With the sun appearing late in the afternoon, the young people approached the esplanade of the Youth Shed and enjoyed the UNR proposals.
As the sun gained space over the clouds, the students looked out yesterday at the Galpón de las Juventudes beach located on the Paraná River at the foot of the steps of Parque España to meet, to have some mates, celebrate your day with good music and take advantage of the proposals that Universidad Nacional de Rosario (UNR) has for them.
The Festival called “Always Public University” was called for students to celebrate their day with live bands, screen printing, workshops, thematic exhibitions and exclusive spaces of all the faculties and schools of the UNR.
After noon the space was filled with young people who consulted the academic offerings of the UNR, participated in health and sexuality workshops, brought their t-shirts closer to print phrases linked to the defense of public education, danced with the representatives of the School of cumbia, they surprised each other with science experiments, and they simply enjoyed together the sun that finally came out fully in the afternoon.
The rector of the UNR Franco Bartolacci expressed that the idea was to share with young people a good part of the things that the UNR does. “We have stands from all areas of the university, faculties, schools, sharing not only the academic proposal but all the tools, programs, devices that we have at a time or in a context where we understand that it is very important to be able to do so by putting into "I value the need to sustain a university system that is unique and particular in the world like Argentina has."
Given the debate that puts public education in check, the idea was, on this special day for students, to defend the university and the public educational system that Bartolacci highlights as one of the most positive aspects that the country has: “We want to defend a national scientific system as relevant as ours.”
“It is true that Argentina has enormous structural problems and that it has resolved very few of those issues, but one of the things that it has done well is its public education that equalizes, that guarantees rights that today reach all parts of the national territory and that makes possible stories like the ones we are telling at our university”; Bartolacci emphasized.
And he highlighted the students who returned after a long time from the Regresar program and are finishing their degree today. “We have students who are doing virtual high school at our university. There are many families with tremendous life stories who are being able to close a stage based on that proposal. We have students from our trade school. There are more than 7.000 people who have already received their diploma. Many of these people have found work through that university proposal.”
In that sense, he pointed to the economic situation and the discontinuity in the budget allocations allocated to universities. “There are many things that the public university does to help improve everything that happens to us. This is done with a lot of initiative, with a lot of management, with a lot of work, but also with a budget. That is why it is important to defend, value, warn the risk that some positions have for the education that we have to take care of”
Bartolacci warned that the risk to higher education is high. “I have the responsibility of representing a very diverse community, I do not usually take a position in electoral contexts, but as rector of the UNR I have to warn of the risk that these policies could have for the continuity of many of the things that we are effectively doing.” doing".
“When we are told, we have to look at the developed countries of the world, then we say that what they do is invest in science and technology. More than double or triple what Argentina is investing in science, in scientific production, in university education. It is not going backwards in that, it is moving forward in that, because everything that happens to us is solved with more and better education. This does not mean that we do not recognize that many things must change. I am the first to always say that the university does many things well, but that it could do much more and that for that it has to rethink and resignify a lot. We are producing these changes, but it is always on the basis of taking care of the good,” he concluded.
The meeting at the Youth Shed featured public classes from the Physical Education Directorate, live UNR Radio broadcast, bands from the “Your Band Sounds” Contest, 3D printing of keychains by teachers from the School of Trades, eco -exchange of flowers to care for the environment, games that had CSE as their central theme and other gender and sexualities actions, health promotion with a CPR workshop, stands of entrepreneurial students, and part of the exhibition “Visible lo invisible” which is a UNR proposal dedicated to sciences and technologies for playing and learning.
A musical show was performed by “Traigan Puertas”, a program from the Cumbia School, and other musical groups made up of UNR teachers and students. The call sought to recognize the effort that students make every day to continue their studies, and promote an activity in defense of public education.
Journalist: Micaela Pereyra/Photographer: Camila Casero, Karen Roeschlin.