Venice, the Ca ‘Foscari University suspends the award to Medinsky but only during the war
I Winds of the Russo-Ukrainian war remains a blow up Ca ‘Foscari. The academic Senate of the Venetian university has suspended until the end of the conflict in Ukraine Ihonorary scholarship to Vladimir Medinsky, former Russian minister of culture from 2012 to 2020, now Putin’s adviser at the negotiating table. The motion was issued at one o’clock vote, following a long debate that almost pitted one against the other who wanted to cancel the honor and instead was to maintain the status quo. The final position is the result of mediation, but the perplexities remain. The question has distant roots: already in 2014, the year in which the title was conferred to Medinsky, amid protests and perplexities of professors and students, who had opposed the appointment as honorary member of the faculty, so much so that Professor Silvia Burini, at the head of the Csar – Center for Studies on the Arts of Russia, after delivering the honor she resigned from the post of Vice Rector. Last month, the debate flared up again after the first photographs of Medinsky sitting at the negotiating table. born the proposal to revoke the appointment, launched in the first useful academic Senate: the university had stalled, creating an ad hoc commission that gave the Senate the last word.
The other decisions
It seemed that the commission for non-EU institutional relations had opened to the suggestion to remove the honor, but in this they arrived at a hybrid position. The desire was expressed to maintain relations aimed at research, remembering the presence of Ca ‘Foscari students still in Russia, whose protection had already emerged as a priority in the debates last month. In fact, the university also lacks suspension or revocation procedures in the scholarship award regulation: to overcome the impasse, an ad hoc review commission has been set up. The condemnation of the Russian Federation’s military aggression against Ukraine reiteratedonce a timed suspension of the fellowship has been agreed, the university hopes that Professor Medinskij will be able to contribute, in the political role he currently plays, to making reason prevail and to silence weapons, leaving to dialogue and reconciliation. The university has also established the destination of the allocation of 50 thousand euros to help students of Ukrainian nationality: housing cover costs, exemption from payment of student fees and an annual scholarship of 5 thousand euros. Then, there were some exemptions for the enrollment of those students who are fleeing from Ukraine.
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April 7, 2022 (change April 7, 2022 | 08:11)
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