Return to American University

I recently visited the American University (AU) campus in Washington DC, where I completed an MA in 1985. This was not my first visit since I graduated in 1985. I went back twice to conduct summer workshops, the last in 2007, but this was the first time I took a camera.

I got off the Metro at Tenley Town and began walking down Nebraska Avenue towards AU. The old Sears store and Tenley Market are still there. I passed St. Ann's Church. The convent, where a classmates Selina used to stay, has been taken over by AU and is now called the Tenley Campus. Wonder where the nuns moved to? Most of them were elderly even in the 1980s.

Little has changed on Nebraska Avenue. The middle-class homes are the same except for a large condominium which has been built opposite the Japanese Embassy. Nebraska Hall, where another classmate Janeth Hernandez stayed is still the same. Some art complexes, belonging to AU, have been built nearby.

The library and the quadrangle in front haven't changed much. The library has many memories for me. Because all my lectures were in the evening, I got a part-time job at the library and was assigned to shelving bound periodicals in the basement at the then minimum hourly wage. These bound periodical were quite heavy but I had a jovial workmate and we managed to survive. After a year of lifting these loads, I was told that my work was "good" and that I would receive a pay hike of 5 cents an hour! But I was graduating and couldn't enjoy the windfall.

McKinley Building, where the TESOL program is still located, looks the same. The TESOL program is now on the first floor, and, for old times' sake, I went down to the rest rooms in the basement. They don't seem to have been upgraded in 30 years.

We all heard a rumor that poisonous gases were stored in McKinley during World War 1. Dring this visit, I picked up the student newspaper The Eagle of March 15, and it had a story about the "Hell Fire Battalion" that was created in 1918 in response to the Germans use of poison gas. The battalion was based at AU. Poison gas was tested (mostly on dogs) and the munitions were buried on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood. So, nearly 30 years after I first heard it, the rumor is confirmed.

Another story in The Eagle was about the reappointment of Neil Kerwin as AU's President. His "compensation" in 2007 was $1.4 million. AU was always an expensive school (I managed to attend on a Fulbright scholarship) and I heard that the current tuition was about $50,000 per year, so these salaries are no surprise. I also read that Kerwin's predecessor, Benjamin Ladner, had been fired in 2005 for misusing university funds. This brought to mind Richard Berendzen, the President during our time and who was forced to resign in 1990 when he was caught making obscene calls from his office. However, he returned to AU is his position as Professor of Physics and I saw his name on an office door on my last visit to AU. (The Physics department is next to the TESOL office in McKinley Building.) I didn't see his name this time so he may be finally gone.

I wanted to see Crestview Apartment, where Govindan and I shared a flat, so began walking down Mass Avenue. The apartments there haven't changed either. What has changed is the Synagogue, which has become huge. At 3601 Wisconsin Avenue, I found the old Crestview building still standing, somewhat of an anomaly because many newer upmarket buildings have sprung up nearby. My classmates Selina, Ellen, Gunawan, Mala, Bim and other friends have all been to our 7th floor apartment. When the Fall season cleared the trees of leaves, we could see the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial from the apartment. I have happy memories of the place and the parties we held there. American University also had plans to take over Crestview (as they had done with the convent at Tenley) and they were quietly leasing individual apartments in order to claim a majority stake. But, an international student held a noisy overnight party, the mostly elderly residents angrily banded together, and AU had to leave. I was offered the apartment we lived in (I was the lease holder) but didn't think of owning property at that time. Another blunder.

I walked down Wisconsin Ave, observing that many buildings have been replaced by stylish, more expensive ones. So I was relieved to see that Armand's Chicago Pizzeria was still in business, though looking the worst for wear. I tasted my first pizza at Armand's when Janeth took me there soon after my arrival at AU.

With classmate Ellen Stucker. She lives in Virginia, not far away, and we try to meet up during my visits. I have recently made contact with Selina and Marceline Hepie, another friend from my AU days.

That weekend, the National Cherry Blossom Festival was on, and I took the Metro with my son Roy, his wife, their baby daughter and my sister Beaula, who was visiting from Tampa. Two photos are attached for old times sake.