Lutsenko goes on trial - The Ukrainian Weekly

4THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2011No. 22Ukrainian Catholic University accepts Firtash’s pledge for new campusUkrainian Catholic Education FoundationCHICAGO – Dmytro Firtash, aUkrainian businessman, has pledged tofinancially support the Ukrainian CatholicUniversity’s construction of a new campusnear Stryiskyi Park in Lviv, accordingto a statement released last week.Details of the extent of his supportwere not disclosed and Mr. Firtash wasnot present at the event, but the Rev.Borys Gudziak, Ph.D., the rector of theUkrainian Catholic University, said thatMr. Firtash’s pledge was significant andthat a full announcement would be comingin the fall.The Rev. Gudziak explained that thepledges and contributions made by variousmajor donors so far in Ukraine,Western Europe and North America willbe announced in November.The announcement came in London onMay 17, during a talk at the UkrainianInstitute, which is affiliated with theUkrainian Catholic University, where theRev. Dr. Gudziak and Dr. Rory Finnin,head of Ukrainian studies at theUniversity of Cambridge, addressed thetopic: “Ukrainian Studies Internationally:Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.” Thetalk was held as part of a series of eventssurrounding the yearly Adam SmithUkraine Business Summit, one of the biggestannual international investment conferencesin Ukraine.Dr. Finnin eloquently presented thebroad scope of the new Cambridge programthat is fostering ties with Ukrainianstudies institutions in the internationalcontext, as well as with Ukraine, UCUincluded. The Rev. Gudziak spoke aboutthe seminal influence of internationalUkrainian studies on academic life inindependent Ukraine, particularly in fosteringnew approaches to research and tothe university experience in general.Particularly striking for the audiencewas the presentation of UCU’s futureResidence College, which hopes torethink the university dorm experience.Oxford-Cambridge Colleges and HarvardHouses are a point of departure, but UCUis experimenting further. The college willinclude not only rooms for 220 students,eight faculty-tutor apartments, a smallinstitute of advanced studies, but also aresidence for mentally disabled personswho will be full-time members of the universitycommunity.“Our friends with special needs have aspecial gift: they do not wear masks orfacades. In every encounter they ask thebasic question ‘do you know how tolove.’ That is the most fundamental questionthat a teacher can ask a student. Weare inviting the disabled not as those whoneed a social handout but as professors ofhuman relations. Apparently, our universitywill be setting a precedent with thisinnovative pedagogy that is meant tochallenge the growing alienation in post-Soviet Ukraine and in a world increasinglyshaped by virtual relationships,” saidthe UCU rector.Mr. Firtash, the owner of Group DF, abusiness conglomerate, and the co-chairmanof the Investors’ Council at Ukraine’sMinistry of Education, has made significantdonations to establish CambridgeUkrainian Studies, a program launched in2008 to promote and contribute to thestudy of Ukraine in the United Kingdomand beyond. His pledge to UCU shows hiscommitment to support quality educationin Ukraine.During a fund-raising tour in the UnitedStates last year and at various events inUkraine over the past year, the Rev.Gudziak had spoken to audiences regardingthe issue of taking money fromUkraine’s billionaires. UCU sought andreceived the counsel of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church leaders, the UCU Senate(board of directors), Lviv municipal andbusiness leaders, as well as many internationaldonors before setting procedures toaccept large donations.“Though at this time in the Westernworld contributions to a university are agenerally accepted practice, in Ukraine,the charitable support of universities is relativelynew, which is starting to crystallizein the consciousness of society. UCU,from the moment of the revival of the universityin Lviv, has worked persistentlyand successfully to encourage donationsfrom benefactors to support our activities.We rely on our experience of workingtogether with large benefactors, which hasfor a long time been the practice of theleading universities of North America andEurope, Cambridge in particular. We arevery grateful to our donors across theworld,” commented the Rev. Gudziak.UCU is currently raising funds to builda Western-style campus in the heart ofLviv. Over $12 million has been raised todate from a number of donors from theU.S., Canada, Europe and Ukraine.Every significant donation to UCU is anunconditional gift that has no influence onfaculty hiring, student admissions or curriculumdecisions.The Ukrainian Catholic University isthe only independent university in Ukrainethat relies exclusively on private fundingfrom local and international sources. Itreceives no government funding.The Ukrainian Catholic EducationFoundation is the U.S. fundraising arm forthe Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.For more information, readers may contactthe Ukrainian Catholic EducationFoundation at 773-235-8462 or ucef@ucef.org.Vermont Senateresolution citesChornobyl anniversaryPARSIPPANY, N.J. – State legislatorsin Vermont on April 29 adopted aSenate concurrent resolution “commemoratingthe 25th anniversary of theChernobyl [sic] nuclear disaster withthoughts of the current nuclear crisis inJapan.”Senate Concurrent Resolution 15was sponsored by State Sen. Tim Asheand State Rep. Philip Peltz.The measure states: “Resolved by theSenate and House of Representativesthat the General Assembly commemoratesthe 25th anniversary of theChernobyl nuclear disaster withthoughts of the current nuclear crisis inJapan.”The resolution states: “…as theworld commemorates the 25th anniversaryof this horrible event in the historyof nuclear power generation, thedestruction of the cooling systems atthe Fukushima I (Fukushima Dai-ichi)nuclear power facility in Japan thatresulted from the recent Japan earthquakeand tsunami is a matter of concern.”It also notes that “regulatory authoritiesin Japan have now classified thenuclear disaster at Fukushima Dai-ichias a Level 7, the most severe on theInternational Nuclear Event Scale, andonly Chernobyl had previously beenrated as a Level 7 event.”The resolution also directed theVermont secretary of state to send acopy of the resolution to the Ukrainianand Japanese Embassies in Washington,the Japan-America Society of Vermontand The Ukrainian Weekly inParsippany, N.J.