Position of the Collegium of Honorary Professors about the Situation in the Alumni Association

Dear Igor Alekseevich, would you redirect my questions to Gennady Grigoryevich Bogomazov.

Dear Gennady Grigorievich!

According to some materials from the university’s website, in January, you together with the Rector and the colleagues were at a meeting of the Board of the Alumni Association. Among the issues identified, there was also the need to ’bring the local acts of the Association into compliance with the Association’s Charter and current legislation’. Now I have learned from the publication of Apollinaria Avrutina, a member of the Alumni Association and an employee of the University, that the audit revealed significant violations. In the meantime, the St Petersburg University Alumni Association affiliates itself with St Petersburg University, and their work with such severe violations casts a shadow over the entire University. I really want to know what stand the Collegium of Honorary Professors takes on this issue. I would also like to draw your attention to the inappropriate behaviour of some colleagues addressed to Apollinaria Sergeevna.

The answer of Gennady Bogomazov, Chairman of the Collegium of Honorary Professors of St. Petersburg University:

Dear Mr Andrey Potapov,

(I am sorry that I cannot address you by your patronimic, because unfortunately, you did not specify it in your message to the Virtual Reception). On the matter of your questions, I can inform you of the following.

A meeting of a group of University employees headed by the Rector with members of the Board of the St Petersburg University Alumni Association actually took place in January of this year. The purpose of this meeting was to jointly discuss the issues and directions of close and effective cooperation between the University and the Association’s Board, since the two organisations are independent legal entities and interact following the agreement they concluded. In addition, it was necessary to draw the attention of the Association’s administration to the violations of the Charter and a number of the current legislation imperative requirements they have perpetrated. However, a constructive conversation did not take place since the association leaders deliberately stayed out of the conversation, and the University staff had no choice but to simply leave the meeting.

You write that you have read the publication of Professor Apollinaria Avrutina, where she listed up the violations that the management of the Alumni Association perpetrated in the work. No doubt, these violations cannot but worry the university community. In view of this, Professor Avrutina, as an Association member, turned to both the Ministry of Justice and the city prosecutor’s office. They have already reacted ordering the Association’s Board to take measures and establish the appropriate order.

I cannot but agree with you that this raises concerns about the state of affairs of the St Petersburg University Alumni Association. Few people understand that, as I wrote above, the University and the Association are independent legal entities with their own administrations and charters, entitling them to act and make decisions at their discretion.

I would like to assure you that the Collegium of Honorary Professors of St. Petersburg University is concerned and anxious about the situation and it intends at its next meeting to discuss the set of ’University — its alumni association’ issues in detail and work out its recommendations for solving them.

Let me wish you success and good health.

Gennady Bogomazov,
Chairman of the Collegium of Honorary Professors
of St. Petersburg University

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