AUBG depletes Jean Monnet fund

The fund is a European Commission initiative to promote teaching. (Photo by Joto Chelidze)

Jean Monnet Fund, used to sponsor European Studies (EUR) and Political Science (POS) courses, as well as student activities such as the Debate Open tournament, was depleted. The application for the fund was denied for the period 2008/2009, after EUR professor Jean Crombois applied for the program.

"It's not an easy thing [to get the fund]. It is competitive," Provost Ann Ferren said. "It was a bit easier [Before Bulgaria joined the EU] [...] because of [the] special condition of Bulgaria's accession," Crombois said. He added he plans to apply for the program again next year.

"When the University and faculty apply for Jean Monet support, it is to develop and implement a course, so when we get the grant we have the obligation to give the course a number of times," said Dean of Faculty Steve Sullivan.

If a professor teaching EUR or POS courses successfully applies for the program, then the course is funded for three years and the University has to make the commitment to keep the course and fund it for another seven years after the fund is depleted.

"The funding is supposed to cover the cost of teaching the course and [the] cost of teaching the course is the cost of professor teaching the course. We don't do it because it gives us more money. We don't get any money out of it, Crombois said. "We are in the stronger position if we want to create more courses."

Ferren said the program includes whatever professors put in their budget. "They can say they want travel money, they can say they need something to support students, they can say they need research funds, they can say they need to buy library books to support the course. I know that some faculty used these programs to send their students to simulations," she added.

Among other activities, the Debate Open tournament was funded by Jean Monnet fund during the previous academic year. After the fund was depleted, the Debate club had to look for other sponsors for their tournament that is going to take place on April 3-4. "The entire budget was about 5200 BGN last year this year it is a little less than 3000 BGN," said President of the Debate Club, Ekaterina Saeva said. "We switched to corporate funding." The depletion of the fund prevented the club from organizing an international tournament, as was the case last year.

"It's quite unpleasant that, in the first year when we don't have Jean Monnet funding for the debate tournament we also have a financial crisis, so most companies which expressed an interest in sponsoring the tournament, found out they could give us less than they expected or, mostly, decided they would postpone that type of publicity for better years," Saeva added.

Jean Monnet was one of the key figures in the history of the European Union and the fund bearing his name. AUBG professors started applying for the program six or seven years ago, said Provost Ann Ferren. The professors applying for this program in the previous years were Jean Crombois, Cosmina Tanasiou, Ben DeDominicis and Didar Erdinc, Ferren added.