Expand incorporation of universities, commitment of Guadalupe Valencia

With the conviction that women are “very close” to reaching the UNAM Rectorate, not because of their gender, but because they have credentials and experience, Guadalupe Valencia, one of the five women aspiring to direct the National University, proposes the creation of small universities that are incorporated into the highest house of studies, to expand the educational offer of the institution.

“UNAM has increased enrollment, in the last 20 years, by 50%. I think it is not in a position to admit 200,000 applicants each year, but it is able to offer other things, one is to use hybrid, distance education; In education there are many possible modalities, because there are combinatorics; We must put our capabilities to work to achieve the incorporation of more students in this way,” he said.

"Another way, but which does not depend only on the Rector's Office, is to ally with governments for a common goal, which is to open small universities in the regions or right here, where few careers are launched with the design, supervision and the UNAM seal, as incorporated universities, but financially and operationally in charge of some local and state education departments, but not necessarily of UNAM,” he explained.

In interview with Excelsiorthe Humanities coordinator explained that the offer in these small universities must be careers that have job opportunities.

“Also studying the regional industrial, technological, scientific, cultural and tourist vocation of the region to then put some careers that we know have a viable job opportunity,” he stated.

For Valencia, beyond rhetoric, UNAM is the University of the Nation, but it must also be a beacon of moral authority.

“I really like the metaphor of the UNAM mirror as the microcosm and the mirror where society can see itself, and I believe that it is UNAM's responsibility to return to society a better image of itself, and it can do so because It has the prestige of being one of the 100 most important universities in the world, the largest and most important in Mexico with many achievements and awards,” he commented.

“In other less visible senses, it is a transmission belt or has to be, through families to society, of more egalitarian, more democratic, more plural forms of relationships, where conversation and dialogue are the way. to resolve conflicts,” he indicated.

The 65-year-old sociologist, who does not consider it a disadvantage to have studied her degree at a private university, boasts of her love for the institution and her 40 years as a Unamite professor.

Valencia also does not believe that being a woman represents an obstacle to being rector, despite the fact that in 78 years the Governing Board has always appointed a man as natural leader.

“We are good candidates, I am not the only one and we are not going to get there because we are women, but because we have credentials, we have track records and we have work programs that seem good to some of our colleagues, who go to the Board and have spoken out for us, that is also why I want to be rector, because there are sectors of the community that have accompanied me, because they believe that I can really do a good role as rector, the first rector of our UNAM.”

“The path is opening and it is opening definitively. We women have driven our own path and we are very close to reaching the Rectorate,” she said.

He highlighted that in the group close to the rector Enrique Grae there are women, that the first woman has arrived at the Legal Research Institute as director and that 13 of the scientific research institutes have a woman at the head.

“Then there has not been a rector, but now there may be, in the other spaces we have been accessing important positions in our UNAM and we have done a very good job,” he said.

In this context, he considered that the possible arrival of a woman to the Presidency and also a university student like the two virtual candidates are, would greatly help the National University.

“We can sit down and talk about our home, our common home, right here, in our common home. The talk can be very easy because our purpose is common and it is the nation, it is society, it is the young people, it is what UNAM means for society and society, of course, for UNAM,” he noted.

The humanist, who refused to be close to any political current or group within the National University, sees no impediment to dialogue with governments at different levels, in order to reach mutually beneficial agreements.

“The University has maintained this spirit of dialogue and conversation with the governments in power,” he stated.

And has this provision always existed for governments?

—Well, I think we have to knock on the door, look for them, talk, because the University is the most generous and powerful space for dialogue, if we learn something at the University, it is to dialogue and then we can also take that outside to continue. our dialogues, which are always reasoned dialogues, which are always respectful dialogues, which are always dialogues that start from recognizing otherness,” he highlighted.

When referring to the political context ahead of the 2024 elections, he stated that the presence of candidates in the UNAM should not be a prohibited issue, although it must be evaluated at the time, for security reasons.

“The UNAM is a forum for discussion and debate, we can talk about national projects, government projects, we can talk about the candidates, but we take the topic to the scope of academic debate, informed debate and not debate. ideological,” he clarified.

As a sociologist, Valencia, who due to her training has the duty to cultivate critical thinking, offers the possibility of making diagnoses and designing policies for the benefit of the University and the country.

He says that a rector, in addition to knowing UNAM, must know how to surround himself with a great work team, have a lot of serenity, listening skills, dialogue and equanimity.

His main task, upon reaching the Rectorate - he concludes - is teaching and the construction of a new university spirit that focuses on the defense of plurality and diversity, respect, empathy, solidarity, attention to health and emotions.

“Particularly I am interested in this enormous population of our high school, our high schools and CCH, I am interested because I believe that there we can sow a lot of what we will later be able to harvest as a new university ethos in which the tasks of collective care, mutual care, bear fruit for a community that builds itself every day,” he concluded.

Secretary is dismissed after insulting a university student

The director of the Faculty of Law, Raúl Contreras, dismissed Ricardo Rojas Arévalo, his general secretary, after the insult he gave against the director of the National School of Forensic Sciences, Zoraida García, during the live broadcast was spread. of the lecture series Current challenges of criminal investigation in the adversarial system.

In the broadcast, Carlos Cuenca Dardón is heard telling Rojas Arévalo: “Zoraida is going to be there, you know her very well…”, to which Rojas Arévalo responds: “fucking old culera.”

After the laughter of Cuenca and Gabriel Regino, another of the speakers, Rojas Arévalo continues: “Do you know that he sent a letter, with five candidates?”

They referred to the letter sent to the Government Board by Zoraida García in support of five candidates for the Rectorate in which she did not include Raúl Contreras.

Hours later, Contreras apologized and announced his decision to dismiss Rojas Arévalo.

“At the Faculty we are categorically against any act of violence against women. But we are also firm that none of these acts should go unpunished.

“The comments made about Dr. Zoraida García are not shared by the Faculty of Law community or by me. I offer an apology for the effects that this unfortunate event has caused,” she expressed in a video broadcast on the Faculty's social networks.

“As a result of this, I have decided to remove Dr. Ricardo Rojas Árevalo from his duties, who, until today, served as general secretary of this faculty,” he stated.

Laura Toribio