STEWARDSHIP PLANS

Romuald Hejna

Stewarding Brilliant Futures for Polish Studies at UIC

In the summer of 2008, LAS donor Romuald Hejna bequeathed a significant portion of his estate to the UIC College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for the endowment of chairs in the History of Poland and in Polish Language and Literature. The gift of $10 million is the second largest gift ever received by UIC.

We in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences feel a deep and abiding responsibility for stewarding Mr. Hejna’s gift with the care and commitment that Mr. Hejna himself must have felt as a supporter of Polish Studies in Chicago and throughout the U.S., and as a teacher and counselor to his own students. We are pleased to share our plans for the Hejna gift, a gift that has every potential to make UIC a national and global hub for the study of Polish Studies, and to grow Polish Studies at UIC beyond perhaps Mr. Hejna’s own magnificent vision.

We plan to offer a strong curriculum in Polish Studies, which includes both the basic language sequence and courses in Polish history, literature and culture.  This will be accomplished under a broader rubric than we have currently. We are proposing a new Central and Eastern European Studies (CEES) major, in which students would focus their required courses in the CEES major on either Polish or Russian, depending upon their interests.  Students would have the option, as well, to take courses more broadly focused on the Central and Eastern European regions and, in some cases, comparative in nature.  This model complements nicely the College’s arching commitment to interdisciplinarity.  

Currently we have two students with a declared major in Polish and nine in Russian.  By broadening the scope of Russian and Polish within a single CEES major, we will be able to offer a wider range of courses, make the major more popular with undergraduates, and increase course enrollments. As such, more UIC students will have an opportunity to learn about both Poland and Russia. 

When news of the Hejna gift came, we saw this as a unique occasion to grow our Polish Studies offerings not only at the undergraduate level but also at the graduate level.  Mr. Hejna’s gift will allow us to hire a third endowed chair, with new chairs not only in Polish history and Polish language and literature, but also in Polish film history. The Hejna professors will expand and strengthen our offerings in the Polish studies segment of the CEES curriculum, but will do so in a way that is far more robust than what we are currently able to do or could have done on our own. Once appointed, the faculty will be able to give shape to our graduate offerings.

In winter 2009, LAS will formally launch its international search for the Hejna Professorships. Dean Dwight A. McBride has named a faculty search committee to identify some of the very best scholars in Polish studies. As each of the new Hejna Professors joins the UIC faculty, the College will host a formal inaugural lecture and celebration to which the public and the LAS and UIC communities will be invited.

Both UIC and the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences are humbled and excited by our brilliant future as a hub of academic excellence for Polish studies for years to come, a future made certain by Mr. Hejna’s gift.