Historia Fundacji Rozwoju Ośrodka Akademickiego w Rzeszowie w latach 1993-2008

Abstract

The idea of establishing foundations has been known since ancient times. Municipalities, associations and private individuals were given foundation capital together with the obligation to circulate it in order to achieve certain goals. Medieval church and monastic foundations operated in this way. The most well-known foundations were: the estate of the salt mines in Wieliczka supporting Cracow Academy professors, The Ossolinskis National Institute – Ossolineum and Kornik Institutes. Later flowering of foundation performance after regaining independence in 1918 was abruptly stopped by the war campaign and communistic authorities. Disappearance of Polish foundations between 1952 and 1984 did great damage both to the state and society. In 1984 this attitude had to be verified because Parliament of the Polish People's Republic passed the Bill regarding Foundations which was upheld after the amendment in free Poland. Lively trends of charitable activities in 1993 led to establish the Foundation for Development of the Academic Centre in Rzeszow, whose purpose was to support initiatives aiming to found the University of Rzeszow. The foundation’s founders were representatives of the government and local authorities, clergy representatives and representatives of the world of science and politics, as well. In the past several years of the Foundation performance, assistance for improving living conditions has been offered to several dozen professors. Thanks to it, it was possible to significantly extend the number of the academic staff of three universities which gave the beginning to the University of Rzeszow, and of the faculty of the Rzeszow University of Technology. The Foundation also delivered aid to institutions among others initiating the construction of the present University Library. Lasting agreements between many social and scientific quarters and state and local institutions resulted in the substantial conditions improvement of the development of the academic centre in Rzeszow.