After serving as Boston University president between the surprise resignation of Dan Goldin and the hiring of Robert Brown, Dr. Aram Chobanian has been more than happy back at the School of Medicine doing what he loves.
Chobanian, former dean of the School of Medicine, said he is glad to have returned to the general rank of “professor” at the university.
“It is very enjoyable,” he said, “and I think coming back to the medical campus and to the types of things that I’ve had a lot of prior involvement and experience with has been very personally rewarding.”
Those “things” involve everything from lectures both within and outside the university to a commencement speech at the University of Beirut.
“I’m involved in lecturing, some committee work and some advising of students and faculty,” he said. “I meet with the dean here, Karen Antman, and the hospital administration chief. It’s a wonderful mixture of activities that keep me busy, but still gives me time to think.”
After relinquishing the president’s office at Sherborn Street, Chobanian said a significant change in his life is how he now has more time that he can control.
“There was no freedom, or very little [being president],” he said. “I always tried to combine business and pleasure, but there was no real free time.”
In addition to academic activities, Chobanian now some of his time composing music.
Even as president, Chobanian received music lessons from a graduate student every Saturday.
“I do it for my own entertainment,” he said. “I just do things for fun, like at student breakfasts.”
Chobanian said he has also caught up on some reading, which he has not been able to do in a “long time.”
When he ran BU, some of Chobanian’s tasks included recruiting the “best” students, deans and faculty to the university. However, Chobanian said there was one other job above all others: “to set an environment for which we could recruit an outstanding president.”
“I guess the thing that I’m happiest about during my job there is to be able to get someone of Dr. Brown’s caliber and expertise to come in and run the university. From that standpoint, I think my goal was achieved.”
Chobanian said one of the perks of being a professor again is getting home at a normal hour.
But Chobanian is not the only person who appreciates his on-time returns after work. Jasmine Chobanian, the professor’s wife, said there have been many positive changes since last year when her husband was president.
“Aram and I have a few more quiet evenings at home,” she said in an email, “more time for our children and grandchildren and a little extra time to attend cultural events.”
But even his wife said it did “not take long” for her husband to become engulfed in a wide range of activities, both within and outside of the medical campus.
“I suppose Aram’s nature abhors a vacuum,” she said.
Chobanian’s colleague at the medical campus, Dr. Thomas Moore, noted that the former president has been involved in writing and other types of projects.
Moore was hired by Chobanian in 2001 to serve as the Office of Clinical Research Director. When Chobanian became president, he offered Moore the job of acting provost of the medical campus, which Moore served as from March 2004 until May 2005.
Although medical campus faculty and staff agreed that Chobanian was an excellent pick for president, Moore said, they had mixed feelings about what Moore called a “tumultuous” time.
School of Public Health professor Elaine Ullian said she enjoyed working the last 12 years with Chobanian, who recruited her to the Medical Campus in 1994 while he was the School of Medicine dean.
“The time I spent with him from 1994 until he became president of BU was a time characterized by enormous growth for the Medical Campus,” she said in an email.
“At the same time,” she continued, “we worked together every day to create an environment that was supportive of BU faculty and an exciting place to work.”.