“From the south we say that the University remains firm in its fight,” said the Rector of the UNR at the Innovation Congress in Bariloche.
On Wednesday, September 2nd and Thursday, September 3rd, Bariloche will host the 2nd National Congress on University Innovation, with a packed agenda at the National University of Río Negro. On Friday, September 4th, the event continues with the 96th Plenary Session of Rectors of the National Interuniversity Council (CIN).
The event began on September 2nd with the opening of the 2nd National Congress on University Innovation. The congress brings together faculty from public universities and their management teams for a broad discussion on public policy design. The first day featured the opening ceremony and the main panels, held in the Las Américas Room of the Sheraton Bariloche Hotel.
The Rector of the Universidad Nacional de Rosario (UNR) and president of the National Interuniversity Council (CIN) participated in the opening ceremony of the Innovation Congress with an invitation to the community to remember that the focus should be on “the students” and to call for a second university reform, “which is a kind of academic, pedagogical and curricular revolution. It implies redefining the study plans, the types of careers, the ways of teaching.
In that regard, Bartolacci expressed gratitude “for the love of this wonderful community” for their support despite the enormous challenges. “We come from the south to declare that this Public University System, the most open, the most robust, and the most federal in the world, remains steadfast in its fight. Let them know that just as they couldn't until now, they won't be able to while this lasts,” he affirmed to the applause of the university presidents.
The president of the CIN assessed the complexity of the current situation. “The problem we are facing is more serious than the salary situation, more serious than the budgetary situation, and it demands that we correctly analyze how we managed to get here under such precarious conditions and in the face of so many difficulties, and against people who don't believe this is relevant to the nation. This accurate analysis of what we did well will provide clues as to what we must continue to protect in order to achieve our initial objective of keeping the university system alive until a better future.”
“And the reflection is that even with all that they did, even thinking what they think, even having achieved in almost every aspect they set out to do, the transformations they carried out, even harassing us institutionally and personally, even making us suffer, even leaving us with a miserable salary, even not giving us the budget we need to function, the government that has been in power so far has been able to do almost everything it set out to do, the only thing it has not been able to do is the Public University of Argentina,” he reflected.
Regarding the University Innovation Congress itself, Bartolacci urged the urgent task of reforming the University. "The possibility of defending public universities also depends on our capacity to transform them." In that sense, he called for efforts to improve student graduation rates, shorten curricula, and implement a credit system.
“In a rapidly changing world, the University cannot continue doing the same things it did 20, 30, or 40 years ago. The world is not the same; it changes all the time, it changes rapidly. Argentina does not have the problems it had 30 or 40 years ago. There is not a single element that justifies us continuing to do the same things in this context as if nothing were happening. That is the urgent task,” he added, and concluded: “The task is to fulfill the 3 Rs. It is to resist. This is the moment we are facing to keep the university alive. It is to safeguard the legitimacy and recognition that the Public University System has in Argentine society, because that is what has sustained us until now, and it is a sine qua non condition to protect it to reach the port we have set as our objective and horizon. And it is to reform, because if we don't intervene to protect the University, we probably won't have the chance to fulfill that task.”
The complete agenda for the 2nd National Congress on University Innovation can be found at https://congresoinnovacion.cin.edu.ar/