Why we need Vasyl Stus
The easiest way to debase any public project or initiative in Ukraine is to tag it as another political stunt. This is precisely what happened after the Donetsk National University students and alumni came up with the initiative of naming their alma mater after Vasyl Stus. Den’/The Day has been closely following the events at and around the university. Here is the overall picture.
In December a group of students expressed the renaming proposal on paper, in a letter to the DNU Rector Volodymyr Shevchenko and the Minister of Education and Science Ivan Vakarchuk. They started collecting signatures in support of their initiative. Before long they had more than 500, and noted public figures, writers, and students from other institutions of higher learning across Ukraine began to join in.
Toward the end of December, the ministry’s website published Vakarchuk’s letter to Shevchenko, asking him to discuss the proposal with the faculty. Shevchenko was unable to reply because he was in Australia, so further events unfolded without his direct participation. After a short while, in January, it became perfectly clear that the Donetsk students’ initiative had serious opponents.
The university administration totally ignored Vakarchuk’s letter and the Donetsk Oblast State Administration made it clear that they, mildly speaking, did not understand the students’ idea, nor did they like it. After that the activists decided to go through Kyiv. A couple of weeks ago the coordinator of the Donetsk student group called a press conference at Ukrinform and spoke with Larysa Ivshyna, the editor in chief of Den’/The Day (e.g., “Young people need new guidelines” in this issue). This produced a certain effect. On Monday, February 9, it became known that President Viktor Yushchenko had instructed the minister of education and science and the DNU rector to study situation and to “make the final decision in this matter, taking into account the students’ stand.”
Meanwhile, other initiatives started appearing. On February 5 another statement was sent to the rector, not from students but from some members of the Party of Regions, proposing to name the university after Volodymyr Dehtiariov, a “public figure, organizer, builder, and administrator.” It was signed by Viktor Yanukovych, Mykola Azarov, and a number of other Regionals.
With the rector back to the university, events took an even speedier course. Word spread among the students that the naming of the university after some or other public figure would automatically rescind its national status. Student rallies under the slogan “For National Status!” took place on Tuesday with yellow-blue ribbons being handed out to students. Somehow or other, the students were now divided on the idea. That same day Shevchenko, who is also chairman of the Prosvita Society in Donetsk and recipient of title “Hero of Ukraine,” appeared on a central Ukrainian TV channel, declaring that it was the first time he heard about the students’ initiative for naming the university after Stus, hinting that the whole thing was a purely political insinuation. Shevchenko may not have had a chance to look through his correspondence for a long time, considering that the project initiators’ letter was sent to him on Dec. 29, 2008.
Against the backdrop of these events, Vakarchuk’s silence looks strange. Repeated attempts get in touch with him and ask for comments yielded no results. The Day has been told by the ministry that they have been receiving contradictory information, including a letter from students requesting to name the university after Stus with 600 signatures and then a phone call from the students’ union with a message that the initiative actually comes from a couple of students and has never been supported by the majority of students
Vakarchuk spoke with Shevchenko and they agreed that the situation will be resolved after a meeting of the university’s academic council and the students’ unions. The minister ought to know that students’ unions as bodies of students’ self-government, which is still to be reformed and developed, are directly dependent on the university administration, so their decisions are easily predictable. Moreover, The Day knows from students that they were given written speeches to be delivered at such meetings. Those who refused were threatened with expulsion. Needless to say, these speeches were not in favor of Stus.
Regardless of the outcome of this public initiative, it is important in that it has demonstrated the depth of the problems that Ukrainian society has not even started to solve. Putting them off only deepens them.
