Author: Kanayan Tamar

SIZE OF STUDENTS’ DRIVE MATCHES A BIGGER CAMPUS
By Walter Yost – Bee Staff Writer

Sacramento Bee, CA
May 21 2007

In all his years as an educator, Stuart Van Horn said the dedication
of students at the Rancho Cordova Center is what makes the hairs
stand up on the back of his spine.

Van Horn, dean at the Folsom Lake College satellite campus, recalled
the student body’s reaction last fall when students were relocated
to National University for six weeks while construction was completed.

"I could’ve put them in a minivan stalled in the middle of Highway
50 and said we’re having classes here," Van Horn said. "Few others
can match their commitment."

"We are the true people’s college," Van Horn says of the nearly
600-student Rancho Cordova Center.

Located in a Rockingham Drive strip mall, the school operates out of
a leased storefront next door to the Mt. Zion Church Center and the
Toner Cartridge Testing Lab.

Even though recent expansion nearly doubled the college’s size to
10,000 square feet — adding new classrooms, offices, a conference room
and a student lounge — there are homes in Granite Bay that are larger.

The college center’s cultural diversity is a reflection of the city
surrounding it. English is the primary language for only about 40
percent of the students, and English as a second language courses
constitute nearly a third of this fall’s class offerings.

At the school’s open house earlier this year, Van Horn said the
campus multicultural club held a food fair — offering dishes from
21 different ethnic groups.

Students’ family-income levels are significantly lower than at
both Folsom Lake College’s main campus and its El Dorado Center
in Placerville.

Asmik Dallakyam, a native of Armenia and the mother of six, has taken
several art classes at the Rancho Cordova Center and wants to open
an interior design business.

Sitting in a crowded watercolor painting class last week, Dallakyam
said one of her challenges attending college is transportation.

The Rancho Cordova resident doesn’t drive and said it’s hard for her
to get to the Folsom Lake College campus.

Her husband drives her to the Rancho Cordova Center, where she’s also
taken business and computer classes.

It’s not just the center’s students who have to make adjustments at
the storefront campus.

Talver Germany teaches beginning watercolor painting in a classroom
not designed for art classes.

Approximately 25 students and their drawing pads fill the room —
which is otherwise used for academic subjects like English and math.

A small sink in the back is the only place to clean up.

"We make it work," said Germany, a full-time counselor at Folsom
Lake College.

Part of the campus’ recent expansion includes a new student services
office, where Victor Duron, Brandon Cruz and Gayane Pustovit work.

Many of the students they assist, Duron said, are juggling school,
family and work.

"We help them with selecting courses, the application process and
applying for financial aid," Cruz said.

Cruz said the center provides "equal access to higher education."

Pustovit, who speaks Armenian, Russian and Ukrainian, keeps busy as
a translator at the college.

Van Horn, who also serves as Folsom Lake College’s dean of career and
technical education, said college officials want to open a permanent
campus in Rancho Cordova by fall 2012. They’ve been shopping for a
site along Folsom Boulevard with light-rail access.

Enrollment has continued to grow since the campus opened in spring
of 2001 and the school currently offers courses in 24 disciplines.

RUSSIA FM TO ARRIVE IN BAKU

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
May 20, 2007 Sunday 07:24 PM EST

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will arrive on an official visit
in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, on Monday. The forthcoming meetings
between the Russian minister and the Azerbaijani leadership will
focus on the problems of the CIS, the Caspian Sea and Nagorno Karabakh.

Sergei Lavrov "will be received by Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev, is expected to meet with Prime Minister Artur Rasizade and
his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov," spokesman for the
Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Kamynin said. The sides will discuss
"the implementation of the agreements reached on the top level bringing
interstate relations to a qualitatively new level by means of improving
cooperation in all spheres."

The foreign ministers of the two countries will exchange views "on the
possibility of broader cooperation within the CIS, higher coordination
of actions in international organisations." The interlocutors "will
attune steps for cooperation in the UN, the OSCE and the Council of
Europe," Kamynin added.

The negotiations will also focus on the Nagorno Karabakh settlement
situation. "Russia aims at assisting the parties to the conflict to
find a compromise decision," the diplomat pointed out. "Azerbaijan
and Armenia bear the major burden of responsibility for a final
choice of a settlement formula," Kamynin remarked. Russia "would be
ready to support a problem solution, which will suit all parties,
and if a compromise agreement is reached, will act as a guarantor
of settlement."

The Baku negotiations will highlight the issues of defining a legal
status of the Caspian Sea, ensuring security in the region and the
prospects of holding the second summit of Caspian littoral states.

The forthcoming negotiations will also focus on the prospects of
bilateral cooperation. "The economic aspect of cooperation is becoming
more and more important," Kamynin indicated. "A high economic growth
rate in Russia and Azerbaijan make these countries more attractive
in terms of developing mutually beneficial cooperation," the Russian
Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said.

"Prospects open up for broader cooperation in the fuel and energy
complex, science-intensive technologies, innovative activities,
and expanding direct economic ties between regions of Russia and
Azerbaijan," he noted.

"Cooperation in the humanitarian sphere makes a significant part of
bilateral relations," Mikhail Kamynin underlined. "We believe that a
valuable experience, which had been accumulated during the exchange of
the national years in the countries, should be used in the fulfillment
of the Russian-Azerbaijani programme of cooperation in the humanitarian
sphere for 2007-2009," the Russian ministry’s spokesman said.

FBI EXPERTS TRAIN ARMENIAN OFFICERS TO FIGHT CYBER CRIME

ARMENPRESS
May 18 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS: During the week of May 14 through May
18 three U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents have
conducted a Computer (Cyber) Crime Course at the Police Academy of
Armenia in Yerevan. The attendees included eight officials from the
National Security Service, five from the Armenian Police Service
and four from the National Bureau of Expertise, the U.S. Embassy in
Yerevan said in a press release.

The Computer (Cyber) Crime Training Course is designed by computer
experts to familiarize law enforcement officers with examples of
common computer crimes and investigative methods. The course has
given participants instructions on how criminals can use computers
to commit crimes, the risk of ‘hackers,’ to computer networks and
how to trace the computer evidence that criminals have behind.

The course was funded by the International Narcotics and Law
Enforcement Affairs Office of the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan. U.S. Charge
d’Affaires Anthony Godfrey presented graduation certificates to the
participants upon completion of the course.

This project is only part of the U.S. Government’s comprehensive law
enforcement assistance program in Armenia. The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan,
through its International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section,
has funded the renovation of such facilities as the National Bureau
of Expertise, the Police Instruction Center in Kanaker, the Border
Guards Training Facility in Yerevan and the Customs House in Vanadzor.

The Embassy has donated computer equipment to all these facilities,
as well as the computer equipment to the Police Academy classroom
where the cyber crime training course was held.

The Embassy is also working with the Government of Armenia to establish
a nationwide, computerized border management information system and
a nationwide computer network for the Armenian Police Service. The
U.S. government provides about $3 million a year in law enforcement
assistance to all these facilities.

RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM TO SHOWCASE STUDENT WORK
By Arla Shephard

Daily – University of Washington, WA
May 18 2007

Students and faculty will have a chance to learn about Cuban music
since the fall of the Soviet Union, gender differences in engineering
education and robots that detect wear in power cables, as Mary Gates
Hall hosts the 10th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium today.

Every classroom and open area in the building will be taken over
to make way for the expansive showcase, where students have the
opportunity to share their research projects with the larger University
community. There are 631 presentations this year, including five
performances at Meany Hall.

"We’re really excited; this is the first time we’ve managed to get
a performing arts session," said Janice DeCosmo, director of the
Undergraduate Research Program and associate dean of Undergraduate
Academic Affairs.

DeCosmo said the symposium is usually well attended, but it is more
useful for those who aren’t normally involved in research.

"Our primary purpose is to educate," DeCosmo said. "It’s not scary
or high-pressure."

Students obtain valuable preparation for graduate school, honors
theses or public speaking at academic conferences, she said.

Students create a poster or an oral presentation and are matched with
faculty members while working on their project. The experience can be
akin to "going to class where you have your professor all to yourself,"
one research participant told DeCosmo.

Senior Shannon Schmoll developed a critical-thinking component for
Astronomy 101 courses with her faculty mentor and astronomy lecturer
Ana Larson to help students understand the concept of parallax,
or why stars appear to shift in the sky due to the Earth’s orbit.

"I’m going to graduate school in the fall, where I will have to
teach, so [the symposium] prepares me for a career in education,"
Schmoll said.

This is Schmoll’s third year presenting research at the symposium.

"It’s really nice to get my research out into the UW community," she
said. "One of the reasons I came to UW was because of their strong
research symposium. I like how the UW showcases its undergraduate
research."

All disciplines are welcome, DeCosmo said, although the event consists
primarily of undergraduates in the sciences.

Projects range from junior Katherine Hallaian’s "Motivating Armenian
Youth Protest in Southern California" to junior Myra Aquino’s "The
Philippine Diaspora and the Medical Brain Drain."

The symposium begins at noon with poster presentations. Oral
presentations start at 1:30 p.m.

5/18/researchSymposiumToShowcaseStudentWork

MEDIA: NEW SCUFFLE TOOK PLACE IN MOSCOW BETWEEN PFUR STUDENTS, KARABAKH IS THE CAUSE

PanARMENIAN.Net
18.05.2007 16:32 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ New emergency case in Moscow: Students from
Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia again were fighting on the
Miklukho-Maklaya street.

The alleged organizer escaped on a car and now is in the police
list of those wanted. According to law enforcement bodies one of the
participants of the fight was taken to hospital with knife wounds.

According to preliminary information the fight was organized by
immigrants from Caucasus. And the immediate cause of the fight was
a political dispute: which country owns Nagorno Karabakh – Armenia
or Azerbaijan?

Some small brawls began during an event organized in the university
entitled "Planet South-East", where several thousands of students
and guests participated.

In the result they overgrew into a mass fight.

According to the police more than 100 students participated in
the scuffle. Law enforcement bodies managed to bring the situation
under their control only when an additional reinforcement arrived at
the scene.

Last month another mass fight took place in PFUR between foreign
students. Then the police managed to stop disorders without involving
reinforcement troops.

But during the following several days a strict control was organized
in the university and adjacent territories. Passions calmed down. But
obviously not for a long time, Russian media reports.

ICG CAUCASUS PROJECT DIRECTOR TO VISIT BAKU

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 17 2007

Magdalena Fricheva, Caucasus Project Director of International
Crisis Group (ICG) is scheduled to visit Baku on May 21-22, ICG
Baku representative Vugar Gojayev told the APA. The project director
will visit Azerbaijan along with ICG analyst for the Caucasus Kleir
Belessart.

Ms. Fricheva will have meetings with Azerbaijani officials,
representatives of the diplomatic corps in Baku, local NGOs and
independent experts.

The visitor will make investigations regarding the report on the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Fricheva will stay in Baku for two days and Belessart will continue
his investigations for some time.

ARMENIAN PREMIER SCEPTICAL ABOUT SPEEDY SETTLEMENT IN NAGORNYY KARABAKH.

Arminfo
16 May 07

Yerevan, 16 May: Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan has said that
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s latest statements give no grounds
to hope for a speedy settlement of the conflict in Nagornyy Karabakh.

Sargsyan said this in a conversation with journalists today.

Talks are under way and there is always hope for a settlement of the
[Nagornyy] Karabakh conflict, Sargsyan said.

"I have never spoken about opening any windows in the process of
settling the Karabakh problem. But, this said, I can reiterate that
the talks on the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh problem are
under way and that there is always hope for reaching agreement. But
the Azerbaijani president’s latest statements give no grounds for a
speedy settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict," Sargsyan said.

We recall that Aliyev recently said that "the Armenian side is
concealing the true contents of the talks, which is that Armenia should
return all of the seven districts [around Nagornyy Karabakh] to the
Azerbaijani side during the first stage of the settlement process".

YURI MERZLYAKOV: "CO-CHAIRS’ MEETINGS WITH AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS WERE VERY EFFECTIVE"

Today, Azerbaijan
May 15 2007

We did not have a chance to organize the meeting of Azerbaijani and
Armenian Foreign Ministers in Strasbourg, Russian co-chair of OSCE
Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov exclusively told.

The co-chair stressing the efficiency of the meetings between the
co-chairs and the Foreign Ministers said though there was necessity
for meeting of Foreign Ministers of the two parties to the conflict
it did not happen, APA reports.

Touching upon recent statements by the parties on the negotiating
process Yuri Merzlyakov appreciated it as normal.

"The details of the negotiations were publicized by the co-chairs
last year. Now Azerbaijan and Armenia publicize the elements of the
negotiations which embody interest for them. I do not think it is
the break of confidentiality."

Yuri Merzlaykov said the mediators will visit the region in late May
or early in June as it is planned.

"May be one of the co-chairs will come first and then visit the region
together with the rest."

URL:

OSCE CHAIRMAN SUPPORTS ACTIVITY OF OSCE MINSK GROUP ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH: RUSSIAN CO-CHAIR

TREND News Agency, Azerbaijan
May 15 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend E.Huseyov / The OSCE Chairman-in-Office,
Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, approves the
activities of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group regarding
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and intends to call on the sides, Azerbaijan
and Armenia, to promptly agree upon the key principles of the conflict
settlement, said the Russian Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Yuri
Merzlyakov, on 14 May from Moscow.

On 10 May, Moratinos discussed in Madrid with the co-chairs ways
of peacefully resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. "Before visiting Baku and Yerevan, Moratinos wanted to know
our assessments," Merzlayov said. Moratinos accepted our assessment
and highly assessed our activities. During his visit to the region,
the OSCE Head intends to call on the sides to promptly agree upon the
key principles of the conflict settlement. In addition, the Russian
diplomat said that on 10-11 May in Strasburg consultations were held
with the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia separately. "We
discussed uncoordinated base principles of conflict settlement and
the sides gave their reactions to our proposals. We will continue
working and prepare our proposals in this regard," Merzltakov said,
not commenting on the reaction of the sides to the proposals made.

Merzlyakov informed of the visit of the co-chairs to the conflict
region at the end of May. "The date of the visit has not yet been
confirmed because responses have not been received from Yerevan and
Baku," he said.

According to the diplomat, there is no agreement yet to organize the
next round of talks between the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia
on 10 June in Saint-Petersburg. "It will be clear after our visit to
the region," Merzlyakov said.

The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus started in
1988 due to the territorial claims of Armenia against Azerbaijan.

Armenia has occupied 20% of Azerbaijani lands including
Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven districts of the country surrounding
it. Since 1992 to the present time, these territories have been
under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan and
Armenia signed a cease-fire agreement at which time active hostilities
ended. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and
USA) hold peaceful negotiations. Moratinos will visit Azerbaijan and
Armenia on 4-5 June.

THE PROGRESS OF ARMENIA REACHED DURING THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION CAN’T BE TURNED BACK: HEAD OF THE PACE OBSERVATION MISSION

ArmInfo News Agency
2007-05-15 09:08:00

The progress reached during the parliamentary election and the steps
taken by the Armenian authorities can’t be turned back, Leo Platvoet,
the head of the monitoring mission of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe, told ArmInfo correspondent.

In this sense, he thinks that the returns of this election are
a guarantee that the next election on the basis of the improved
Electoral Code will be conducted better. "Of course, election is
something that has to do with political will and will of political
parties," he added. As there are still complaints about shortcoming of
political will, it is necessary to make some changes in this sphere,
he noted. "The active involvement of business into politics causes
big concern", he said and also touched upon "issues concerning the
transparency of financing the pre-electoral campaign of the political
parties".

L.Platvoet emphasized the importance of not only new measures but
also good implementation of the old ones to address these issues.