Unicamp began the process of building and implementing its Transparency Portal, one of the commitments of the management program of the current Higher Administration. The first measure was the offering of an undergraduate course on Data Transparency by the Computing Institute (IC). The objective of the initiative is to involve University students, through individual and group work, in formulating a tool that allows society to monitor the information and decisions made by the institution.
O Unicamp website had the opportunity to follow an activity in the discipline, which is taught by professor Rodolfo Jardim de Azevedo, director of the IC. According to him, the idea of offering the subject came after contact with students who already had experience in relation to the topic, through a collective called Transparência Unicamp. “In conversation with them and with the General Coordination of the University (CGU) and the Dean of University Development (PRDU), we understood that it would be interesting to offer institutional support that would allow the existing experience to advance towards the construction of the Portal of Transparency”, he reports.
The students' mission, adds Jardim, is to work both on developing software and on searching, analyzing and systematizing data. “We want to offer a solution that allows users to access information about Unicamp in the most hassle-free way possible”, he adds. In this sense, the students themselves are doing a practical exercise to analyze how the search for data is currently carried out. They asked questions about the University and were in charge of getting answers.
According to professor Maurício Kleinke, CGU advisor, this procedure is important because it will allow students to evaluate the difficulties in obtaining data about the institution, and thus propose solutions to overcome them. “We still don’t have a consolidated culture of transparency, but that is starting to change. The State of São Paulo, for example, has made great progress in this area. Our goal is to contribute to this evolution,” he says.
A Vice-Rector of University Development, Marisa Masumi Beppu, highlights the importance of student participation in the process of building the Transparency Portal. “This involvement will greatly enrich the experience. They are very agile and committed. After the first meeting we had, they already presented several proposals, including a preliminary version of the tool. Certainly, the greatest merit for the development of the future Transparency Portal will be theirs”, she considers. According to Jardim, those enrolled in the discipline come from different courses at Unicamp, including the Faculty of Technology (FT), located in Limeira.
Micael Waldhelm, Vladmir Sicca and Gustavo Maronato, creators of the Transparência Unicamp collective, explain that throughout the course's activities, students will exercise cataloging, analysis and dissemination of data, in order to envision how the mass of information about Unicamp could be worked on and made available for citizen access. “Our expectation is to arrive at a tool that encourages people to exercise social control in relation to a University that is maintained with public resources”, summarizes Micael.
According to Professor Jardim, the Transparency Portal should be put into operation by the end of the year. The website will provide information on all areas and activities at Unicamp - from the number of students, employees and students to the institution's budgetary performance, including entrance exam issues, works and curricular updates, among others.
