AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF ARMENIA DELEGATION VISITS MASS.
Mirror-Spectator Staff
NEWS | NOVEMBER 21, 2012 10:27 AM
Dr. Bruce Boghosian speaks, as the members of the AUA Executive Team,
from left, Maral Chalian, Gevorg Goyunyan, Ashot Ghazaryan and Dennis
Leavens, listen. KEN MARTIN PHOTO
By Alin K. Gregorian
WATERTOWN – The team at the helm of the American University of Armenia
(AUA) made a stop at the Armenian Library and Museum of America
(ALMA) to discuss the expansion of the university, including its new
undergraduate program, to a packed audience.
The panel from the AUA included: Dr. Dennis Leavens, provost; Maral
Chalian, vice president of institutional advancement; Ashot Ghazaryan,
vice president of operations; and Gevorg Goyunyan, vice president
of finance and President Dr. Bruce Boghosian, a Massachusetts native
who has led the university since 2010.
“People felt there was a need to learn more about it on the East
Coast,”Boghosian said. “The AUA is really a project of the University
of California. It is a gift from the entire diaspora to the Republic
of Armenia.”
The AUA was founded in 1991 as a collaboration between the University
of California, the government of Armenia and the Armenian General
Benevolent Union (AGBU). Boghosian said that the same body that
accredits the UC system, the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges
and Universities of the Western
Association of Schools and Colleges, accredits the AUA.
Carol Aslanian of the AGBU Central Board and Ed Avedisian, who serves
on the Board of Trustees of the AUA, attended the ALMA presentation.
Boghosian discussed the innovations at the university, including the
new undergraduate
program, as well as other new graduate programs.
Boghossian was the chairman of the Department of Mathematics at Tufts
University for 10 years before his appointment at AUA. Boghosian
received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) and his doctorate from the University
of California, Davis. Boghosian stressed that the goal of his team
is to make AUA a world-class international institution, following in
the footsteps of its sister school, the American University of Beirut.
“Our intention is to give a global education in Armenia,” he
said. For that reason, he noted, searches for faculty positions
stretch internationally. “The goal is to give the highest quality of
education. We measure ourselves against international institutions,”
he said, adding that they want to do so in a way that is “inexpensive
enough” in order for students to afford the tuition.
Currently, the tuition is about $2,500 a year for local students and
$8,000 for foreign students. The foreign students come from Iran,
Russia, India, Europe and the US.
The actual cost for educating each student for one year is considerably
higher – closer to
$10,000 – Boghosian noted. “We rely on donations to make up a large
part of it,” he said. He noted that the school has a “full-need and
need-blind” admission policy, meaning that a student’s inability to
pay any portion of the tuition will not impact his or her admission.
Boghosian and his team spoke about the launch of the undergraduate
program in September 2013, as well as getting more international
students into AUA, as Armenia is 98.5 percent ethnically homogenous
and the infusion of foreign students would benefit both the locals
and the foreign students in terms of exposure to Armenia.
The undergraduate program got the green light in June, after a year of
the approval process. Initially, the program will offer three majors
and accept 300 students annually. Boghosian said by 2017, therefore,
will have 1,200 undergraduate and a total number of 1,600 students,
including the 400 graduate students.
In addition, the school has close to 2,000 extension students studying
computers or English.
Another area in which AUA is accelerating is organizing conferences
and seminars, some jointly with Yerevan State University. Among
the speakers in the past six months have been Dr. Aram Chobanian,
the former president of Boston University.
Boghosian said AUA students have a lower rate of emigrating than other
schools, with 75 percent of graduates opting to stay in the country.
Leavens spoke next, noting that he joined the school in July. “I am
most excited to be in Yerevan. It is a very dynamic, very historic
moment,” he noted. He praised the students, noting they are “very
serious, dedicated and ambitious.”
Leavens stressed that the AUA was trying to focus on what the
country needs in order to help students fill that gap. He also noted
collaborations with the Armenian International Women’s Association
for the women’s entrepreneurship in Armenia, as well as now providing
education for 80 refugees from Syria, who thanks to two anonymous
donors, are studying for free.
“We feel honored to have these people on our campus,” he said.
Leavens most recent post was at the United Arab Emirates University,
where, over a period of seven years, he served as associate dean and
dean of Humanities and Social Sciences. Before that, he had taught
at several universities in the US.
A lively question-and-answer session followed the talk by the
panelists.
Serving as master of ceremonies for the program was Katrina Menzigian
of Arlington, vice president, research relations, at the Everest Group,
who had been a consultant to the AUA in its early years.
From: Baghdasarian