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Continuation of presentation by Dr. Sukoversky: Continues story about community engagement with the public library. On the question of liaison groups: it’s up to the ethnic groups, they have their own organizations and should get in touch, it’s not the university’s job.

Mr. Kostash: The usefulness of the University Senate come in two areas: monitoring the academic things going on in the university and ensuring there’s no favoritism in programs. Private organizations have a responsibility to ensure that funds are being allocated intelligently and efficiently. Some things don’t require the demanding funds when they can be done at better times or in better ways.

Unknown speaker: Publications should be released with the contacts of liaisons that can be contacted between ethnic communities and publications.

Unknown speaker: The community should help the division to find ways to release the kinds of publications that the community desires.

Presentation by Mr. Kistner: Wasn’t prepared to present but is talking from the perspective of a foot soldier. He is Baltic German born in Tallinn Estonia. Talks about how maps often forget about the islands of Estonia. Baltic Germans is a very small group. It’s worthwhile for even very small groups to write their history and preserve their heritage. In doing work there’s lots of assistance needed, time, and footwork. Being a small group has its advantages, no need for sampling.

Open Session
Professor Rolland: University officials are just paid assistance, to help the community to spread unbiased facts about people from Eastern Europe. Funding, publishing, liaison, money, structure. What good is a building without anyone in it? Being asked many tasks, but we ask you where are the people we are supposed to be teaching? Where is the interest in the young people? A severe lack of numbers in the classroom.

Unknown speaker: Many high school trips go to the UK and France, but none go to Eastern Europe, there’s no interest in a country if they’ve never been to it.

Unknown speaker: Primary teachers don’t get enough information about Eastern Europe, very early interest cannot be built. There’s a marvelous library and studies that are unknown to the public, and inaccessible. If a pride cannot be instilled in Canadian Pluralism, then numbers will remain low, and ignorance will prevail.

This is a mutual affair, if the division is to serve the community, it must go above the head of the faculty of extension, the faculty of extension doesn’t cover all they community’s needs.

Unknown Speaker: A course was offered, in which every means at the university’s disposal was used, still only had 12 enrolled. Not enough to satisfy the university. UKR 320, only 1 student enrolled.

Mike Torman: One reason for low enrollment: very utilitarian society, if a course doesn’t offer something ‘useful’ it won’t be taken. Languages are very disciplined subjects, it takes a highly disciplined student to learn them.

Unknown speaker: Motivation is extremely important, advertising isn’t enough. The travel course it a really good thing. The generosity of the community, the province, made starting new programs easier, even when the province was much poorer. The community must do its share to promote the material basis of the division. If the division is to prosper, this is what we need. The end product is service to the community. [The recording cuts out]

Continuation of presentation by Dr. Sukoversky: Continues talking about how collections are made. Story about how a collection that had been abandoned was resurrected. Talks about the Sorbian people living in South East Germany, and how a collection was made about the Sorbs. University of Alberta has the strongest collection of materials on Sorbs and Vends. Collections must go back as far as possible. Collections can morph from one topic into another: Russian to Ukrainian, Ukrainian to Polish, Polish to Czech, Czech to Yugoslavia. Talks about the weak Slovak and Hungarian collection. To non-Slavs, Hungarian is expected. Importance of objective study of the Soviets, teachers and students can get an objective lens on the Soviet Union.

New speaker: The community has supported many cultural programs.

Presentation by the Chairman of Edmonton Historical Board: Begs the division to do things for the community: research into the history of ethnic groups needed. Role of ethnic groups missing from history books. Record of ethnic peoples needed. Record must include when people came to Edmonton and district, who were they, what did they do? Those who came to the urban areas, what did they do? An accurate, non-biased, non-prejudiced record needed. Coordination of research needed. Books are needed that are easy to sell and easy to buy. The third need is for funding to publish existing nearly finished works on ethnic groups.

Mr. Kostash: Funds are public funds for publishing, justification must be given as to why financial support should be given to many works. What liaison exists in terms of public funds and works that wish to be published?

Dr. Sukoversky: The University Library exists for a variety of purposes. To expand the library, tax payers would need to pay more. The public library exists to serve many purposes for the public. Every ethnic group can have newspapers, periodicals in books, and other literature in the public library, it has to be requested.

[The recording cuts out during a story about buying Ukrainian books for the public library].

Continuation of the speech made in tape c263-b: The community is served by the university in the same way as elementary schools but on a different level.

Mr. Birov: A foundation for Hungarian history would cost half a million. The government promised that if the foundation reached half of that ($250,000) the government would match the rest. Due to such a small Hungarian group, they had trouble reaching that. Is there anywhere else that could be approached to acquire the other quarter million? What do ethnic groups have to go through to get cooperation?
[The person with the recording equipment had to leave]

Opening speaker: Several objectives: 1. Have academics and community interact. 2. To have interaction among ethnocultural groups. 3. To reduce intergroup tensions. 4. To see what educational resources there are to accomplish the first 3 goals. What is the ambitious goal? To ensure we and our children know about each other. To remember that Canada itself is part of the global village.

Dr. Lock: Recites a poem.

Presentation by Dr. Yamila Horna, Chair of the Department for Soviet and East European Studies: This is a great opportunity to share one’s heritage the one brings to this country. This is one of the few opportunities where people from academia can share contributions to the community.

Dr. Golitsyn: Some anecdotes about his family. Always gets asked where he’s from, for some reason someone interested in Eastern European studies must be from Europe. Has Canadian roots though. Feels as a North American Canadian and an European Canadian too. The government will at some point have to look at our roots, our heritage. The British and French like to call themselves the founders, but the Celts a while ago had a conference, and they also had a large role. Even the French component if very Celtic. What about the other Europeans? That which divides us is far less than that which binds us together. Have been asked to look at the roots of this organization and its destiny. The destiny is great, it brings people together in the area of learning. Our schools DO teach us about us. Our schools MUST teach us about us. The interest of the academics is bringing people together to make these kinds of things happen. There are many people who are not necessarily Slavic or Eastern European that will be interested in Slavic and Eastern European studies. By this time next year there will be a patent as a society, and some legal status, and that we will be electing a national and regional board. Those from each province will be asked to meet together as one group and recommend who will be their two representatives to the national board, who will serve in the interim as provincial chairman.

Some closing remarks about a cathedral made of rocks.