Who are we?
Initiative Group of students and employees of Lomonosov Moscow State University (IGMSU) is an informal organisation standing for academic and civil rights of students and employees of the Lomonosov Moscow State University — the first and the biggest university in Russia. Our organisation was found in October 2009 and since then has taken the leading role in delivering solutions for many students’ problems by pressuring the administration of MSU and the municipality of Moscow. We are doing this because official University student organisations such as Student Union and Student Council are controlled by University administration (rectorate) via staged elections and do not act in the interests of students.
Our achievements
Within last 8 years, IGMSU successfully organised dozens of campaigns in many areas of students’ life, earning the respect of many student generations of MSU.
The biggest victories of IGMSU:
1) Housing improvement of student dormitories of MSU
There are very strict rules in state universities in Russia. For example, students were not allowed to invite guests to stay over at night at dormitories. IGMSU secured that right for more than 5000 inhabitants of student dormitories in the Main Building of MSU.
2) Enforcement of compliance with sanitary standards in MSU student dormitories.
Instead of building new dormitories MSU administration tried to save money and violated sanitary requirements while providing housing for students in old buildings: the number of inhabitants living in a single room was surpassed in defiance of state standards. IGMSU used legal mechanisms to fix this issue and by organizing an ‘Occupy Rectorate’ protest activities managed to relocated 2 000 students of MSU out of the terrible dormitory built in 1960-s to a different housing.
3) Reinstated voting rights for non-resident students registered outside of Moscow.
Many times Moscow nonresidents (who are living in dormitories) were deprived of their voting rights in President and State Parliament elections due to the distance from their voting districts in their hometowns. IGMSU persuaded Central Election Commision of the Russian Federation to provide those students with the right to vote on the nearest polling station to the dormitories.
4) University campus defence from re-construction works by Moscow authorities.
University campus is the monument of architecture and supposed to be protected by the government, but in fact, Moscow authorities repeatedly tried to build new objects on campus (transportation nodes, an enormous monument to the prince) or to organize knowingly substandard re-construction. IGMSU along with pro-active Moscow citizens prevented MSU campus from destructive works. This exact area is supposed to be used as a location for FIFA Fan Fest.
Why are we seeking solidarity?
During a period of Summer 2017 — Winter 2018 we repeatedly appealed to the administration of the University, 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Local Organising Committee and Moscow authorities to re-allocate the only one FIFA Fan Fest in Moscow to another location. All our requests were ignored. Everything happening with the Fan Fest and the leading Russian University could never be imagined in any other European country.
We believe that public solidarity of students from around the world could help us to affect the decision of FIFA and Moscow authorities and keep our University intact for students and scientists.
Being free means being participating!
Our e-mail: mail@igmsu.org
Our spokesperson:
Aleksandr Bykov
(aleksandr.s.bykov@gmail.com, +31 6 20 69 1666)
For more news follow MSU Initiative Group on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/igmsu (in Russian and English)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/news.ig.msu (in Russian and English) Instagram: instagram.com/nofanfestmsu
VK: https://vk.com/igmsu (Russian)