International House Berkeley

and Commonwealth students the negative. The latter insisted that any country which uses tea bags cannot possibly be considered for admission to the Commonwealth. With the nostalgic feeling of being one of them, I mixed with the foreign students. Bengu Oskay, a Turkish girl, sometimes poured my coffee or tea. "Sabahiniz hayir olsum', 'May your morning be felicitous,' I would greet her. 'Allaha ismarladik,' 'I leave you to God," she would say when I left the dining room, or when we parted after a chat in the Great Hall. I came to America from Istanbul, where she was born; she had lived in my hometown, Trebizond. I had never talked with a Turkish girl before; it was impossible in my homeland. But there were no barriers between Turks and Armenians here. THE 1960S AND 1970S I n 1961, Allen Blaisdell, who served the House for 31 years, retired. W. Sheridan "Sherry" Warrick, appointed as I-House's second executive director, had previously served as the Berkeley campus foreign student advisor, assistant dean of students, and as a member of the History Department at the UC Davis campus. Like Blaisdell, Warrick continued to serve as the foreign student advisor while managing House affairs. Where as the '60s brought considerable turbulence to the campus during the "Free Speech" and anti-war movements, the House remained relatively quiet. There were, of course, the usual debates, which included intense discussions about the campus controversies. But the House itself was not directly embroiled in the campus conflicts, perhaps because it was already a "Free Speech" institution. One resident from 1964 to 1966 observed that the campus crisis had significant impact upon the views of many residents. On the one hand, some from abroad were shocked and dismayed to witness what they perceived as police abuses in a democratic society; others were amazed to see a degree of free expression unknown in their societies. With world politics and controversies a central concern of students, I-House became an extraordinary place from which to view the momentous events of the time. An alumna from 1968-1969 writes: What I learned in the library and from my professors came alive when I returned "home" each evening to International House. Over the dinner table, I remember having lively political discussions about Sihanouk with a member of his family, discussing the Vietnam conflict with students from South-East Asia, hearing of the Biafrian war from an Ibo Ph.D. candidate. Around the TV each evening, students from over sixty countries listened to Walter Cronkite conclude: "And that's the way it is." But I learned from my I-House friends that maybe it was not necessarily 'that' way. Dedication of the Fleishhacker the library, 1968 Students socializing in the Great Hall circa 1970 Residents pose at I-House entrance, summer 1974 6

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