Introductory Remarks of the ARA Interim President

Dear Colleagues,

Our American Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences (ARA), which has more than forty years of existence, has been created by a few enthusiastic intellectuals of Romanian roots, or scholars interested in the Romanian cultural assets. Their motivation was to promote on American soil our millennial treasures and to pass to future generations our American-Romanian legacy, preserving an unequivocal creed for truth, justice, ethical, and moral values. These values were dearly kept by the Founders of ARA and their followers for many years up to around 2000. Unfortunately, this positive trend did not continue in the last years.

It is important to realize that ARA has two very distinct periods: one from 1975 to approximately 2000, and a second period, from 2000 to present.

In the first period were published books, proceedings, and journals of high quality, which made it on the university and other well-known libraries shelves (see full text). In the first period ARA followed the bylaws and had a working democratic voting systems involving the entire membership. The leaders of ARA were volunteers, working for the enhancement of the organization, and not seeking any material benefit. The elected officers and active, devoted members to ARA were not pushed around and dismissed at the whim of a president. In this period ARA was able to retain a significant number of high intellectual quality members, counted by hundreds (attracting by their example new high quality members), and the annual Congresses were attended in large number too (300-400 or more).

Unfortunately, under the last two presidencies (1998-2016), all the above practices established during the first 20 years of the Academy have been gravely degenerated and the results are rather modest, if not inappropriate for an institution which tries to convince people that it is an Academy (see here).

The ARA leadership activity, promoted at the eve of the new millennium, is boldly marked by a decline of quality publications, and a profound lack of democracy. In this situation, many high quality intellectuals resigned, and are no longer willing to enter ARA  (see full text).

The elected ARA Board of Directors (BOD) has observed in recent years that ARA deteriorated in these numerous mentioned aspects, important for an academic entity.  Based on all these and due to several instances of abuse of power and process, as well as to preserve the assets of ARA’s, the elected Board of Directors has asserted its proper managerial and oversight roll pursuant to California Corporations Code 5210 and adopted the resolutions for ARA REVIVAL endeavor to appoints an Interim Leadership Executive Committee, until their successors are dully elected and qualified by the 2017 due elections (see here). If any of you want to better understand the details of this change, you may contact me directly.

The Interim Executive Committee, which is the legal ARA Leadership, and the elected ARA BOD engaged their selves ad-hoc in the ARA REVIVAL mission, to try returning ARA to the status it was conceived by its founders.  All the current members, and those abusively excluded in the past, as well as the intellectuals that want to join and think they are interested in serving the cause are invited to join in this endeavor. I am referring to the ARA cause so clearly stipulated in the First Period set of Bylaws, including the one amended in 2004, the only one in force now, which are really emphasizing the role of the American Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences as an ACADEMY.

Those who think they are doing the right thing giving up their voting rights and staying under a self-nominating governance of a self-perpetuating board of 5-7 people, which are retaining only for themselves the voting rights, under the Bylaws they are circulating, legally non-adopted, will continue in an organization which, according to us, is totally compromised as an ACADEMY.

We invite all of you to stay within ARA and contribute to recover its academic status.

The current ARA leadership under my interim presidency will be in place until a new ARA leadership will be elected at the General Assembly, this summer at the ARA-41 Congress to be held at Palace Sinaia, Romania, August 2-5, 2017.

There is only one American Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences organization, and this is the only one Congress officially and legally organized this year under its name.

I encourage all of you to renew your commitment and contribution to ARA by paying on-line or sending your annual membership fee to the elected ARA Treasurer, Dr. Dinu Leonte and to send articles, session and round-table proposals to the ARA-41 Congress at Palace Sinaia. This way you will be promoting the vision for a newly revived Academy, which will continue to belong to the academic world, as ARA did for more than 20 years from its inception.

Sincerely,

Constantin Corduneanu
Emeritus Professor of Mathematics
Titular Member of Romanian Academy
ARA Interim President
E-mail:
Phone: 817-468-2270

 “We move even more vigilantly from the darkness of these winter days into the brilliance of the Sun of Justice”