By Valentyna Kolesnyk, Kyiv Post Staff Writer | Jul 8, 2004 07:30


Shevchenko Square in Sumy, like squares in so many Ukrainian towns, is usually a peaceful place, full of kids playing and babushkas feeding pigeons.

But on June 28, the square erupted as more than 2,000 students, professors, parents and Sumy residents in the northeastern city protested a government decision to amalgamate three local institutions into one - Sumy National University - and make a local Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) heavyweight its head.

"It's a quiet and completely apolitical place," Liliya Hryhorovych, an Our Ukraine deputy who supervises Sumy oblast said of the city. "To force students and their supporters into the street, there had to have been a serious abuse of people's rights."

A tent city has been erected on Shevchenko Square, peopled by more than one hundred students. They say the President's and Cabinet's decision in April to amalgamate Sumy State University, Sumy State Pedagogical University and Sumy National Agrarian University is illegal and is meant to place students under tacit SDPU(u) control. The new university's rector, Oleksandr Tsarenko, is an SDPU(u) deputy who also runs the region organization of the controversial political party; he was also former dean of the Agrarian University (SNAU).

"This could have been done to bring the students into one place under Tsarenko's control, and to utilize a huge administrative resource" for political purposes, said the leader of the protest committee Oleh Medunytsia, who also heads the Youth Nationalist Congress, an all-Ukrainian organization.

The combined enrollment of the three universities would be huge, numbering 40,000 students and 4,000 professors, lecturers and other staff. Mykola Bespalov, a recent SNAU graduate, said the students "don't want to see Tsarenko as dean, either."

Politics alleged

The decision by the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Education to integrate the three schools into one national university was made at the suggestion of the Sumy city administration.

"The decision was made suddenly, without students' participation, without any discussion," Medunytsia said.

The resolution was announced June 22 at the height of the exam period when most students are busily involved writing exams, he said. On June 23 the universities' financial accounts were suddenly blocked, and departments were closed and professors fired.

"They were told they would be automatically hired by the new university if they agreed," Medunytsia said.

"We think the decision that's been made is illegal, and the actions following it are simply outrageous."

Tsarenko, the new rector, described the situation as just "a big misunderstanding."

"I recognize that both the students and the people were poorly informed about the matter, and not prepared," he responded, "but on the other hand, the idea to unite the universities has been discussed in Sumy for a decade already."

Tsarenko argues that it sorely needed to be done.

"We have three quite large universities in an oblast capital, and it's hard to operate all of them, both for the city and for the Education Ministry," Tsarenko said.

He said integration would create a new institution with the higher status of a national university, and would be a good financial move.

Amalgamation also makes sense, he said, for demographic reasons as student enrollment is expected to fall in the coming years and there might not be enough students to fill several separate schools.

Parliament delegation

Bespalov, an SNAU graduate, said that the appointment of Tsarenko as dean of the institution has had a souring effect. The university has acquired a reputation for corruption and low standards, he said, and as a place where the free exchange of opinions has not been encouraged.

"Students, together with their professors, would like to choose the dean they want," Bespalov said.

Students currently picketing the university have written letters to President Leonid Kuchma requesting that he rescind the amalgamation decree, and to SDPU(u) leader and Presidential Head Viktor Medvedchuk asking him "to stop the illegal actions of his party member." No responses to the letters have been received so far.

As on July 5 Kyiv students picketed the Ministry of Education building in support of their Sumy counterparts, the parliament's science and education committee sent a commission to Sumy to investigate the situation.

Commission head Mykhailo Rodionov said his body recognized that some violations of students' and professors' rights did occur during the integration.

"Discussions in the working collectives and student communities should have been held, all points clarified and, if the decision was approved, a liquidation committee been formed.

"Finally, the university community should have had the chance to elect the dean itself."

Rodionov said the commission has prepared a report and passed it on to the president.

"Young people have a right to choose how to study and choose those who would teach them," Hryhorovych said. "And they should be listened to."