1988_12 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper December 1988

              December 1988
Hye Sharzhoom 10th Anniversary
Page 5
Leon S. Peters Business Building
Dedicated-ASP Moves in N*w Offices
Guests
Gifts
Hye Sharzhoom Staff
Perhaps the largest public building in
the United States to be named after an
Armenian, the Leon S. Peters Business
Building, was officially dedicated at
ceremonies at 11:00 am on Friday,
October 14,1988.
Dr. Harold Haak, President of California
State University, Fresno welcomed
faculty, staff, students, and community
members to the dedication which also
opened the privately funded Valley
Business Center. President Haak's comments were followed by a presentation by
Mr. Lewis Eaton, Chairman of Guarantee
Savings and a long-time friend of the late
Leon S. Peters. Dr. Jospeh Penbera, Dean
of the School of Business and Admini-
strative Sciences spoke on the impact of
the Peters Business Building on the
campus and community and David Sousa a
student representative of the School of
Business read the dedication plaque.
The Peters Business Building honors
the memory of a remarkable man who
served the Fresno community in many
ways. He served on many major University., Boards such as the University
President's Advisory Board, the CSUF
Foundation Board of Governors and the
Bulldog Stadium Fund Drive to name a
few. Thousands of students will use the
building named after the Fresno
benefactor.
The Peters Business Building is the
home of the new offices of the Center for
Armenian Studies and the Armenian
Studies Program which are on the third
floor. Room 384 of the east wing	
Hye Sharzhoom Staff
Gayane Makhmurian of the History
Institute of the Academy of Sciences in
Yerevan, Armenia was a guest of the
Armenian Studies Program November 20-
21, 1988. Ms. Makhmurian had an
opportunity to visit many of the
Armenian sites in Fresno, with a special
interest in those associated with the life of
William Saroyan. On Monday, November
21 she met with Dr. Dickran Kouymjian,
Director of the Armenian Studies Program
and Barlow Der Mugrdechian, Lecturer in
Armenian Studies and was given a tour of
the new Center for Armenian Studies.
Father Datev Tatoulian, parish priest of
Sts. Sahag and Mesrob Church in Reedley
assisted in hosting Ms. Makhmurian.
Ashot Shaboyan, senior advisor in the
American Section of the Committee for
Cultural Relations for Armenians Abroad
visited Fresno on Thursday December 1.
Mr. Shaboyan met with students,
community members, and the press during
On August 1 of this year the Armenian
Studies Program was relocated into the
Department of Foreign Languages in the
School of Arts and Humanities. The
change puts the Program along side the
Russian, Spanish, German, French,
Italian and Classics Programs. Elementary and Intermediate Armenian have
always been taught as Foreign Language
Department courses, now the whole
Armenian Program and the minor, which
it offers, is housed there.
When the new Armenian Studies Program was started in 1977, it was housed
in the School of Humanities. The Chair
of the search committee, which hired Dr.
Dickran Kouymjian as Director of the
Armenian Program, Dr. Joseph Satin was
Dean of the School then and
this semester expressed his delight at
being able to welcome Armenian Studies
back into his school.
In 1979 Armenian Studies had been
transferred   to   the   School   of  Social
Sciences as part of the Ethnic Studies
Program. But last spring, with the impending move of the Program into the
new Center for Armenian Studies in the
Leon S. Peters Building, the University
administration and the deans of the
respective schools in consultation with
Professor Kouymjian and Ethnic Studies
decided to transfer Armenian Studies back
to its original home. Ethnic Studies
moved its offices to the Social Sciences
Building at the opposite end of the CSUF
campus.
Professor Kouymjian and Lecturer in
Armenian, Barlow Der Mugrdechian,
expressed their satisfaction with the
Program's new offices and the warm
welcome they have had from Dr. Maurice
Gendron, Chair of Foreign Languages,
and the entire faculty of the Department
Several joint activities and programs have
been held. Armenian Studies already feels
totally at home in its new environment
Kalfayan, cont from pg. 1
something special.
Universities we think of as being
collections of departments and disciplines
of great variety. Something which makes
a university great is when that university
begins to establish special programs, that
pay special scholarly homage to particular
areas of human endeavor. We are proud to
count ourselves among the five universities in this entire nation that have
Armenian Studies Programs, but more
than that, we are incredibly proud of this
program, for the fact, that as an Armenian
Studies Program that is not merely a
graduate program, as it is at most of the
other institutions. Our program here is an
an undergraduate program to begin with,
and ii is from an undergraduate program
that you build. And we graduate more
students in Armenian Studies than any
other Armenian Studies Program in this
country."
CSUF Vice President for Academic
Affairs, Dr. Judith Kuipers said, " I have
been here for about five years and when I
came from Oregon State University to
Fresno, and before that Tennessee, and
Michigan before that I had read William
Saroyan, but did not honestly know much
more about the Armenian culture. But two
wonderful things happened to me. I met
Agnes Hagopian and learned much from
her. I also met Dr. Dickran Kouymjian
Albert and Elsie Margosian of Fresno
have donated a set of Armenian language
books, bibles, and dictionares to the
Armenian Studies Program. The collection
will be housed in the Sahatdjian Library of
the Center for Armenian Studies. The
books were donated in the memory of their
parents Paul and Nuvart Margosian and
Paul and Haiganoosh Kandarian.
Mrs. Ozzie (Kalashian) Moore of
Fresno has donated a 19th century
Armenian-letter Turkish Bible to the
Armenian Studies Program.
The Armenian Studies Program thanks
the Margosian family and Mrs. Moore for
their donation and welcomes additional
donations of books and photographs.
a presentation on the activities of the
Committee and the current situation in
Armenia. Mr. Shaboyan had met with
Barlow Der Mugrdechian of the ASP in
Yerevan in June. Among the topics
discussed with the Armenian Studies
Program was the plan to sponsor a second
ASP educational tour of Armenia for
students in June of 1989.
Armenian Studies Back in Humanities
and he was so full of intelligence and ideas
and enthusiasm for this wonderful program
called Armenian Studies...I am filled with
so much admiration for the generation of
your people who have contributed to this
valley. As far as the academic affairs
efforts on this'campus, we will continue
to support and value what the Armenian
Studies Program does for our students in
this university.
President Harold Haak who for many
years has strongly supported the ASP
commented, "...I would like to pick up on
the theme of Leon S. Peters because he
indeed was a wonderful person...and he left
as a lasting imprint on Fresno the notion
of a person giving back to the community
of which he is a part... And this building
is named after him because all of us
recognize that he preeminendy was the
kind of business person who believed in
the community around him and gave so
generously to it...the kind of generosity
which marks the difference between just
being so so and being excellent
throughout the university. And that is the
kind of generosity we have with your
support for our Armenian Studies Program, it truly does make a difference. I
want to thank everyone in this room for
your commitment to your university and
your support for the Armenian Studies
Program. It is deeply deeply appreciated."
From left to right: CSUF President Harold Haak, Mrs. Leon (Alice)
Peters, and Mr. Pete Peters at the dedication ceremonies for the
new Leon S. Peters Business Building and Valley Business Center.
Thank you to all of the donors
to the Third Annual Banquet
of the Armenian Studies Program
Mrs. Alice A. Peters
Fresno, Ca.
Margaret Josephine
Fresno, Ca.
Berge and Alice Bulbulian
Fresno, Ca.
Vahan and Anoush Chamlian
Fresno, Ca.
Bob Der Mugrdechian, Jr.
Fresno, Ca.
Mrs. Araks V. Tolegian
Sherman Oaks, Ca.
Mr. and Mrs. Arnie Avedian
Fresno, Ca.
Mr. Ralph Babaian
Fresno, Ca.
Dr. Martha Googoian Ensher
Fresno, Ca.
Arthur T. Gregorian
Newton, Ma.
Oscar Kasparian
Fresno, Ca.
Richard and Vartouhy Pandukht
Fresno, Ca.
Mr. and Mrs. Y. Stephen Pilibos
Fresno, Ca.
Dr. Leo and Armine SbJshmanian
Fresno, Ca.
Mr. and Mrs. K. Yervant Terzian
Rosemont, Pa.
Mrs. Frank Moradian
Fresno, Ca.
Mihran and Elizabeth Agbabian
Los Angeles, Ca.
Berge and Sara Der Matoian
Fresno, Ca.
Milton and Barbara Rubin
Fresno, Ca.
Rosellen Kershaw
Fresno, Ca.
Diana Dermenjian
Fresno, Ca.
Barbara Ishkhanian
Fresno, Ca.
Haig and Alice Varoujean
Fresno, Ca.
Mary Ann Mazman Sharp
Salinas, Ca.
Senator Nicholas C. Petris
Berkeley, Ca.
Quality Auto Repairs
Mountain View, Ca.
Kenneth and Lilyan Chooljian
Fresno, Ca.
Alice Gureghian
Fresno, Ca.
Berge and Sara Der Matoian
Fresno, Ca.
Alexander and Kristi Harmandarian
Fresno, Ca.
Hranoush Hussian
Fresno, Ca.
Armenian American Citizens' League
Fresno, Ca.
y.