Cash-strapped Ukrainian students say they are being pressured to pay for renovations at their dormitory that they suspect could be used to accommodate fans at the Euro 2012 soccer tournament.
Students at the journalism faculty of Kyiv National Shevchenko University say they have been threatened with punishment – including possible eviction – after protesting against demands from university officials to pay from Hr 200 to Hr 700 for maintenance of the dormitory they live to compensate alleged damage caused to rooms.
Students say they can’t understand why they have to pay for damage that has been caused over years of use and that they believe the rooms are being improved to be used for Euro 2012.
“People are scared of not only being evicted from the dormitory but also of being expelled from the university,” one student said on condition of anonymity, fearing punishment for speaking out.
The students’ concerns were described in an article in newspaper Ukraina Moloda. Two students confirmed the newspaper’s story detailing demand for payments, which university officials deny.
The report raised concerns that the dormitory was preparing for the visitors of Euro 2012 football championship.
“We have suspicions that if the dormitory be repaired now, it will be used for this purpose [accommodation for Euro 2012 tourists] because of its convenient location,” one student said. The dormitory is located in a district not far from the city center.
Students say that five freshmen have already given money after university staff called their parents demanding payments.
Furious university management met the students after the article was published and demanded that they write a denial.
“This publication is direct meddling in life of student community,” said the university denial, signed by two dozen students. “There was no socially important event in the dormitory that should be discussed all over Ukraine.”
Igor Liuty, vice-chancellor of the university called the publication “absurd.”
“There was no collection of any money from any student,” he told the Kyiv Post. “Students pay only the accommodation fees in the dormitories.”
He said he didn’t know whether the dormitory would be used for Euro 2012.
The scandal caused by the newspaper’s story has ended attempts by university officials to claim money, students say, at least for now. “I think soon they [the university officials] will start collecting money again,” one student said.
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