Sakhalin State University students became hostages of the conflict between two federal structures

What happened was the result of a long-standing confrontation between two federal structures: the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Education.

Sergey Ivanov

Five buildings of Sakhalin State University were sealed on December 7th. The court decision to suspend the operation of these buildings for 90 days at the request of the State Fire Supervision Service was a blow to the educational process. The bailiffs sealed the buildings of the Polytechnic College, the Institute of Law, Economics and Management, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin Pedagogical College. Only one academic building is in full operation. The management of the university had to urgently look for a way out of the situation. Most of the lectures, which were held in closed buildings, were transferred to rooms to which the firefighters had no complaints. 6,500 students lost their usual rhythm of study. Another 500 people had to be transferred to the distance.

“The rights of students to receive a quality education will be respected. The classroom load will be redistributed among other university facilities, and part of the classes will be transferred to a remote format, the university told Novye Izvestia. - The contact work of teachers with students will be maintained in full in accordance with the schedule of the educational process, which will not affect the quality of education. In a planned manner, the university will also prepare for the winter session”.

Questions from firefighters were not news to the university. The epic began back in 2018 at the university, when the Ministry of Emergency Situations filed 321 violations against the university. Until December 2022, Sakhalin State University has eliminated 219 violations, another 20 will be closed before the end of the year. What about the rest? Some of the prescriptions are simply impossible to eliminate. In buildings built in the 1950s and 1960s, doorways cannot be expanded or flights of stairs changed. It's just dangerous. But the firemen and the court were adamant. Another part of the regulations requires large investments that the university cannot afford without the permission of the founder - the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. SSU has been seeking funding since 2018. And only in November 2022 (a month before the scandalous court decision) they received approval for 67 million rubles to finance fire safety measures. But the university will receive this money only in 2023. At the same time, despite bureaucratic delays, the university managed to find the money itself to eliminate more than two hundred violations, including equipping five dormitories with a new fire alarm system in 2021. At the same time, design estimates were prepared for the installation of fire alarm systems in five more educational buildings.

The feds disagree

Was it possible to avoid the scandal and not lead to the closure of classrooms and the transfer of students to distance learning? After all, this situation affects not only the right of students to education, but also the process of training specialists for the country in a difficult time for it. Observers on Sakhalin think so. The problem did not arise suddenly, but at the local level, everything was done to embroider it. But Moscow thought too long.

“Earlier, the university administration developed and handed over to the founder, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, a plan to eliminate violations of fire safety requirements. Observers note the overly tough position of the State Fire Supervision Authority in court, which led to a loud scandal. The founder of Sakhalin State University, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, as well as the government of the Sakhalin Region, which was actively involved in this agenda, had to fight off the negative”, - said the local publication Sakhalinmedia.

At the same time, the position of the Ministry of Emergency Situations also attracts attention. It is clear that fire safety is important. But if we are dealing with a building that is more than 50 years old, which was built under different standards and regulations, then it simply cannot fit into modern requirements. A simple ban on work will not close the problem, you need to analyze together and look for a solution that levels out the design features. In addition, fire requirements for educational institutions are a byword for any school principal or kindergarten head. The heads of other institutions spend years carving out money for expensive repairs, and when it is done, it turns out that new guests have come out and a different class of linoleum is needed, otherwise, “tomorrow we will close it”. Apparently, this nightmare has reached the rectors of universities. The problem could be solved centrally at the level of ministries: education and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and not to pit educational institutions and supervisory authorities on the ground. But this doesn't happen for now.

“Some requirements are extremely expensive and Sakhalin State University does not have money for them,” writes the authoritative telegram channel Cass & Ra, “by the way, if anyone is not in the know, the island university is a federal institution and only the federal budget can allocate funding for it. And now, for 4 years, the administration has been torpedoing the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation with applications for the allocation of funds, but until recently, the department was deaf to the requests of our university ... the height of study? Knowledgeable people claim that there is a conflict at the federal level between the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Education and Science, and clashes between departments are taking place not only in Moscow offices, but also in the regions. Our Sakhalin State University became a victim of this war of towers”.

The plot also has a local nuance in the face of Igor Yamukov, head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Sakhalin Region. He is a “Varangian” for the region; he has been in this position for a little over a year. The island subject is considered a career springboard for non-local officials, everyone is trying to prove themselves. And since the capital is far away, the story should be loud. Coincidentally, the decision of the court to close the five buildings of the university was made almost simultaneously with the assignment of a new rank to Yamukov, he became a major general.

Hoping for common sense

On Sakhalin, they do not lose confidence that the main university of the region will emerge victorious from this storm. According to Sakhalin State University, the university intends to appeal the court's decision.

“The decision made by the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk city court will be appealed to a higher authority,” the university said. - Currently, Sakhalin State University continues to work to eliminate the comments identified by the supervisory authority. Some of them will be eliminated before the end of the current calendar year. The Island University has proactively taken additional measures to comply with integrated security”.

The university also has a larger reason for optimism. The governor of the region, Valery Limarenko, pushed through the decision to allocate subsidies to Sakhalin for the construction of a new campus. It should appear in 2025 and will not only remove all questions about the educational and household infrastructure of the university, but will also allow bringing Sakhalin State University to a fundamentally different level. Its own world-class campus put the island university on a par with FEFU, which is considered the flagship university of the entire Far Eastern Federal District.