Ukrainian Concordia students demand university updates statement on war

Some Ukrainian students at Montreal’s Concordia University want their school to do more than call the war in Ukraine a “situation.”

“It should be stated that it’s a war, it’s a genocide against Ukrainian people,” said Markel Reva, VP Finance of Concordia Ukrainian Students’ Union. 

On March 3, Concordia issued a statement on the war in Ukraine, a week after Russia invaded.

“We actually asked them to make that statement,” said Ukrainian student, Nazar Moroz. “When they made it, it wasn’t exactly what we were expecting.”

In it, the university referred to what was happening in Ukraine as a “situation,” a “crisis” and a “conflict.”

“Even the people that are not really directly affected by this war or by the letter itself, they text me and they say, ‘I feel so sorry that Concordia did it,’” Moroz said.

“If we say that what’s happening in Ukraine is just a situation, then the Second World War was just a conflict between multiple countries. It wasn’t a war,” said Reva. “I think that a word can change a lot, and in that case, the appropriate words of what’s happened in Ukraine is war and genocide.”

#WATCH: “I think that a word can change a lot,” said Markel Reva of Concordia Ukrainian Students’ Union, on the university’s decision to call the war in Ukraine a ‘situation.’ He says words are important and demands an updated statement on the war.

READ: https://t.co/DPQOMtDbC9 pic.twitter.com/w6lAuiL6ui

— Alyssia (@rubertuccinews) April 14, 2022

Ukraine’s parliament and U.S. President Joe Biden recently called Russia’s invasion a genocide, which is why the students want to raise awareness that what’s happening in Ukraine is bigger than simply calling it a crisis or conflict.

READ MORE:

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“As a university that provides you classes of history, classes of culture and political science, you should know which words to use in what situation,” Reva said.

“I’m an engineering student. I’m not even in political science. I don’t know how to be diplomatic,” Moroz said. “I just know that something has to be done.”

After a number of emails to administration and even meetings with the president’s representatives, the students were left unsatisfied. 

“We were directly told that it won’t be changed. And the new one, at least a new one, is not being written,” Reva said.

In a statement to CityNews, Concordia University spokesperson, Vannina Maestracci said: “It is very rare that the university issues any statement on world events and we have been focused on concrete support, such as academic and financial accommodations for students, ways to support teaching for Ukrainian refugees and providing opportunities to help for our larger community.”

“I appreciate that Concordia contacted us as soon as the war started, saying that they are there for us to give us mental health services or whatever other support we need,” Moroz said. “The problem is, as soon as we actually needed some help, I didn’t really feel like they were there enough.”

As the students are active volunteers in the community, they say they know the power of actions and want their peers to understand the gravity of the war. 

“Words are very important,” said Reva.