Cross-Pollination

The joint action of this newspaper, Kamyanets-Podilsky University, and the Ostroh Academy National University, held last Thursday at Ostroh, was as successful as Den’/The Day’s first visit to Ukraine’s oldest higher educational institution. It will be recalled that on the first occasion we officially presented the book Dvi Rusi from Den’/The Day’s library series at the Ostroh Academy. According to Prof. Volodymyr Trofymovych, chairman of the Academy’s Department of History, one of the results of that presentation was that four Masters of Arts decided to write Ph.D. dissertations on the topics the book touches upon. Can you imagine?

This time, the academics could hear a public lecture by Kamyanets-Podilsky University Professor Valery Stepankov on the Ukrainian National Liberation Revolution of 1648-1676. To tell the truth, the lecture created a furor. As Den’/The Day’s editor-in-chief said, this was a sort of cross-pollination of ideas between the two universities.

What came as an outright surprise for Ostroh Academy students was the announcement that Den’/The Day’s Editor-in-Chief Larysa Ivshyna has founded a scholarship in her own name. This scholarship of over UAH 100 a month will be awarded annually to the Academy’s student who meets the following requirements: high scholastic ranking, free command and everyday usage of the Ukrainian language, a clear civil position, and publications in the press (with special emphasis on articles published in Den’/The Day). Den’/The Day’s editor-in-chief said she was sure we would be able to name the first winner of this scholarship in two months.

Asked by the Academy’s students, Ms. Ivshyna noted that one of the factors that upset social balance in Ukraine is the occurrence of “thrombi” in the system of communications: paradoxically enough, bush telegraph still remains a popular method of exchanging ideas and views in the era of advanced informational technologies. We hope that cooperation between Den’/The Day and the Ostroh Academy’s students and faculty will be an important step in overcoming this shortcoming.

COMMENTS

Ihor PASICHNYK, Rector, Ostroh Academy National University:

“I think the newspaper Den/The Day’s initiative is just the decree of time. If most media editors were organizing such meetings with interesting people (not only at our Academy but also in other higher and secondary educational institutions, among young people), this would make it possible to solve extremely important problems. We could see today, looking at Professor Valery Stepankov, that Ukraine has a powerful, albeit unknown, stratum of intellect. We saw a spellbound audience. And I would say one must seize any opportunity to meet people like Prof. Stepankov. Whenever asked a question, he knows what to answer straight away. But when he hears different views on the point being discussed, he allows himself and others to reflect at length and, finally, come to a correct conclusion. I am therefore very grateful to Den/The Day’s editor-in-chief for initiating this meeting.

“As to the Den’ scholarship, it is just to the point: 70% of our students being children from underprivileged families, orphans and half-orphans, this will be an excellent material incentive in their scholastic pursuit. Moreover, I think those eligible for this scholarship will later — in their adult life — be the same kind of humans: they will be showing love and kindness for their neighbor.”

Ihor LYSY, First Deputy Mayor, Kamyanets-Podilsky:

“Ostroh Academy students are unrestrained and freewheeling. They absorb knowledge like a sponge. This was clear during Prof. Valery Stepankov’s lecture and the speech (for the second time at the Academy) of Den/The Day’s editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna. Our society is still a long way from knowing its past very well. But everybody wants to be knowledgeable — as they put it in old times, from a common peasant to a minister who also thirsts for knowledge. The aura and nature of the city itself contribute to a free exchange of ideas at Ostroh. Against the backdrop of our state’s achievements, the progress of the Academy is really striking, for it is three years younger. On the other hand, the 425-year-long traditions of Prince Vasyl-Kostiantyn of Ostroh also play an important role.”

Liudmyla ZHALOVAHA, school deputy principal, Zhmerynka:

“I was pleased to learn that there is such an educational institution in Ukraine. So I think the Ostroh Academy is really a temple of research and education. This is also one of the best examples of how students should learn and faculty should teach, an example of cooperation and mutual understanding. The collaboration between the Academy’s students and faculty and your newspaper’s journalists is convincing proof of this.”

Oleh FURMANCHUK, third-year student, School of Law Studies:

“Den/The Day’s second action is even more impressive than the first one. I mean the lecture of such an extraordinary personality as Professor Valery Stepankov whom our students discovered thanks to Ms. Larysa Ivshyna, as well as the new approaches to Ukrainian history described in the book Dvi Rusi, which I have already read. Even in the mid-1990s, school manuals (I could read them only owing to my age) were rather drab and overloaded with ideology. I could feel something was wrong, for we must have had a better, brighter, and more heroic history. And only now do we begin to understand that we have the right to and must take pride in our people’s history.

“As to the scholarship, I very much hope that, in spite of my extremely heavy schedule, I will be able to compete for it. A scholarship is always an incentive.”

P.S. See our newspaper’s nearest issues for a complete text of Prof. Valery Stepankov’s lecture, the most interesting fragments of the conversation between Den/The Day’s editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna and Ostroh Academy students and their impressions.