A Miniature Protest is Still a Protest

Cousin Yarema, 18, showed up (unannounced as usual – we’re used to this already -- it’s ok) from Kolomyia for his “session” – a part of this off-campus degree program where he goes to class for two weeks followed by exams. In a conversation the other day, when I asked him about corruption in academia he related a story to me. At his college in Kolomyia, the school was charging 10 uah for each missed lecture. Each student had to pay up at the entrance to the final exam or access was denied. Deemed unfair and illegal by Yarema and a few of his classmates, they prepared leaflets and began to rally support for a protest against the administration. The administration met with him and his colleagues and threatened them with expulsion from the college. In spite of this, the “miniature protest” as he calls it was staged and the whole student body skipped one lecture in unison. Remarkably, the administration acquiesced and did away with the 10 uah charge. There’s more. Buoyed by their success, Yarema and his activists began to visit other colleges to try and repeat the protest for the benefit of others. These attempts failed miserably due to lack of interest from the students. Maybe those students weren’t skipping classes?