The $400

By Mahdi Abdullah Murad



July 28, 2010, was one of the happiest days in my life for I got a job after almost a month of looking forward to finding it. I was happy more than any one else because I had planned to do so many things with that small amount of money that I would get via working and to save at least some money for my next year study.

Unfortunately, my plan was completely spoiled after I opened my AUI-S account. What I saw in my e-mail was something that had never come to my mind before.

Dear Dashnye,

Please tell our students about a few changes this coming year in their fees. First, we’ve been able to hold down expenses so that there will be NO increase in tuition this year. We will, however, have to institute a dorm fee of $100 per semester for those who are living in the residence halls and also a book fee. This book fee will be $50 per semester for EWPLI students and $100 per semester for academic students. We will attempt to have a book buy-back when students return in order to offset some of these fees for students. (Further details about the book buy-back will follow.)



Students should be prepared to pay these fees to the finance office upon their return to campus.



Yours truly,

John Agresto

Provost

I have thought about almost everything about AUI-S but that e-mail. After that, I directly called my friends who were far away from AUI-S to tell them about that nice news. I told some of them, ‘Qazyakatan bu ba 2 qazya’, which literary means, ‘The trouble got doubled.” Because some of them, including myself, were already in debt for the DOOR DAMAGES.

Guys! Bear with me for a while, please!

First of all, when I read the part that talks about paying for the books, it reminded me the situation that I faced when I was in primary school. At that time, all the students in my school were required to pay for books. We, as the students, all obeyed to the rules and paid that money because the school had its excuses! They didn’t have enough money to provide copies of the books for all the students, so they took money from the students.

But I have a great suggestion for AUI-S!

You all know that we are on Ramadan now, and we know how much people are ready to offer charities. Therefore, why don’t we go to the Mosques and ask Mullahs to proclaim for donating the AUI-S. We should know that it doesn’t have money and its new compass is almost burnt under the sun. Therefore, I am sure we will collect a large amount of money that we will both finish the new campus with and copy as many books as we need. Thus, we will release both the students and the AUI-S under the pressure of lacking money.

I think the money asked for the dorms is nothing compared to all the benefits we get from the dorms.

First, they are the foolproof place to have fun for they are exactly like, CHAIXANA! So, you will never get bored there because there will be enough people in any apartment to provide so many activities such as (No need to name the activities for you can do whatever activities you are dreaming about). Second, guys you must remember who your neighbors are. Off course, right and left! So, you can join both the negative (-) and positive (+) in any necessary circumstances in both dorms to create something unique among yourselves. You should remember that the AUI-S is the only university that provides such a chance that doesn’t exist anywhere in the Middle East.

Third, the most important point that absolutely stops your complaining is that they are the place where you can forget what study and homework mean. As soon as you enter them, you have to be in the line to take a shower or go to the W. C. So, you will not have time to think about studying and homework because it will take time till 1 or 2 a.m. After that, you have to go to bed, and in the morning, you will face the same action till 8 a.m., which is the time your classes begin. Therefore, I don’t think that you have the right to complain about that amount of money.

Last to the point, guys you should know that the AUI-S officials have been very cleaver for requiring that amount of money because they know that almost all of the dormitory students got jobs during the summer. So, it had assured them that we, as dormitory students, have earned enough money during this summer to provide for the books and the dorms.



*Mahdi Abdullah Murad is an Information Technology Freshman at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani. He works as a journalist for the local media.