Lost in Translation

As a former newspaper editor in high school and college, I am sympathetic to the difficulties reporting details with precision, and I take responsibility for not always being as clear as I might be when talking with reporters. However, I do want to correct some misimpressions that might have been left in some of the news reports about my Fulbright.

One news story says I have a long-standing interest in "freedom of expansion." That, of course, should be "freedom of expression." I did not mean to suggest that I support American colonialism or occupation!

Another misleading impression is the suggestion that there is no University library. Comenius does not have a single centralized library, although many of the individual faculties and departments have built admirable collections. In Bratislava, there is in fact a "University Library" used by students from several universities in the city. It has a collection of over two million books and is an impressive resource I hope to explore myself. Here is the web site:
http://www.ulib.sk/index/index.php?lang=en

This is Michalska Street in the historic Old Town, where the University Library is located.

University students typically do not buy the textbook/anthologies familiar to American students, but they do acquire monographs and other materials for their classes. Another news story noted that my host University does not have a final exam week. They do have a final exam period that extends over several weeks and faculty have flexibility in scheduling those finals. American campuses typically have one week devoted to final exams and (at least at campuses with which I'm familiar) the University administration dictates when faculty must administer those final exams.

I hope that clarifies some points about which I've been asked!