The University

ISSUE THEME
as a certain balance record. it ought to present
how the university has worked in various fields
for the local community and how this work has
influenced the development of the city and the
region. Thanking all the authors for their disciplined
editorial work, i would like to draw future
readers’ attention to the accompanying illustrations
which, in our opinion, splendidly reflect our
university’s traditions and the accomplishments
of all the generations of scholars who once
worked or still work at our Alma Mater.
E.B.N.: Let us try to sum up: many authors,
many perspectives; an enormous amount of
processed material. What is the image of the
university emerging from the publication?
W.S.: We are still working hard to “catch up”
with the great universities and trying to maintain
a good national level and – insofar as the ministry’s
policies and the financial capacity make it
possible – a fairly good European level. if i may say
so, the conditions that the state provides young
scholars with are not good enough. in our monograph,
we focus our attention also on the output
of the young generation, which will be the next
to take over the university. The celebrations and
the book we prepared encourage recapitulation,
thus they are the perfect time and place to briefly
and moderately, but also clearly, boast our many
achievements. As the rector has said, we would
like to highlight our silver jubilee.
E.B.N.: Preparing a publication, one always
has a planned audience in mind. Prof.
Stepinski’s strong belief in the research
value of this volume indicates that the book
is aimed at a specialist audience. For which
groups is the book intended and what do you
hope that readers gain from it?
W.T.: The answer is simple: the audience is,
first of all, the academic community of Szczecin
University and the remaining universities and
academies in Szczecin; all those interested in
higher education in Poland; the citizens of our
city and the region. however, the book is not
one that may be categorized as popular science
or bought in every bookshop. in my opinion, the
book ought to addressed particularly to those
that decide about what goes on in the city and
region, i.e. the municipal authorities and local
government. The monograph also constitutes
good promotional material, presenting
the university’s current image and its dynamic
progress: from 800 to 30.000 students; from
a small university to a medium-sized strong university
with full academic rights; from a small
workplace to one of the largest in West Pomerania,
employing over 2.000 people. This incredible
process is worth emphasizing because such
huge progress in a 25-year period is rare in the
history of universities. Let us just remind that
Szczecin is an academic city largely thanks to
Szczecin University.
The first inauguration
ceremony of the academic
year 1985/86
Photo: Jerzy Giedrys
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