NEW YORK – Program Director for the conference, Prof. Walter Zarycky, welcomed the nearly 100 participants, representing a cross-section of the organizations representing the Ukrainian American community, and asked the audience to take a look in the mirror in self-evaluating the Ukrainian American community during this conference.
He underscored the expanding Ukrainian studies curriculum in the U.S. can be attributed to the late Prof. Mark von Hagen, who passed away just before the conference. “What would Mark have wanted?” Prof. Zarycky rhetorically asked. He then called on the participants to observe a minute of silence for the late professor. (An obituary of Dr. von Hagen was printed in the September 29 issue.)