Ukrainian Support Increases To Endow Additional Chairs

A Chair in Ukrainian Studies is waiting for an occupant, and two other chairs may be established soon.

Ukrainian students in the United States have raised money from small contributors to finance the Chairs. They have collected $1 million so far.

In 1957, the Federation of Ukrainian Student Organizations in the United States (SUSTA) began raising funds to establish a permanent Chair of Ukrainian Studies at an American university. In ten years SUSTA had raised $280,000.

Pritsak's Plan

Omeljan Pritsak, professor of Linguistics, at that time proposed a plan to establish a Harvard center which would include Chairs in history, language and literature, as well as a Ukrainian Studies library.

SUSTA supported Pritsak's plan and, on January 22, 1968, it endowed the first Harvard Chair in Ukrainian Studies.

The 1968 contract with Harvard states that three Chairs can be established for $600,000 each until December, 1972, when the cost of the Chairs will rise to the current price.

Expensive Chair

Chairs presently require a $1 million endowment. For that reason, SUSTA is increasing its fund-raising activities to meet the December contract deadline.

The University has used the $1 million already collected to offer 13 courses in Ukrainian history, language and literature, and to establish a permanent seminar in Ukrainian Studies. Seventeen graduate students are presently working in Ukrainian Studies.

A full-time librarian at Widener supervises the growing Ukrainian collection. The grant has also been used to publish Ukrainian works. Pritsak and others have established a Harvard Series in Ukrainian Studies. Three volumes have appeared and 17 are forthcoming.

The Ukrainian Chair is unusual because it was funded by small contributions. The student fund-raisers are all volunteers.