LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (11/30/03)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Another model for Ukrainian studies

Dear Editor:

I read your article, "Ukrainian Studies Fund raises $750,000 for Columbia's Interdisciplinary Program" with great interest. As a graduate of Columbia University (1960 BA, 1961 MA), and a still active (but retired) member of the department of Slavic and East European languages and literatures at the Ohio State University (OSU), I was pleased to read that my alma mater is going to offer a course in Ukrainian History. I was likewise touched by the generosity of the Ukrainian American community to make this happen.

At the same time, I find it dismaying to learn that the Ukrainian community has to raise a million dollars before Columbia would agree to offer the course. I guarantee you that there was never such a hitch made for introducing a Russian, French or German course. Certainly Columbia is one of the most heavily endowed universities in the nation (i.e., they own the land under Rockefeller Center), and they can afford to do anything they set their minds to.

Just for the information of your readers, in the spring of 2004, when Columbia begins offering its first Ukrainian history course, my colleague Andrew Fedynsky (director of the Ukrainian Museum Archives in Cleveland) and I will begin our sixth year co-teaching "Introduction to Ukrainian Culture" (Slavic 245) at OSU. With topics ranging from Shevchenko to Khvyliovy, videos about the Famine and Kozaks, slides of Ukrainian art, recordings of Ukrainian music, a wealth of photographs and other materials, as well as a field trip to the Museum in Cleveland, the course is lively, informative and popular. Our enrollments have ranged from a low of 40 to a high of 60. Interestingly enough, at least 90 percent of our students have been of non-Ukrainian heritage.

As regards the course financing, it is paid out of the normal Ohio State budget, taken from students' tuition fees and from the citizens of Ohio who subsidize higher education with their taxes. Ohio State includes this course in its list of distributive requirements for graduation, further demonstrating its commitment to placing Slavic 245 in its "mainstream" of subjects.

Certainly I admire the work of Columbia and applaud Prof. Mark von Hagen for expanding Slavic studies at my alma mater to include Ukrainian history, culture and language. But, I would like the readers at The Ukrainian Weekly to know there's another model. All universities rely on tuition, taxes and various federal, state and private funds. They certainly should offer courses in Ukrainian history, language and culture without making them contingent on the Ukrainian community raising huge amounts of money. We've done it at OSU, and successfully, for over five years. Ukrainian courses will support themselves of any university because they are as important at any other courses the university offers, including, well, Russian.

George Kalbouss
Columbus, Ohio

The letter-writer is associate professor emeritus of Slavic and East European languages and literatures.

I support our troops in Iraq 100 percent

Dear Editor:

The letter from Karen Bapst, Ph.D., published in The Ukrainian Weekly of November 2 truly concerned me. Like Ms. Bapst I am a veteran who for a long time belonged to the Ukrainian American Veterans Post 30. I served in the United States Army during the Korean War which, similarly to the current war in Iraq, did not have the undivided support of the American nation.

One thing I learned at the very beginning of my military service: you follow orders at all times, you respect the rank held by your superior officers. How can a veteran, therefore, publicly accuse our commander-in-chief, our President George W. Bush of "exploiting ignorance and post-9/11 fear and hatred to gain support for its irrational and nepotistic war?"

Prior to immigrating to the United States as a displaced person I lived in Europe through World War II from beginning to end. I witnessed first-hand the tremendous atrocities committed by the Russian secret police (NKVD) and next the German secret police (Gestapo).

If American soldiers would not have sacrificed their lives by the thousands I probably would not have been alive today. Numerous members of my family lost their lives after being branded enemies of the existing regimes. Did Ms. Bapst serve in World War II? Did she see the horrible-looking human beings freed by the American military from the German concentration camps? Did she visit South Korea years after the war like I did in 1998? Did she hear the gratitude expressed repeatedly by South Korean citizens to the Americans for placing their lives on the line to secure South Korea's freedom from communism?

An Associated Press article published by the U.S. press on November 9, disclosed that "as many as 300,000 Iraq's killed during Saddam Hussein's 23-year dictatorship are believed to be buried in more than 250 mass graves found so far around the country."

Should President Bush have continued to stand by idly while mass murders were committed? How does Dr. Bapst think our soldiers feel when they read and they hear their country is not supporting what they are risking their lives for?

I do have a son in the U.S. Army, an officer with 16 years of service. I and my whole family support his efforts and those of his fellow soldiers 100 percent.

Does Dr. Bapst support them also?

Mykola Holinaty
Manchester, N.J.

Thanks for article on Bronko Nagurski

Dear Editor:

I would like to thank you for publishing that wonderful article, written by Ingert Kuzycz, on Bronko Nagurski.

My dad's brother, Dan Yurkiewich, was married to Bronk's aunt.

I would also like to thank you for publishing "Faces and Places" by Myron B. Kuropas. Keep up the good work.

Myroslaw (Merle) Jurkiewicz
Toledo, Ohio

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