Wreckage of the presidential Tu-154. Photo: PAP

The rector of Wroclaw University has asked deans to choose representatives of all the establishment’s faculties to participate in a pilgrimage to Smolensk on 10 April.

The move comes as the Wroclaw-based Catholic Radio Rodzina is organising a pilgrimage to Smolensk for the first anniversary of the presidential plane crash in April.

The university’s rector, Professor Marek Bojarski sent a letter to all deans asking them to choose one representative of each faculty who will participate in the pilgrimage.

Deans, however, do not intend to comply with the rector’s decision, arguing that the university is an ideologically neutral institution and the pilgrimage is religious.

“I am not taking this letter seriously. It is not my statutory duty to send a representative of the faculty to attend the ceremony in Smolensk, which has nothing to do with the university itself or with science,” said Prof. Leszek Ciunik, dean of the Faculty of Chemistry. (mg/jb)

Source: Gazeta Wyborcza