroyan course
aHvr-'~- ■ .-■•
which at Fresno State is listed only
under Armenian Studies. I was not
surprised that some English majors
had never read Saroyan, but I was
disturbed thatseveral confessed that
they had never heard of him. Of my
24 students, mostly English majors, only four were Armenian. Encouraged by their enthusiasm for
the subject and the quality of their
writing and thinking, I decided to
organize a Saroyan conference to
commemorate the 15th anniversary
of the author's death. With class
help, one student handled the publicity, another the conference program, we were able to invite the
world's leading Saroyan scholars
for a conference entitled "Saroyan
Plus Fifteen" held on campus on
November 15.
Since the conference has been
widely reported on, even in Hye
Sharzhoom, I wish only to relate
that aspect of it that was the most
interesting to me. At first I thought,
some of mese students could present
papers on Saroyan as good as those
of the professors being invited so
why not extend the conference one
day to have a student session? Class
participation was optional and extra credit. Five students (all upper
division English majors) were willing to try it. Eventually, only two
stuck it out, Michael Kovacs and
Michael Kloster, but they were
joined by a third student, Micah
Jendian from San Diego State, who
had taken my Saroyan course in
Fresno. In the end, I judged it
would be segregation to put the
three on a separate student
panel and insisted that their
papers be integrated into regular sessions of
the conference.
Certainly
this was one of
themostpositive
experiences during my Berkeley
stay. All the students were behind their classmates, who, ap-
prehensive
about being on
the same platform with the very
experts whose books they were
quoting, wrote and rewrote their
essays. They had a dry run in class
with heavy questioning and criticism. I assured them continually
that the work they were doing was
as good as the experts and that the
level of their own preparation would
be on a par with that ofthe scholars
present. In fact the three students,
two undergraduates from Berkeley
and one graduate from San Diego,
gave what were recognized by everyone as three ofthe best papers in
the conference. A member of
Berkeley's own English Department also read a paper on Saroyan
and the conference raised the conscience of English literature specialists, especially a new crop of
them, toward the merits of
Saroyan's craft.
The experience in the film
course was somewhat different, but
equally surprising. A weekly showing and lecture in a large audio
visual auditorium on Monday
nights attracted 40 to 50 students,
including in this course a large number of Armenian community auditors. The regular students were
almost all film majors, 15 out of 25,
only five of them Armenians. Obviously, film majors just look at
movies differently than non-film
majors. Thus, when discussing a
film like Queen Christina directed
by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Greta Garbo, they found Armenian connections that I never
saw myself in the direction.
Mamoulian never made a single
film with Armenian content in it,
yet the non-Armenian students especially continued to develop
themes that turned around exile and
Diaspora. This happened time and
again with other films. On the
other hand, some Armenian auditors always wanted to turn discussion of Armenian language films
or even films by Atom Egoyan or
William Saroyan toward its Armenian nationalist content; thus, on
more than one occasion I was forced
to move the post-film discussion
toward the cinematographic qualities of a film. In a film course with
determined film majors the quality
of filming, scripting, acting, and
overall cohesiveness is primary, and
political or national messages secondary. The auditors hopefully
learned something from the extraordinary input of young film specialists who had never previously seen
a film by or about Armenians.
Ultimately the most valuable
part of such a teaching experience
is to once again leave your home
institution, your own students, to
see how things are done elsewhere.
It affords new perspectives and fires
one up with new energies.
In mid-December I discovered
I had a fifth mailbox in the Program
on undergraduate studies, and even
though I found my first three pay
vouchers two months late in my
fourth mailbox, I just didn't have
the courage to go across campus to
empty one more. Who knows what
I missed?
Two Major Supporters of Armenian Studies Pass Away
Within a week during the last
days of February and the first days
of March death came to Isabel
Berberian and Meline' Kalfayan.
Their names were familiar to hundreds of students and supporters of
the Armenian Studies Program.
The first endowed chair in Armenian Studies and the first chair to
become operative on the campus of
California State University, Fresno
bears the name of Haig and Isabel
Berberian. I have had the honor to
be the first incumbent of that chair,
named after the Berberians thanks
to a most generous donation from
Isabel and Haig's daughter Dianne
and son-in-law Dr. Arnold
Gazarian. Next year will mark the
tenth anniversary ofthe Berberian
endowment.
Mrs. Berberian had been in
failing health for many months.
Her husband had passed away in
1987 and she continued herjife in
Modesto surrounded by the
Gazarians and her four grandchildren: Janalee married to Brian
Melikian, Michelle married to Dr.
John Arakelian, Rena married to
Wayne Rutledge, and Alyssa. The
Berberians, both Isabel and Haig,
were characterized by discretion
and gentleness. Their attachment
to the Fresno community, including Armenian institutions like the
church and the Armenians Studies
Program and their generosity to it,
is reflected in the continuing public
service of the Gazarians. Arnold
Gazarian serves as the Chair ofthe
Armenian Studies Program Advisory Board and together with
Dianne have stood behind us at all
times. I also had the good fortune
to teach two of Isabel Berberian's
grandchildren, Rena and Alyssa.
In one of those unlucky coincidences that life seems to reserve
for us, Meline' Kalfayan passed
away the day of Mrs. Berberian's
funeral. She had been in and out the
hospital frequently these past
months, but seemed each time to
bounce back with her perennial
optimism. She and her husband
Sarkis (Sam) Kalfayan established
a special endowment fund in 1991
for the support ofthe newly created
Center for Armenian Studies on
the CSU Fresno campus. The Sarkis
and Meline Kalfayan Center for
Armenian Studies includes in it the
John Garabedian Director's office,
the Sahatdjian Library, and the
Avedian Archives. As the first
Director of the Kalfayan Center
and the Armenian Studies Program
it houses, I have felt assured of the
future of Armenian Studies at
Fresno State due in part to the
Kalfayan endowment which will
continue to benefit in the years and
decades to come through the
Kalfayan's estate.
Sarkis Kalfayan served for six
years as the first Chair ofthe Armenian Studies Program Advisory
Board and he and Melin6 have
stood steadfast in their support of
Armenia and Armenian Studies.
More than once in difficult moments, whether it be the need for
computers at our sister institution,
Yerevan State University, or aid to
bring over exchange students from
Armenia, Sarkis and Melin6 were
ready to help.
Melius was active in community affairs as member ofthe Eastern Star, Daughters ofthe Nile, and
Daughters of the Vartan. I had the
pleasure of Meline's gracious hospitality more than once. I also had
met her father, the scholar Hovaness
Babessian, at the Cilician
Catholicosate in Antelias, Lebanon while he was doing research in
the late 1950s.
On behalf of the Armenian
Studies Program, its faculty, staff,
and students, and in the name ofthe
Advisory Board, I would like to
extend our deepest condolences to
Dianne and Arnold Gazarian and
their family and to Sarkis Kalfayan,
and to thank mem for their constant
support of our work.
Dickran Kouymjian
Haig & Isabel Berberian Professor of
Armenian Studies
Director, The Sarkis and    Meline
Kalfayan Center for Armenian
Studies