Faculties, committed to the unprecedented process

During the little more than a month and a half that the auscultation of the UNAM Governing Board to university students as part of the succession process of the Rectorate, faculties such as Law, Medicine, Engineering, and Economics had a greater presence to express their opinions before the "notables" who have in their hands the decision to appoint the person to govern the destinations of the National University for the next four years.

On the first day of the start of the process, last August 21, the telephone lines of the Governing Board were saturated in the search for appointments to express support for one of the 17 candidates for the Rectorate.

Ten days later, the first university students to reach an appointment began to arrive at the five commissions, in which the Governing Board was organized to receive opinions about the University or a distinguished university student.

On foot, in pumabús, private cars, even in vans in which they organized, the university students arrived at the headquarters of the Board to express their visions of the UNAM, in 20-minute sessions. Sometimes in groups of two or three people, but others, more than ten.

From 9 in the morning the committees of the Board received the delegations made up of students, academics, researchers, directors, graduates, workers or mixed groups.

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It was characteristic to hear goyas at the end of the university students' sessions with the Board as well as at the exits of the headquarters where the delegations took photographs.

By mid-September, the Board's lines reported that there were no longer appointments available. So the only option to express your support for an applicant was through letters.

There came a time when they stopped answering the phone or the line sounded dead, and when we talked about the Law School they sent us to the waiting list,” said Gabriel Covarrubias, a student at the Law School.

For the third semester university student, going before the Board in a rector process is a unique experience that every university student should enter into.

Because it is the most important decision of UNAM, it is the choice of who will lead it for at least the next four years, which impacts not only campuses in Ciudad Universitaria, but also those in the metropolitan area and external campuses in the states of the Republic and even in international headquarters.

It allows you from your experience to tell what you have experienced and think the University needs,” he highlighted.

But it was not the same experience that Erik Ortuño, a subject professor and former university advisor, had, who by mid-September could no longer obtain an appointment to appear before the Board.

The perception that only certain candidates, those related to the current rector or supported by power groups related to certain political forces, had privileged access to the authorities, generated a feeling of inequality in the process.

Faced with this inequality, members of the university community look for solutions,” Ortuño accused.

It must be remembered that the Governing Board values ​​the profiles and proposals of the candidates, but not the number of supports they have, since it is not an open election process, but rather an auscultation process.

RAÚL CONTRERAS HIGHLIGHTS WORK OF THE UNAM GOVERNING BOARD

When reopening the National School of Jurisprudence, the director of the Faculty of Law, Raúl Contreras Bustamante, highlighted that thanks to the Governing Board, as the body in charge of electing university authorities, the National University has been allowed to work with stability internal.

The candidate for the Rectorate also explained that the correct exercise of autonomy prescribes the obligation and responsibility to manage the public resources in charge with honesty and transparency, as well as to render clear accounts to society.

Today, thanks to the Autonomy of our University, guaranteed by our Political Constitution, we can work with absolute freedom of teaching, expression and research, making room for all currents of thought and trends of a scientific and social nature; direct our destinies under a guaranteed internal government regime and develop our own study programs, without interference from any agent external to the University,” he stated.

Without the presence of the rector Enrique Graue, whose participation was scheduled for the event, Contreras Bustamante told the attendees that, out of respect for the succession process, he preferred not to be present.

Before the ceremony, Graue only attended a brief tour of the building located in the Historic Center

During the excavations carried out for the remodeling of the property, everything from human remains to confessionals from the viceregal era were found.

In addition, a colossal feathered snake head was discovered, which weighs approximately two tons.

For the library, the family of former president Miguel de la Madrid donated more than 20 thousand books from his father's bibliographic collection; of which, 13 thousand make up the wealth of the library that will bear his name, in his capacity as a UNAM graduate, the last President of the Republic, to date, who was forged in the Law classrooms.

THEY ACCUSE DIRTY WAR AGAINST THEM

As a result of the nomination of Raúl Contreras as a candidate for the Rectorate, the community of the Faculty of Law has received “unjustified and inadmissible attacks,” around 1,500 university students accused in a letter that they will deliver today to the Governing Board.

In the letter, in the possession of Excelsior, It is reported that the attacks reached their climax on Monday, October 2, when a group of students and former students tried to take over the facilities, under the pretext of an alleged bedbug infestation.

They denounced “the malicious anti-university conduct, in the form of a dirty war that is being carried out to affect our director who is participating as an applicant in this process.”

-Laura Toribio

cva