AUIS Dorm Students Want to Take Action

AUIS dorm students meeting to discuss their issues last semester

The American University of Iraq-Sulaimani's dorm students complain about the lack of some basic services such as electricity and want to take action.

The AUIS boys staying at the dorm in Raparin quarter say their dorm lacks many services.

"Unbearable living conditions at the AUIS dorm, no electricity, no fire escape, no internet, , no elevator, and the closest market is 15 minutes walking." Writes Sarbast Rashid, a dorm student, to his friends.

Sarbast also asks for better management of the AUIS revenue.

"AUIS spends huge amounts of money on meaningless delegations and willing to pay thousands of dollars for them, while the students of its dormitory suffer from lack of funding," wrote Sarbast.

Last year, the AUIS dorm students staying at the Manolya dormitory organized different events to put pressure on the AUIS administration for better living standards at the dorms.

Some students are collecting signatures in the dorm to ask for better services.

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AUIS Students: یالله ارحل یا بشار

Student Eye publishes two video footage from the AUIS students's support for the Syrian revolution on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011. 


On Thursday, November 17, 2011, a group of the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani students came together to support the ongoing Syrian revolution. The event which was hold in the meetings hall in the basement, saw a great turnout from the AUIS students.

AUIS students, chanting against Bashar Al-Assad, emphasized the everlasting support of the university students for all free people around the world.

Here are the lyrics of the Yalla Irahal ya Bashar (یالله ارحل یا بشار) song which was sung during the event.

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Dr. Sarracino: AUIS Students have Better Employment Opportunities

Dr. Robert Sarracino, AUIS professor

Dr. Robert Sarracino, the professor of Math and Sciences at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani, told Student Eye that AUIS students have better chances to get hired in the companies.

Dr. Sarracino, Dr. Hemin Latif and Dr. Merk made a one day visit to Erbil city to attend a seminar arranged by General Electric Company.

"The seminar was a repetition of what their representative told us here on campus," said Dr. Sarracino.

 Last Thursday, November 17th, a representatives from GE (General Electric) came to AUIS campus and spoke  to AUIS students.

The company will not be having any summer employment, but they are going to get application for employment.

"They told us that they want to hire up until 200 employees here in Iraq. They have 50 already. That means they will be hiring 150 more," said Dr. Sarracino.

All students with different majors can apply to GE.

"GE will have special internship programs and courses to develop skills. So all of our students, regardless of their majors, can apply for the jobs," he said.

Dr. Sarracino also said that AUIS students have great chance in employed in GE and alike companies.

"A company like GE wants people with broad knowledge and education. They want students with appropriate ethical conduct and that means our students will have great chance to be hired," AUIS professor said.

Dr. Sarracino's advice for students is to concentrate more on their classes and try to get a broad education in each and every class.

General Electric Company is a multinational corporate with headquarters in United States. It operates through four segments: Energy, Technology Infrastructure, Capital Finance and Consumer & Industrial. In 2011, it was chosen as the 6th largest American company. Its representative in Erbil is an MBA graduate at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani. 

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Free Youth Movement: U.S. shouldn’t Imitate Middle East Dictators

California police putting pepper spray on students. Nov. 18,2011.

The Iraqi Kurdistan based Free Youth Movement organization publishes a declaration announcing consolidation with the students demonstrations taking place in the United States of America.

The statement, which carries the date of Monday, November 21, 2011, condemns the extreme use of force against the students of the University of California, Davis.

“While U.S claims to be peace haven for the people aspiring democracy and the right of free speech, we were shocked to see the brutal use of force against the UC Davis students,” says the statement.   

Two campus police officers put pepper spray onseated Occupy protesters at University of California, Davis, on November 18, 2011.

The FYM statement advises U.S. authorities not to imitate the Middle East dictators.

“The lesson that you should b taking from the ongoing MENA spring is not to use force and crack down on peaceful demonstrators. No nation is protected from the danger of going astray. U.S. needs to reclaims its values which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’’ states FYM declaration.

Free Youth Movement has arranged several demonstrations supporting Egyptian and Syrian revolutions, and participated actively in the demonstrations arranged in the city of Sulaimani.

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AUIS Hosts Its First International Conference

 "Liberty, Democracy, and the New Realities of the Middle East and North Africa," is the name of the first international conference of the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani which will be held on AUIS campus Thursday, November 24 to Friday, November 25.

The conference, which is hosted by the Achelis and Bodman Foundations, hosts a number of scholars to speak about the issues of democracy and freedom in the new MENA region.

The conference participants are:

Dr. Larry Diamond, Stanford University

Dr. Sandy Lakoff, University of California San Diego

Ambassador Christopher Hill, University of Denver-Josef Korbel School of International Relations

Dr. Eric B. Brown, the Hudson Institute

Dr. Francois Zabbal, Institute du Monde Arabe

Dr. John Agresto, JA and Associates  

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AUIS Students' Syria Support Attracts Media Attention

A number of Arabic and Kurdish new channels, newspapers and websites published the news of the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani's support for the Syrian people.

Speda channel, an Erbil based satellite channel, published a report on the event. The report aired some video footage taken by students' cell phones. The channel asked all the universities to follow AUIS's model of support.

Xendan, Kurdiu, Lvin, Hawlati, and Awene, the most prominent and popular websites and newspaper in Iraqi Kurdistanr region covered the news, before and after the event.

Al Baghdadiyah, a Jordan based Arabic speaking satellite channel, aired interviews of students participated in the event.

Speda Channel's Arabic news dedicated its first two news to the event.

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Anti-Bashar Event at AUIS in Photos

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AUIS Students: Down with Bashar Al-Assad

On Thursday, November 17, 2011, a group of the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani students came together to support the ongoing Syrian revolution. The event which was hold in the meetings hall in the basement, saw a great turnout from the AUIS students.

AUIS students, chanting against Bashar Al-Assad, emphasized the everlasting support of the university students for all free people around the world.
Dana Jaf, the moderator of the event, chanted enthusiastic mottoes and songs.

"The Syrian people have raised their hands
They say we don't want Bashar" was one of the phrases repeated throughout the event.

Karwan Gaznay, Hawta Ramazan, and Mahdi Abdullah gave speeches in the event. All the speeches repeated the absolute support of AUIS stundets for the Syrian revolution.

The event ended with the famous Syrian revolutionary song, Go out Bashar, یالله ارحل یا بشار.

Here are some of the pictures from the event:

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Like Sarbast Majeed's Innovative Project on Youtube

Sarbat Majeed, an American University of Iraq-Sulaimani Information Technology student, is going to participate in an international competition on invention. Sarbast's innovative idea is on Youtube and it needs likes to get to the next stage.

Sarbast Majeed's project is now competing with many other projects, and he is the only student from Iraq.

Let's all go to Youtube, and like Sarbast Mjeed's project to help him win the competition.

Here is the link to Sarbast's project on Youtube:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umFcdyVLuBQ

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AUIS Students Support Syrian Revoution

On this coming Thursday, November 17, 2011, the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani students will arrange an event in support of the Syrian revolution.

The event will be hold at 12 pm in front of the main building of the new campus.

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Alexander Lascaris, Came to Lecture, Caught up in Hot Discussions

Lascaris speaking to AUIS students. AUIS website photo

Alexander Lascaris, U.S Consul General and the head of the Regional Reconstruction Team to Kurdistan,  made his first visit to the new campus of the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani November 2, 2011.

During the visit, an open discussion between Mr. Lascaris and the international studies students at AUIS was held.

Mr. Lascaris divided a copy of Sharaf Khan Bidlisi's Sharafnama and Federalist Papers no. 10 opening a discussion about the fractions in the American history and Kurdish history.

Mr. Lascaris pointed to the fact that the disunity between the Kurds was the main right not to get a state of their own in the past.

In the middle of his speech, some students asked Mr. Lascaris to stop lecturing and start answering the questions they had about the United States policies in the region.

A student told Mr. Lascaris, "You owe us an apology. Not only because you betrayed hus in 1975, and not only because you betrayed us in 1991, but also because you are going to betray us by the end of this year when you pull out your forces from Iraq."

Mr. Lascaris responded with a disatsified tone saying that the only true point in the claims made is the betrayal of 1991.

Other students questioned Mr. Lascaris on issues such as the Wikileaks reports, the American attitude towards PKK-Turkey conflict, and the American stand on the human rights and freedoms issue in Kurdistan region.

The questions came back and forth leading to a hot 2 hour long discussion.

"But I had come to speak about Federalist 10," said the U.S. Consul General to Kurdistan repeatedly.

Mr. Lascaris used some Kurdish proverbs during his speech and quoting from major Kurdish literary books attracting the attention of the attendants.

The forum ended with students showing gratitude for Mr. Lascaris's answering the questions and Consul General's being surprised for the good English AUIS students spoke.  

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