Celebration of the University of Washington Baltic Studies Program, Oct 6, 2002
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1. President Richard McCormick
(transcript of remarks)
2. Professor Daniel C. Waugh, Founder of the
Baltic Program
3. Professor Thomas DuBois, Founder of the
Baltic Program
4. Professor Stephen Hanson, Director,
Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies
5. Amanda Swain, First graduate (MA, 1995)
6. Dr. Robert Smurr, Most recent graduate
(PhD, 2002)
7. Joyce Ogburn, Assistant Director, UW
Libraries
8. Professor Terje Leiren, Chair, Scandinavian Department
President Richard McCormick (transcript of remarks)
I’m a little embarrassed to be standing underneath this picture. It is a picture of me. And far more importantly at Trakai castle on Lake Galve in Lithuania. How many of you have been there? Wow, that’s about two thirds of you. I’ll say a bit more in a moment how I came to be there in August of this past year. It is in my mind one of the most beautiful spots in the world and I feel very privileged to have seen it. And I feel with some special emotion that I thank you for your support for Baltic Studies for ensuring that Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are places well known to this generation and future generations of UW students.
This program is awfully important and the endowment for which you have contributed so generously, it is important to know, was built up from the ground. Sometimes the University of Washington has the good fortune to raise large sums of money from single donors or a handful of donors and some really wonderful stuff happens very quickly because of their special generosity. But much more common, and in my mind, I may add, important and even more deeply appreciated are gifts that come from hundreds of individuals, and not necessarily very sizable gifts, one by one-- but boy do they add up. And especially in support of a program like this one, where students and faculty and future generations of students need that support.
We really, really appreciate it. Raising already three quarters of a million dollars, an amazing achievement for this program, that’s an impressive feat! I want to thank you very much. I want to thank you for the leadership that you provided and for the likelihood that your donation will inspire others. You know, that’s the way it always happens somebody makes a start, makes a gift and there follow some good things at the University of Washington -- programs, student support, faculty support. And others notice-- "What’s going on there? Where did that good fortune come from? Who stood generously behind that program when it was just beginning?" And there you will be. So your gift will inspire others to add to them over the years.
You probably knew when you made your initial gift, that our Baltic Studies Program at the University of Washington is in many respects unique in the nation. It is the only one that offers instruction in all three Baltic languages and given the importance of that region in our world today, it has been an important region for centuries, but more so than ever. You're making a profound contribution that extends far beyond what we do at the University of Washington. I assure you that we are especially proud of what we do here.
Graduates who study these languages are developing an understanding of these three nations in this pivotal part of the world and will take this knowledge with them wherever they go. Maybe to the Baltic States, and maybe back and forth between there and the United States, and maybe elsewhere around the globe. But their international study here and their special knowledge of that region will contribute significantly to whatever they do.
Language, literature and international studies are essential to the UW and never more so than in the years since September 11th 2001. It has always been critical for graduates at this institution to leave here prepared for global citizenship, but it’s more important than ever now. And those who are best prepared are those who gain immersion in that part of the world, whether it is in Asia, Europe, Africa, or Latin America; who gain a special connection with people or place or language or region and community and culture or multiple cultures as in this case, beyond their own. That immersion expands their horizons immeasurably, as yours has been expanded by your connection to the Baltic States, and prepares them extremely well for whatever they will do and wherever they will do it. That kind of education is more important to the University of Washington than ever and I am so thrilled to see this Baltic Studies Program grow and flourish. Because I know that University of Washington students who study there and UW faculty who research there and take our students there, will experience exactly that extension of their horizons that will serve then well wherever they work or study.
Our students have got to be global citizens whether they live here in Seattle or Wenatchee or whether they live in the Midwest or in multiple places around the world before their careers are done. So this is not only important, but a contribution that you have made is essential to the future of the UW and to the kind opportunities we want all of our students to have.
Now let me share with you at least briefly some of my own impressions of Lithuania. I was there you may be interested to know because my daughter was member of the junior national women’s crew team and my wife Suzanne and I traveled to see her row on behalf of the United States. It was a thrill for her to race internationally and a thrill for us to watch her race internationally and a special thrill to be in Lithuania which none of us had ever visited before. We stayed in Vilnius in the old part of the city the old town I got to know it pretty well. I jogged those streets for four straight days. We ate in wonderful restaurants. I gained enormous appreciation for the friendliness of the people, the beauty of your city and the exceptional economic vitality of Lithuania just a mere decade after its escape from the oppressions of Soviet rule for so many years. Those of you have been to Vilnius (and since you’ve been to Trakai, I imagine you have been to Vilnius too), know that when you are walking those streets there are blocks where you can look up and look down and you could be in Paris or St Petersburg. I don’t claim Vilnius is yet, has the stature of those two cities. That would not be accurate or fair, but there are places of enormous beauty where buildings have been restored where people share their tremendous pride in their city and its opportunities for the future and its beauty and its vitality.
I was there for four and a half days. And also I enjoyed the beauties of Trakai, where the races were held. And met along the way lots and lots of wonderful Lithuanians--some rowers from that country, some parents of some rowers from that wonderful country, and of course those we met in Vilnius and along the way. So, I don’t claim that brief, less than a week long, visit to Vilnius gives me a depth, a grasp of the Baltics or even the importance of this program. But I do know enough about that place and this program and this University and the future vision for our students to have a feel for what they’ll gain by immersing in the language and culture and history of the Baltics. And I thank you very deeply for your generosity and far-sightedness for making that possible. On behalf of the University of Washington many thanks to you.
Professor Daniel C. Waugh, Founder of the Baltic Program
Thank you for being here today on what is truly a historic occasion, one made possible by the extraordinary generosity and commitment of those in this room and many others who could not attend. Historic occasions can well do with a historian's perspective--at least I think that is why Guntis asked me to say a few words. We might ask where this remarkable campaign to create the Baltic endowment began and what were some of the landmarks along the challenging road. To try to find some answers, like a good historian, I turned to the archives. The first challenge was, of course, to find the archives, which, as any of you who has seen my office will know, is probably a more difficult task than raising three quarters of a million dollars. It turns out that my records are somewhat incomplete, but here are a few items that I thought might be of interest--let us call them not a history of Baltic studies at the University of Washington but "materials" toward such a history.
It was nine years ago last month that the national Baltic Studies Newsletter published our call for the creation of a Baltic languages summer instititute, which as many of you know, was successfully mounted first in 1994 and 1995 here at the University of Washington. The Ambassador of Estonia to the United States, Toomas Ilves, opened the 1995 summer program with a speech entitled: "The Baltic States: Back to Europe through the University of Washington." He spoke of the importance of the Baltic countries in the context of European integration, laying particular emphasis on their historic connections with Scandinavia. How appropriate indeed that the UW Baltic program is an important part of our highly regarded department of Scandinavian Studies. Ambassador Ilves concluded: "the University of Washington, here in Seattle, separated from the region not only by the Atlantic, but also the North American continent, is once again demonstrating that it is at the cutting edge of academia."
Soon after Ambassador Ilves spoke in 1995 several individuals here today met to discuss the progress in our efforts to raise the funds that would make a permanent Baltic studies program possible. At that meeting, a tally of the funds received as of July 13, 1995 showed a total of $6,959. Six months later, in January 1996, Prof. Tom DuBois, who travelled all the way here from Wisconsin for this event today and, as you know, was one of the key figures in establishing our program, sent a letter to the members of the Committe for the Baltic Program at UW. He noted the significant accomplishments to date, but then wrote ominously:
...Our situation is critical. Baltic instruction is assured until spring of 1997, but we have yet to reach the threshold for establishing an endowment to permanently fund the program, and the proverbial clock is ticking. You know that without substantial outside support this program cannot continue...If we cannot reach a minimum of $50,000 in donations by late March, the cause is hopeless...If we cannot reach that goal...after such a successful two years of programming and instruction, then we must face the hard facts and leave the creation of a Baltic studies program to another time and place.
Well, as they say, the rest is history. You rose to the challenge, or we would not be here today to celebrate the accomplishments which go well beyond simply meeting our original goal for the endowment.
Now I wonder if I could ask Terje Leiren to step up for a moment before I conclude.
As I was preparing these remarks, a phrase from my childhood kept running through my head: "and one to grow on." It had something to do with birthday celebrations; I had to ask my wife, Charlotte, exactly what the context was. She reported that it was what one said when administering a birthday spanking--done in jest of course--an extra pat "to grow on." So I thought I would do something similar. No Terje, no need to jump out of range. This won't hurt, much. We are celebrating a milestone in the campaign for Baltic Studies. As a still young program, it cannot stop growing if it is to achieve the depth and maturity we would all wish to see. Our gathering today is not simply to celebrate the program's past and present, but also its future. With that in mind and to signal our continuing commitment to the success of the program, Charlotte and I felt we would like to add a contribution, modest as it is, to mark this occasion. Here then, Terje, is something for the program "to grow on."
Thank you.
Professor Thomas DuBois, Founder of the Baltic Program
I am honored and pleased to be able to add my words of congratulations to you on this wonderful day. Guntis has asked me to speak for just a few minutes, and to me, a few means three. So I am going to mention three words that I hope suggest to you what it is that you have achieved in creating and funding the Baltic Studies program at the University of Washington. The first two are English, but the third is Finnish, with an Estonian counterpart.
The first word is VENTURE. A venture is an act that involves risk: when we venture something, we take a chance, a gamble. And certainly founding a program in Baltic studies was a venture. It had never been done before and the University was at the time in a period of financial difficulty. No other American institution of higher education was willing to make that venture. We stood--and stand--alone. But as the old saying goes: Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I salute the faculty, students, administration, and you donors for taking that venture seriously and making this program a reality today.
The second word is ADVENTURE. An adventure is what you call a venture that has proved successful. Once the risks are over and the coast is clear, once the time of worry and fretting has come to an end, people can sit back, breathe easily and say to each other: "Wow, wasn't that an adventure!" And we have been on an adventure together: that's why we are here. I am so grateful to have been able to share this adventure with you and to have this time now to celebrate the successful attainment of a goal that seemed distant just a few years ago.
The third word is Finnish--I am a teacher of Finnish and never miss an opportunity to teach--PYRKIA". Pyrkia"--or its Estonian variant pu"u"dlema--means "to aspire," "to reach for a goal." But "aspire" has a pie-in-the-sky kind of quality to it in English: as if it should be said of something that is distant and unattainable. Yet the Finnish pyrkia" --and I suspect its Estonian counterpart as well--has a very concrete
meaning. It means to take considered, concrete action to realize a goal. It means making a reality out of your dreams in a careful, step-by-step manner. I submit to you that that is exactly what we have done and are doing together: making our goal a reality, through concrete acts of work and generosity. I salute each of you who has given of your talents, your energies, and your generosity to make the Baltic Studies Program a reality here at the University of Washington. I am honored to have been a part of that process and I look forward to helping in what ways I can in the future as well. Congratulations.
Professor Stephen Hanson, Director, Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies
This is a very proud moment for all of us here at the University of Washington and we are so truly grateful to all of you for making it possible. As director of the Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies Program for the last couple of years, I’ve had the pleasure of being part of a program which really takes seriously the words in our acronym that don’t begin with the letter "R". There are a lot of "REECAS" programs springing up across the country these days; a lot of people want to claim, now, that they have always covered the non-Russian parts of the former Soviet empire. But very few universities can really make this claim in a serious way. The University of Washington has been able to do so, due to the dedication, in particular, of faculty like Guntis Smidchens. We have been able to study the peoples who were subjugated by that empire, and who were too often ignored by Western students of the Soviet Union, who began to analyze the USSR as if it were simply Russia.
Former REECAS Director Dan Waugh, back in the early 1990’s--just after the Soviet Union collapsed--was the person who saw more clearly than anybody else that for the University of Washington and for the whole field of post-Soviet studies it was vital to begin to study those peoples at what was once the periphery of the Soviet Union. These peoples now stand at the center of the emerging new links, new forms of trade and investment, and new identities that are going to shape the history of Eurasia in the 21st century. So, I think it’s no coincidence that last year, the REECAS program was the recipient of one of four grants given to centers of this type in the United States after the tragic events of September 11, 2001. The United States Congress voted then to send additional funds to support centers like ours, and Congress and the Department of Education looked for programs that seemed to be focusing on the less commonly taught languages of this region and on its less commonly studied peoples and nations. The fact that the Baltic Studies Program of the University of Washington has been for so long such a crown jewel of our program, the fact that thanks to Guntis and thanks to you, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian will now be taught at the University of Washington every single year, forever—such factors were absolutely vital in our getting a half a million dollars for this academic year from the federal government. These funds, in fact, are helping to support our Teaching Assistants in Estonian and Lithuanian this year, as well as to graduate students studying the Baltic region. As we are now going through the process once again of applying for this federal money, we are quite confident that this sort of support from Washington DC is going to continue, and this is really due to your support. It’s because we already had something remarkable here to begin with that other people came and supported us as well.
Let me conclude by saying that we think that this partnership with the community that’s been built up by the Baltic Studies Program at the University of Washington is the model for what we at the REECAS program want to do during the 21ST century. We are an outreach organization primarily. Our goal is to make sure that people in this community, in the Puget Sound area and beyond, understand that the battle for democracy and for freedom in the vast expanse of Eurasia isn’t over. And countries like Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have led the way, and continue to lead the way, as models and examples of what other countries in that region can aspire to. As the European Union and NATO expand to include these states, thus righting deep historical wrongs, we expect that the dynamic of working together with you in the community is going to be something that will help make our program relevant and vital, both nationally and internationally. So thank you so much once again for your support, and if there is anything we can do for you, please don’t hesitate to let us know. As I say we’re here to serve the public and serve this community and we think we can do great things together. Thank you very much.
Amanda Swain, First graduate (MA, 1995)
Most groups of people have a myth of origin—I am that myth for the Baltic Studies Program at the University of Washington. Like many myths, there is a grain of truth to this one. In September 1991, as an incoming graduate student in the REECAS Program, I told Professor Waugh that I wanted to specialize in the Baltic States. He said, "we really don’t have any faculty who know anything about the Baltics, but I think you should do it." Eight months later, after an extensive search for a summer Lithuanian language program, I told Professor Waugh, "I talked to a man at the Social Science Research Council who said he’d love to fund a Baltic languages summer institute." The next year, two weeks before I left for Lithuania on a Fulbright Fellowship, I attended a meeting of UW faculty and Baltic-American community members to discuss the creation of a Baltic Studies program and a summer language institute at the University of Washington.
The Baltic States played a significant role in the collapse of the Soviet Union and they will continue to play a role in the building of the new Europe. I was fortunate to work with faculty who recognized the importance of training graduate students in their field of interest and who gave me the opportunity to integrate the Baltics into all of my classes. I am especially pleased that the University of Washington has made a commitment to be the only comprehensive Baltic Studies program in the United States and that the students who have followed me can say, "I have a degree in Baltic Studies from the University of Washington."
Robert Smurr, Most recent graduate (PhD, 2002)
I would like to say a few words tonight about the value of the Baltic Studies Program in terms of my personal academic development. I entered the program comparatively late during the course of my Ph.D. studies in the Department of History. That is, I had already completed my general course requirements and passed my qualifying Ph.D. examinations by the time I discovered the Baltic Studies Program. But from my earliest acquaintance with the program in 1995, I found it promising indeed for my research interests, primarily because I had great desire to broaden my expertise in non-Russian areas of the former Soviet Union. I was also concerned that, as it had developed over the previous four decades, the field of Soviet Studies was too narrowly defined and delineated by Russo-centric case studies. This fact I found to be particularly difficult to comprehend given the enormous role non-Russian Soviet Republics played in the demise of the USSR, and given the new ease of access to formerly forbidden materials and geographic destinations within the once-secretive empire.
Of course, the Baltic States stood in the forefront of Soviet independence movements, thus I could think of no better place to apply my research efforts. Discovering that I had the opportunity to study both Baltic cultures and languages (I studied Estonian) right here at the University of Washington was like striking academic gold. That is, I realized just how fortunate I was that I could get a good running start in Estonian language ability and culture in Seattle before I was to depart to Estonia to conduct my doctoral research. This, I knew, would enable me to take maximum opportunity of the limited time (about one year) I could afford to spend in Estonia. Until I discovered UW’s Baltic Studies Program, I knew of only one other university in the United States where this option would have been available (the University of Indiana). Unfortunately (or, rather, fortunately), my family felt unable to uproot our lives for that destination.
And so it was that the Baltic Studies Program at the University of Washington seemed to be tailor-made for my interests. Because I studied Estonian with Guntis Smidchens at the UW for over two years, by the time I did arrive in Tartu, I was able to immediately dive into library and archival resources. I also continued my language studies while living in Estonia, but I was not forced to devote all of my efforts to this time consuming process.
Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my entire stay in Estonia, and I can only conclude that the greater part of my enjoyment stemmed from the fact that I had such wonderful preparation at the UW. Largely due to my earlier work at the UW, I already felt a special appreciation for Estonian (and Baltic) culture upon my arrival in Tartu. I also noticed that my appreciation and curiosity for all things Baltic only increased during my too brief residence.
I successfully defended my Ph.D. dissertation (Perceptions of Nature, Expressions of Nation: An Environmental History of Estonia) in June, 2002 at the University of Washington. The work that the dissertation entailed was time consuming and often difficult, but always entirely enjoyable. Moreover, I feel confident that I have managed to broaden the field of Soviet Studies, however slightly, to consider regions and cultures that have for far too long been relegated to secondary positions of little more than colorful backdrop. Were it not for the Baltic Studies Program at the University of Washington, I might still have been inclined to spell Tallinn with only one ‘n’, a la Russe.
Joyce Ogburn, Assistant Director, UW Libraries
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this afternoon about the UW Libraries and the role we have been playing--and hope to continue to play—in helping develop resources on the UW campus to support this unique program.
Perhaps some of you are already aware of how firmly committed to supporting international studies our library is. For decades the Library has been a committed partner of UW’s Jackson School of International Studies, as well as of the language and literature departments of UW’s College of Arts and Sciences. For a surprisingly large number of world regions, we have specialized library collections that rank among the very strongest in North America. Take a walk through the book stacks of Suzzallo Library, and you’ll see a profusion of materials in the languages of every region and country that’s taught and studied at UW—and that’s quite a few. Together with the University administration, the staff of the Libraries takes pride in being connected to the world, and in helping UW students and faculty maintain and grow that connection, themselves.
At the same time, we in the Library watch closely to keep track of developments within UW’s academic programs, to see where growth is occurring, and consequently where the Library may need to begin committing its resources. Our librarians, my predecessor in the Library administration, and I have all watched the Baltic Studies Program grow and thrive over the past decade, and I’m pleased to report—but this will be no news to you—that it is definitely a growth area and we in the Library recognize it as such. And we are already seizing the opportunity to make the Library a unique and outstanding asset for the Baltic Studies Program and the University.
Our commitment of resources is in three main categories: staff, acquisitions, and facilities. Let me talk briefly about each of these.
[JPEG image of Library’s Baltic staff appears]: First of all, let me introduce you to the staff who do the day-to-day work that makes Baltic happen in the Library. From left to right: Michael Biggins is Head of our Slavic and East European Section, and is responsible for setting the direction that Baltic Studies takes in the Library, selecting materials, and helping our students and faculty navigate their way through these resources. Jake White and Nadia Dimitrov are our Slavic and East European Exchange and Acquisitions Specialist and Acquisitions Technician, respectively; they maintain day-to-day contact with our book and periodical suppliers in Tallinn, Tartu, Riga, and Vilnius; they create and maintain the order records, they make sure the books arrive, and they do most of the trouble-shooting, and there’s lots of it. Finally, Lijana Holmes, a native of Vilnius, is our Slavic and East European Cataloger. She’s responsible for the wonderfully detailed and helpful records you find for each book in our online catalog. Lijana just took a year’s coursework in Latvian so that she could do a better job of cataloging Latvian materials. Now she’s thinking about taking Estonian.
Baltic acquisitions, cataloging, and reference are just one area of activity for our Slavic and East European staff, who are responsible for our collections from and about all of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. But it has become an increasingly important activity for them over the past decade.
The second area of our commitment is acquisitions. We have devoted progressively more and more of our Slavic and East European book budget to the Baltic area in recent years. Since about 1998, the Library has been acquiring over 600 new books from the Baltics each year, and we maintain active subscriptions to over 100 Baltic periodicals. This is more than any other university library in the United States is doing, including Harvard, the University of Wisconsin, of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, or any of the major research libraries with historically excellent Baltic collections. And if we talk about acquisitions for Latvia alone, it is more than the Library of Congress is doing, the nation’s greatest library.
Acquisitions aren’t just new books, they’re older ones, too; and they can also be gifts. Most of you are aware of the monumentally generous donation that the American Latvian Association made to the UW Libraries six years ago: the complete, 12,000-volume collection of the Latvian Studies Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Most of that collection is now cataloged and can be browsed or checked out from the Suzzallo Library book stacks—or loaned to readers at other libraries around the nation, upon receipt of an interlibrary borrowing request. There have been many, many other wonderful gifts of quality Baltic books and journals, as well. I have no doubt that some of you here were responsible for a number of those gifts, and we thank you again wholeheartedly.
Finally, the Library supports the collection and the Program with our facilities: with ample space in the book stacks; with processing and storage areas; with shelves for storing microfilm and facilities for reading it; with resources for binding journal issues, and for preserving older materials in need of repair. Suzzallo Library, the home of most Baltic materials, just underwent a two-year, $45-million renovation of which we’re very proud. If you haven’t visited Suzzallo yet, please do, and see the exhibit that we’ve staged about the UW Library’s Baltic collections.
We in the Library want you to know that we share your excitement about prospects for continued growth in the Baltic Studies Program and the endowment. We want to congratulate all of you on meeting your first goal, let you know that we’re with you, and wish you every success in reaching your new goal.
Terje Leiren, Chair, Scandinavian Department
(to be added)