Filaret Scriban, Ioan Strat sau Titu Maiorescu. Cine a fost primul rector al Universității din Iași?
Filaret Scriban, Ioan Strat or Titu Maiorescu. Who was the first rector of the University of Iași?

Summary/Abstract: The beginnings of the University of Iaşi remained, even after 150 years of existence, a difficult subject to research, at least in terms of sources. Meanwhile, the early years of the university institution were seen, at celebratory moments, as a special symbolic stake for the academic memory in Iași. The academics’ discourses about the first years of the University of Iaşi and the historical perception in regular monographs determined the type of legitimacy that was conferred to the first Romanian university. The researchers have not yet reached a consensus regarding the chronology and the significance of inaugural moments. Regarding the first rectors of the University during 1860-1863, the issue was cleared, both in the academic memory and in historiography, by A. D. Xenopol, in the first Anual of the University, in 1897. Based on the historian’s affirmations, the chronology of the first rectors was accepted for the following century. The period between October 28 – November 24, 1860, with Filaret Scriban as rector, was systematically ignored from this point of view. Thus, Ioan Strat was perceived as the first rector, though his election occurred one month after the founding of the University. Scriban’s provisional mandate declined to the position of pro-rector, although the first university professors never addressed him that way. Similarly, the former appreciations of Maiorescu were forgotten when he became rector in 1863, and remained the “new and the first rector” of the University for his contemporaries. They were right, as Maiorescu was the first one who fulfilled all the three conditions of a rector mandate: election by the Academic Council, ministerial recommendation and princely approval. From our point of view, Filaret Scriban was the first rector of the University of Iaşi. His signature was provisional, p. rector, as he had not been recommended by the Minister of Education to obtain the princely approval. That was also the case of I. Strat, the “first rector”, as he, too, had not been confirmed by the ruler. However, Scriban was elected by the Academic Council as President of the University. Since the University’s Statutes clearly stipulated that the rector was to preside over the council, the two positions had to be filled by one person only. Scriban’s election was a trick used by the university professors, who were waiting for the “final establishment” of the institution, by appointing professors for the Faculty of Medicine.

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