Hartford Courant (subscription), CT
Oct 9 2004
Bequest Revives Program At UConn
By GRACE E. MERRITT, Courant Staff Writer
STORRS — A former Enfield woman who happened upon the University of
Connecticut to see an exhibit of Armenian rugs and other artifacts in
the early 1980s has bequeathed more than $500,000 to restart an
Armenian studies program.
Alice Norian, a longtime Enfield elementary school teacher who
graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University, became friendly
with Arppie Charkoudian, the former director of Jorgensen Auditorium,
and Frank Stone, a School of Education professor with an interest in
Armenia.
When Norian died in 1999 with no heirs, she bequeathed $504,000 to
UConn. The endowment is expected to be supplemented by a $252,000
state grant.
The university offered a small Armenian studies program from 1987 to
the mid-1990s, supported by the fund-raising efforts of Stone and
others. But the money dried up and when Stone retired in 1994, the
program ended except for an ongoing faculty and student exchange
program with Yerevan State University in Armenia.
The new interdisciplinary program will be developed by the School of
Social Work, the Center for European Studies and the Office of
International Affairs.
The program will expand the exchange program, offer an annual lecture
series, provide courses on culture and history and develop
publications to help educate Americans about Armenia. There are 4,849
Armenian Americans in Connecticut, with the biggest population in New
Britain, where 277 live, according to UConn’s Center for Population
Research.