A meeting of the Oversight Council of Ostroh Academy National University was recently held. This was an unusual meeting, as it was devoted to the anniversaries being celebrated in Ukraine this year: the 425 th anniversary of the publication of the Ostroh Bible and the 430 th anniversary of Ostroh Academy.
The meeting was not simply an occasion to hear rector Ihor Pasichnyk’s report on the university’s latest achievements, but a summary of the colossal work that was carried out in the past decade by all the members of the Oversight Council, among whom are well-known social and political activists who have been involved in the revival of Ostroh Academy. Among them are the co-chairmen of the council, Mykola Zhulynsky and Liubomyr Buniak, The Day’s editor in chief Larysa Ivshyna, the politician Yevhen Marchuk, president of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Viacheslav Briukhovetsky, the deputy of the Rivne Oblast Council, Roman Vasylyshyn, and the rector of Rivne State Humanitarian University, Ruslan Postolovsky.
The gathering was not a simple formality. It attested to the progress achieved in the university’s development, to a significant degree thanks to the coordinated activity of the Oversight Council. World practice shows that the existence of a higher educational institution is impossible without outside help. This is particularly true of Ukraine, where higher education remains in a sense a budgetary sphere, but financing of state higher educational establishments is so limited that they are not only incapable of progressing, but are often balancing on the edge of survival. In this situation it seems irrelevant to speak about the training of highly qualified professionals.
However, in the Ukrainian situation oversight councils should have turned into something more than a controlling-counseling apparatus by a university. As people who take part in the development of national education, members of oversight councils are charged with attracting maximum public attention to questions relating to universities’ development and the acquisition of the maximum possible material and spiritual resources for the all-round development of a national higher educational institution.
Ostroh Academy has become a center for uniting true patriots who care for the state’s future, regardless of their political convictions or other beliefs. They understand that the foundation for the future development of society can be laid today.
Mykola ZHULYNSKY, co-chairman of the Oversight Council of Ostroh Academy National University:
Unfortunately, oversight councils in our country do not assist in the development of higher educational institutions. We have not formed the tradition of an oversight council that consists of influential and preferably wealthy people, which is capable of improving the financial situation of universities.
I will say with great pleasure that Ostroh Academy National University was growing before my very eyes. Thanks to Ostroh Academy Ostroh is no longer regarded as a provincial town. It is becoming not only Ukraine’s educational center but an international one as well. The main credit for this belongs to Ihor Pasichnyk, a person endowed with mystical energy. He loves the academy and instills everyone around him with this love. This is not just my personal opinion: everyone who has been fortunate to work with this person thinks so. I have concluded that a lot depends on a leader, on his enthusiasm and his belief in success.
I believe that there will be many more universities like Ostroh Academy in Ukraine, because the most important thing for Ukraine is high-quality education, culture, and spiritual life, those factors that determine every state’s civilizational level.
Larysa IVSHYNA, the editor in chief of The Day
Oversight councils are in all universities that do not rely only on the state. It was gratifying to see people that have been helping Ostroh Academy through all these years. The conference was a perfect opportunity to exchange ideas, assess achievements, and examine prospects of the university’s development. Viacheslav Briukhovetsky, Mykola Zhulynsky, and Roman Vasylyshyn are Ukrainians who love Ukraine not only in words, but who embody their love through concrete actions. They have proved this by their many years of devotion to the cause of reviving Ostroh Academy. Such people should be united within each university.
It is the way of accumulating that kind of social capital mentioned by Francis Fukuyama during his recent lecture in Kyiv. In addition, the reaction of students, when they see support, is positive. It is very touching when there are signboards with the names of people who assisted in the academy’s development, posted on the door of the computer class or in the library. The traditions of benevolent works and patronage, which was started by the Ostrozky princes, are continuing. It is positive when children grow up in such cultural surroundings, and this is one method of raising young people.
Personally for me, it is a great honor to be among such people, to participate in the revival of Ostroh Academy. It is pleasant for me to meet students and see their interests and to learn from these encounters. You always come away with the strongest impressions after communicating with the university faculty, especially with Ihor Demydovych Pasichnyk, who is a real hero of Ukraine.
Yevhen MARCHUK, public figure and politician:
In our Ukrainian situation oversight councils should deal not only with monitoring the rationality of universities’ development, but also take on the volunteer function of uniting around higher educational establishments people who understand that financing universities is an investment in the future. I am convinced that there are many people like this in Ukraine. It does not matter whether it is a $10,000 — or $10-million investment. The fact of taking part in the revival of national treasures is the main thing. Monuments that now have nationwide importance were built the same way: money was raised, with everyone participating and giving as much as they could, because they understood the need to immortalize the main values of their age.
What the rector and the academy’s administration are doing today — building a library of electronic-information resources with access to the world’s library network — deserves high praise. Today there is a lot of talk about Ukraine’s integration with Western countries, Ukrainians’ European traits, but these are empty words in practice, and what Ihor Pasichnyk is doing is taking small but confident steps in the European direction, above all by expanding the information space. In this way not only students and faculty deepen their knowledge, but also people who have nothing in common with Ostroh Academy. What we need right now is sponsors who understand the importance of Ukrainian society’s integration with the world’s civilizational resources and can assist this process. On my part, I will try do my best to draw people’s attention to Ostroh Academy.
The problems of national education have disappeared from the sphere of public interests in Ukraine for different reasons stemming from the political and pseudo-political scramble. The state should be ashamed of doing so little for an institution like Ostroh Academy. Only children capable of competing, whose parents cannot give huge bribes, have access to this university. People with an absolutely different world outlook, who have become successful — we have many examples — are graduating from here. So, let us praise all those who helped Ostroh Academy stand firmly on its feet. And may God grant good health to Ihor Pasichnyk!
Viacheslav BRIUKHOVETSKY, president of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy:
The creation of oversight councils is a world practice. The strategic development of universities is considered by such councils. Although they may have no direct influence on an educational institution’s policies, they can study its activity and define a development vector to a large degree. This is a positive practice.
