(An article requested from Elmar Tampõld on the occasion of Tartu College’s 40th anniversary.)

In spite of all of these obstacles, I still believed that we had performed a lion's leap into the Canadian economy to solve our future problems for our Estonian community.

Tartu College, to be entitled to the aforementioned loan, was registered as a non-profit educational organization at the Ontario provincial government offices. In order to warrant tax-free status it was necessary to develop a stated educational programme. The interest of our academic organizations seemed, however, to be limited to furthering their own leisure and social activities. To fulfill the requirements of a Canadian educational institution I began, at the beginning of 1971, as the new chairman of the board, to direct the activities of Tartu College. We established sub-committees to fulfill certain goals and responsibilities. The Academic Home with its bylaws remained master of the ground floor. The Academic Institute, later renamed Tartu Institute, was given the responsibility of organizing educational programmes. Established later were the Dr. Endel Aruja Archive, the Bibliography Club, the Tartu College Cultural Programme and the Academic Mixed Choir Oobik (Nightingale). In 1997, Tartu College received permission from the Toronto municipal government to renovate 7,000 sq. ft. of space in the underground parking lot to accommodate the archive of Tartu Institute. The constitution of the institute makes reference to the goal of establishing a Chair of Estonian Studies at a recognized university. I had mentioned this goal as early as in the first interview given concerning Tartu College (see Toronto's Estonian weekly "Meie Elu", April 25, 1968.

It still remained to be decided whether the programme of the institute, lectures, library and archive, were sufficient to justify non-profit status. It became necessary to search for a more continuous teaching programme than was possible given the volunteer nature of the activity of the institute.

After lengthy negotiations with the University of Toronto, Tartu College transferred in October 1985 funds and in 1988 I signed a contract binding the University and Tartu College to establish the position of Lecturer of Estonian for a period of four years. By the beginning of the 1980's Tartu College was generating sufficient annual profit to entertain the idea of beginning preliminary work to establish a permanent Estonian Chair. In addition to facilitating the educational efforts of Tartu College an evident need to establish an impartial academic information dissemination centre had surfaced, as the disinformation machines of Moscow were then working at full capacity. Our external political organizations were considered by the majority to be one dimensional. They lacked the necessary connections with the University.

During the years of 1978 - 79, when the university offered and propagated opportunities to establish ethnic academic Chairs, the Hungarian and Ukrainian Chairs were founded.

The establishment and foundation of endowed enterprises require two fundamentals: capital, and the desire and ability to direct capital. The first entry in my Estonian Chair logbook was made on May 20, 1982, when I approached my university schoolmate, Professor Endel Tulving to discuss the possibilities of financing the establishment of an Estonian Chair from the returns generated by Tartu College's founding capital and accrued profits. We invited Professor Olev Trass to join us and the three of us jointly presented our first proposal to the University of Toronto. In collaboration with the board of Tartu College I incorporated the Chair of Estonian Studies foundations, which continued the negotiations with the University of Toronto. To receive financial assistance from the Canadian Federal Government (at the time the requirement was $300,000 from TC, to be met with $300,000 from Ottawa!) We received support from many of our organizations, from consul general Ilmar Heinsoo to Baltic Evenings held on Parliament Hill. Nevertheless, I was still required to provide the university with a written guarantee, stating that if the Federal Government were not to provide financial assistance, then Tartu College would make good the difference.

The Foundation organized the administrative end: the negotiations, formal proposals, and contractual relationships that took place, along with repeated amendments, new financial demands and other "horse-trading" lasted until 1992. Professors Trass and Tulving, later named to the academic committee responsible for the administration of the Chair, directed our efforts through the gauntlet of the university's various academic committees. The Estonian Chair commenced work under the stewardship of the first visiting Professor, Dr. Tonu Parming in September of 1986. Dr. Parming stated then that "the branch of Estonian Nationalism and ideas has been grafted on to the oak of the University of Toronto".

Inflation and the new requirements of maintaining founding capital meant that the Board of Governors of the University decided already in 1987, that to continue operations, the capital of the Foundation needed to be increased by $800,000 from the initial sum that had grown and grown, of $1,100,000 to $1,900,000. As the Chair had not yet named a permanent holder of the professorship, and the immediate payment of the additional sums was beyond the reach of Tartu College, the University wished to temporarily suspend the activities of the Chair. It was then feared that all might be lost, for failure to fulfill the requirements of the educational programme might have meant the loss of the $350,000 received from the Federal Government. I was forced, as the chairman of Tartu College and the foundation to knowingly, but without any choice; make promises that were beyond our capabilities (knowing, however, that in an extreme circumstance a solution might be found, just as during the construction phase of Tartu College, personal resources could be accessed.)

At the end of the day I reached an informal and unofficial agreement with Provost Foley that the Foundation would place the required sum into a trust fund over the period of six years along with interest on the amount in arrears (10% of the unpaid sum, i.e. $210,000). The University in return agreed to immediately appoint a committee to oversee the work of the Chair, and an electoral committee with the responsibility of hiring a permanent Professor of the Chair. Both sides kept their word. In 1992 we signed a new, amended contract.

The next concerns arrived during the years of financial crisis, 1992 - 94, when the income of Tartu College fell by 20 to 25% of the anticipated sums. The University residences as well had vacancy rates of 25%. At that time there remained the sum of $220,000 to be paid into the Chair's fund. At the same time, new fire prevention regulations required a $500,000 renovation of Tartu College.
(To be cont’d.)

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