Barzani Building, American University of Kurdistan, Semel, Duhok. December 2019
Not a love-fest
After Saddam Hussein declared war on his own people, namely the Kurds, the US created a no-fly zone in the north of Iraq in 1991. This allowed the Kurdish militia (Peshmerga) to better arm and train themselves and become a REAL modern army. The Kurdish region of northern Iraq became a peaceful oasis in a turbulent region. Masrour Barzani, graduate of American University in Washington, DC, son of Kurdish stateman Masoud Barzani, grandson of Mustafa Barzani a Kurdish hero and legend, and sitting Prime Minister of the region wanted to create his own university as an homage to his alma mater and to show gratitude of sorts to the US for their support. Masrour, in fact, had become the Prime Minister of the semi-independent region of Iraq, Kurdistan, just as I arrived. This is my story of working at his university, AUK.
The location of AUK could not be less auspicious. Located on the edge of the village of Simele near the site of an Assyrian Christian massacre by Iraqi Arabs (assisted by the Kurds) in 1933, as many as 3,000 people might have perished there with the Assyrian presence effectively "eliminated". A significant minority of Assyrian and Chaldean Christians attended the university and they still remembered this tragedy although the Kurdish students were quite oblivious and quick to remind foreign teachers how much they loved and respected the Assyrians who live on THEIR (read: Kurdish) land - never mind who came first. It was not Kurdish land.
The building itself was a neo-classical explosion of columns and porticos with a dome. The interior was equally grand, but focused solely on wowing visitors. 100% Turkish built and designed in a country with sky high unemployment, the place just never seemed to fit the landscape. Even in my short stay, classroom space was getting tight since more emphasis had been put on the jaw-dropping lobby and marble-paved corridors than the functional rooms. The building itself was all "faux" something or other. You could rap on the columns both interior and exterior and they were hollow. On frustrating teaching days, instructors often sighed and said "this university is as fake as the building itself". Security to enter the place was very tight because the children of the Kurdish elite attended including those of Masrour Barzani himself. I had to go through an airport-style security check every morning to enter even after going through an inspection at the front gate. The "first kids" even had Kurdish Secret Service attached to them who looked like lost "Men in Black" characters looking for the right film set. It was not real.
Our cafeteria caterer was "Mado", an upscale Turkish restaurant, which was one of the few authentic foreign franchises that existed in Duhok (mainly because Turkey was just 3o minutes away by car). Our cafeteria food was actually not bad AND the coffee shop made decent espresso-based drinks. One bright spot were the baristas at the coffee shop, Khaled and Ahmed, lovely young Kurdish guys. Khaled was a Syrian refugee and had escaped to Duhok and landed the job because of his excellent English. While I was there, he had his first child, Eileen. He was a very proud Dad and showed me her photos often. Getting coffee was probably the best part of the day. I am still in contact with Khaled who now works elsewhere. It was occasionally nice.
Masrour Barzani, was referred to as "the Chairman", never by name. I used to call him Voldemort for that reason - "he who shall not be named". Such a cult of personality he had created that Kurds only spoke his name in hushed tones (of reverence or of utter hatred). Masrour controlled everything via his proxy, Rania Majeed, the head of the AUK Foundation. He himself was the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the university. His word was law and superseded everything. Masrour was an oligarch flat out and used that absolute power which his family (tribe) had amassed during their rise to power. So scary was his reach, that WMF panicked every time I spoke Masrour's name out loud for fear someone might hear me and take it the wrong way. Akin to Saudi Arabia, people had the fear of lèse-majesté except WORSE. You either joined the cult of adoration akin to Kim Jung Un, or you became a silent dissident. It was scary.
AUK shattered a lot of images for me. The Board of Trustees consisted of the Presidents of the American University of Paris and Beirut, Peter Galbraith - a former US Ambassador, the governor of Duhok, and assorted other local illuminati. At their twice annual meetings with the faculty where we spoke frankly and directly to the numerous ills of the place, the above crew listened intently. After that they delivered a report to the Chairman, who, after consulting with the Rasputin-esque Rania, basically ignored it and told us to carry on with our good work. Let me be very clear, the President of the American University of Paris and an illustrious US Diplomat continue to serve on that board with full knowledge they participate in a poorly run institution with dubious academic integrity. So much for respecting people in such vaulted positions. It was eye opening.
The AUK Foundation exists to support the university. Such a foundation is nothing new since many universities have attached foundations. What IS interesting is that the leader of said "Foundation", Rania Majeed, a very close personal friend of "the Chairman", actually was tasked with running the university (informally, of course). Given that she was far too busy hanging out in London with friends, she asked her sister to mind the shop. Thus, Niyan Majeed, the Acting Head of HR and the Assistant Payroll Manager, actually ran the entire university during my time there. Oh, did I mention she only had a high school degree and barely spoke English? She, her husband, and their lackeys formed a powerful cabal that everyone was terrified of. No exaggeration, when they entered any room the mood changed - I expected the Star Wars Imperial March to start playing. They appeared to be some comic distillation of evil characters from a selection of Disney movies. Their decisions trumped the President and Provost in all matters. Not only were they incompetent, but they were mean-spirited. Anyway, the "Foundation" supported the university (which was non-profit). The Foundation raised money, "loaned" it to the university and when the university got grants from the Kurdish government or other sources (like the US State Department) for its many scholarships and programs, AUK then paid back (???) the Foundation. Money in, money out, money back in. I always said at least I knew my salary was exceedingly CLEAN. It was audaciously corrupt.
Let us go onto the string of Presidents. First, there was Michael Mulnix, founding president (whom I never met), apparently driven out by all the corruption. Next was John Menzies, ex- US Ambassador extraordinaire, who was there during most of my term. Just as I left, Randall Rhodes joined. There were rumors about Mulnix's foibles, but I shall not speak ill of someone I never met. Menzies, on the other hand, suffered from the beginning stages of dementia most certainly. The man was there for two years and literally did NOTHING. He was hired because of his involvement in the establishment of the American University of Bulgaria. Interestingly, his name does not figure prominently on that university's website and he keeps no close connection to it in spite of being a "founder". At AUK, at least he was a great benefactor to children in a nearby Yazidi refugee camp (for which he does have my respect), but as a president he was less than useless. He was succeeded by Randall Rhodes, an Armenian American who came from the University of Maryland - Frostburg via the American University of Armenia. His recommendations were stellar (I was on the search committee) - like his current employer really wished him well in his new position - far from Yerevan. Apparently, he learned early on at AUK to take his big salary and go with the flow. He brought some of his cronies down from Yerevan to fill vacant positions even if they were not qualified for their jobs. For example, the Director of the Center for Academic and Professional Achievement (which includes the pre-university English Language Institute - hugely important and lucrative) holds an MBA and has no experience in education whatsoever. Never mind that though, Dr Randy Rhodes gets to live in a luxury flat at the base of Mt Zawa {see: Zawa Mountain] in the French Village - as long as he toes the line. He knows on which side the bread is buttered most certainly. The incompetence was unbelievable.
The students could be grouped as follows: those who wanted to attend for political favor and to try to get close to the children of the elite; those who did not qualify for FREE university education in Iraq because their high school scores were too low - but did qualify for "martyr scholarships" if their fathers had been killed in action; and finally those on merit scholarships that actually thought an "American" university would provide a better education than local universities. The students were the worst of my entire career. Not a SINGLE student after two years of teaching large numbers of them in General Education showed even a glimmer of achievement. The most demotivating teaching of my life, I was literally wasting my time and theirs AND they were unappreciative of my (or any other serious teacher's) efforts. Faculty regularly left after a year or less in disgust. In spite of that all, there were a few sweet kids among the students and I felt sad that they actually thought they were attending a real university and were learning something in hopes of getting a job outside of the usual path of nepotistic connections in Iraq. It was a sham.
My colleagues were also bottom of the barrel academics. The very few of us who were truly qualified teachers, like my friend and colleague, SP, used to laugh about it. She often quipped, "and we thought there wasn't any place worse to work than Saudi Arabia". Never say never. There were times that King Khalid University in Abha, KSA and its faculty seemed a breath of fresh air compared to AUK. That was indeed sad. Paul Philippe was into drinking and I was elected to "speak to him about it" (what an uncomfortable conversation that was). Asadul [see: snow day] never really knew where he was at any given moment. Philip from Nigeria was hired because they originally thought he was from the UK - he spoke a combination of "baffle" and "quotations from Captain Obvious". His students said his classes were worse than Asadul's, which I found hard to believe. Then we experienced the dubiously qualified "I am an architect" Marga who knew zero about engineering and seemed only expert in stirring every shit pot available. Afterwards, she claimed innocence if there had been any offence - "I was only trying to make things better". Oh, I could go on and on -- it was a ship of fools and highly paid fools at that (of which I include myself). These were the dregs of academia.
In spite of it all, I survived two years and made a few friendships there professionally and keep in contact with some of the students. It was not a total loss, but it truly was as dire or WORSE than I described. I promised "no hate" in my blog, but I never promised to whitewash the truth.