Epress.am News from Armenia
Yerevan State University lecturers are in a panic, reports local daily Hraparak. The Rector's Office has decided to establish an alley dedicated to foreign leaders. The busts of about 12 such individuals, including Johannes Lepsius and Fridtjof Nansen, are set to be placed in the area adjacent to the main building of the university. YSU employees were urged to contribute to the cause. They were even provided with a bank account number where they can transfer the money.
YSU employees believe such appeals made ahead of the distribution of teaching hours are actually a form of pressure and that participating in fundraising efforts is actually mandatory.
"We also received such information that the university is allegedly collecting funds to establish the avenue; in fact, there is no such thing. Rector Aram Simonyan held a meeting where he urged [those present] to participate in an anonymous collection of funds. He especially emphasized to rule out the ‘mandatory voluntary’ principle. If someone doesn’t want to give money, let him not do it, but we don’t exclude [the possibility] that there was some misunderstanding and people understood incorrectly. As regards the allocation of teaching hours, our initiative has nothing to do with that. The allocation of teaching hours is in the summer," YSU Karen Grigoryan, in charge of YSU's public relations department, said in conversation with the paper.