Local News in Brief : Refusenik to Come Soon
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Soviet refusenik Benjamin Charny may arrive at Pitzer College in Claremont this summer to begin a visiting fellowship, school officials announced.
The fellowship was offered to Charny, a mathematician, and he accepted in an emotional phone call placed by faculty and students to his Moscow home in May.
Charny, 51, who lost his job as a professor of mathematics at the University of Moscow and has been denied exit from the Soviet Union since 1979, is suffering from heart disease and cancer. But the State Department said it was notified by the Soviet Union in June that Charny and his wife will be allowed to leave in a few weeks.
Pitzer made the offer at the urging of students who wanted to have a refusenik on the faculty. David S. Straus of Encino said students focused on Charny because he can receive medical treatment in the United States.
The length of the fellowship has not been determined.
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