crisis at SSEES

[John Dingley]

Seelangers!

Kathy Dziwirek posted a msg on this list on 19 August (msg no: 6487)
which made plain that 7 eminent scholars at the School of Slavonic
and East European Studies in London (SSEES) had been summarily
served notice that their positions at the school could no longer
be "sustained" after 30 September 1997.  The 7 scholars involved are:
Daniel Abondolo (Hungarian), Peter Sherwood (Hungarian), David Short
(Czech and Slovak), Jim Dingley (Ukrainian), Dusan Puvacic (Serbian
and Croatian), Diana Myers (Russian Literature), and Martin McCawley
(Politics).  If these dismissals go ahead, SSEES will cease to exist
as a leading institution of scholarship and learning, because a major
component of the school, i.e. that part devoted to the languages of
Central and Eastern Europe, will have been destroyed.

It is known that SSEES is facing a financial crisis, but is the
dismissal of these 7 fine scholars the way to try and solve this
crisis?  Have all other possible resolutions to the problem been
explored?

I urge members of this list, and interested parties beyond this list,
to email Prof. Graham Zellick, the Vice-Chancellor of the University
of London asking him to reconsider this drastic action.

vice.chan at academic.lon.ac.uk

Please send a copy of your msg to Pete Duncan in London, who is
coordinating the campaign for a fair resolution to this problem.

pduncan at ssees.ac.uk

A number of Slavic programs around the world have come under threat
in the last few years.  Thankfully just about all of them have been
saved, in no small measure because of the tremendous support
demonstrated by the profession for them.  The East European Dept.
of SSEES is well worth saving.  So, please write in and express
your support.

Information about SSEES can be found at this web site:
http://www.ssees.ac.uk

John Dingley
York University
Toronto, Canada