In 2018 the reconstruction of the Universitetskaya Ploschad began. The Park of Scientists was opened opposite the university's main building, in the place previously occupied by fast-food stands. The park houses various art objects devoted to five Nobel prize winners and has a free wi-fi area. Now a heated discussion goes on concerning the monument “Workers of the world, unite!”, nicknamed Chupa Chups, in front of the main building.
In order to find out what people living in Voronezh think about it we launched an opinion poll in the official VSU group in Vkontakte. 1,400 people took part in the survey.
The majority of the respondents (80.4%) believe that the monument should be associated with education. There are different views on what form the monument should take.
53.4% of the respondents would like to see a new sculpture, while 25.9% opt for a fountain. 33.5% think that the monument should represent Voronezh's students. It may be, for example, a sculpture of a young student couple, Shurik and Lida – the heroes of a popular Russian comedy by Leonid Gaiday.
The opinion on the research areas that may be represented by the monument also differs. 36.4% think that it should be physics, 28% voted for IT, 10.6% for medicine, and 8.1% for mathematics. Other suggestions included chemistry, biology, humanities, and local history.
Following the idea of the Park of Scientists, we also suggested to choose a particular scientist to be honoured by the monument, but the idea did not prove to be popular. Most people think it would be hard to choose just one particular person.
