COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M University System announced they are responding to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in a big way.
In an exclusive interview, Chancellor John Sharp outlined changes coming to the University and its students.
"The first thing we did was we broke all ties with Russia. We had some research contracts, we terminated those," Chancellor Sharp said. "We terminated all collaboration of any kind with any Russian university or any contact by our university, with anything and in Russia."
Along with ordering all ties be severed from Russia, the chancellor has authorized funds to pay for aid as part of the 'regents' grant program'
"Grants are set up in a way to where they can be used very flexibly in order to help students recover," Sharp said. "During Hurricane Harvey, we used it to pay tuition. We used to buy books to replace books, to replace clothes, all kinds of things like that. Whatever it takes to make sure that these Ukrainian students are able to stay in school."
One of those students is Nadiia Viituk, who is currently a junior at Texas A&M.
"I mean, I grew up there. I lived there until I was 16, so it's quite a while," Viituk said. "I have a lot of friends and family in Ukraine."
Viituk says that it was a struggle to focus in class, with all but one of her family members still living in Ukraine. She even says she avoids watching the news in the morning.
"I just check that there is nothing going on where my family lives and then I call them, make sure they're ok, and then I keep going with my day," Viituk said.
Free tuition, fees, and limited living expenses for all current students from Ukraine are some of the things the $25,000 regents grants will cover.
"These students are Aggies. They're us. And so we want to do everything we can to help them," Sharp said. "Secondarily, we want to send whatever messages we can along with the rest of the country to Vladimir Putin."
The support means the world to Aggies like Viituk.
"It warms my heart like I'm really happy for like I'm really proud of my university that they do that because as I mentioned before it, a lot of people just talk and there's like no actions involved," Viituk said. "I know my university does actions. And we even had like a protest at Texas A&M. And I met quite a lot of Ukrainian because until recently I thought I was the only Ukrainian in Texas A&M."