The Harriman Institute of Columbia University will receive $500,000 from the Canadian-Ukrainian philanthropist Petro Jacyk to endow its graduate program in Ukrainian studies, institute director Mark L. von Hagen has announced.

In appreciation of the gift, which will be received over five years, the program has been named the Petro Jacyk Ukrainian Studies Program.

"Mr. Jacyk's generosity will enable the Harriman Institute to develop a permanent commitment to Ukrainian studies," said Professor von Hagen, a historian of the Soviet period and a specialist on Russia and Ukraine. "We anticipate adding junior and senior specialists to assure continuity in course offerings in Ukrainian politics and economics, institute a variety of student fellowships, and create a publications program centered on policy-relevant studies of Ukraine."

The institute, based in Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, is the country's oldest major university center for graduate study of the former Soviet Union and the Soviet successor states. One of its primary goals is to promote specialized knowledge of Ukraine among a critical constituency--graduate students preparing for professional careers in government, diplomacy, business, journalism and nongovernmental organizations.

"It is our firm belief," said the institute's associate director, Professor Alexander J. Motyl, a specialist in Soviet nationalities, "that these young scholars hold the key to public understanding of Ukraine and to Western policy toward Ukraine. We fully expect their growing presence in influential North American and European institutions to contribute significantly to greater Western understanding of Ukraine and faster Ukrainian integration into the West."

Professor von Hagen called Mr. Jacyk "one of the most generous and farsighted patrons of Ukrainian studies," noting his broad support for programs at Harvard University, at the Universities of Alberta and Toronto in Canada, and at the University of London in England.

A benefactor since 1993 of the Harriman Institute's fledgling Ukrainian studies program, Mr. Jacyk has previously donated gifts totaling $75,000, making possible the addition of new course offerings in Ukrainian language, literature, history, politics and culture, as well as in regional studies of the Black Sea area. The institute has hosted visiting scholars from Ukraine and supported research projects on the country's past and present.

Originally founded in 1946 as the first regional institute in international affairs, the Harriman Institute is today devoted to the interdisciplinary study of the former Soviet Union and the newly independent nations that emerged from the collapse of the USSR. Since then the Institute has endeavored to depart from the traditional russocentricism of Soviet studies and view Ukraine and Russia as the two linchpins in its area of study, said Professor von Hagen. "The strengthening of the Ukrainian program component has become a topmost priority," he said, "and we are determined to do our utmost to ensure the survival and continued growth of this crucial program."

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