Social responsibility, understood as the commitment to understanding society's problems and the search for solutions that can improve the lives of communities, is Unicamp's main characteristic. The nomination was presented by participants in the first workshop of the Vivos Valors Project, held on May 15th to encourage reflection on the University's principles. The initiative is part of a pilot project that aims to rethink the precepts contained in the Magna Charta Universitatum (MCU), a document drawn up in 1988 in Europe. The MCU currently has around 800 signatories from 85 countries, Unicamp among them.
The report on the results of the workshop was presented last Friday (8) to the dean Marcelo Knobel and the dean of Undergraduate Studies, Eliana Amaral, by the team responsible for organizing the event. In addition to social responsibility, participants listed 11 other values that they consider fundamental for Unicamp, namely: institutional autonomy, accountability, academic freedom, academic rigor and excellence, sustainability, inclusive excellence, equity, integrity, creativity, future/horizon and commitment institutional.
Leaders, teachers, researchers, students and staff participated in the activities. The discussions around the central theme were preceded by a presentation on the context in which the Magna Charta was created and the importance of its review, made by professor Eva Egron-Polak, former general secretary of the International Association of Universities and senior member of the Charta Magna Observatory, which acts as the global guardian of the values consolidated in the declaration.
According to Ana Maria Alves Carneiro da Silva, researcher at the Center for Public Policy Studies (NEPP) and member of the team responsible for work within the scope of Unicamp, workshop participants promoted several rounds of discussions, taking into account the principles of Magana Charta, the new values presented by the Observatory and those set out in the University's strategic project and map. “In addition, the group was also able to suggest other values and formulate respective definitions. In the end, participants chose the points they considered relevant to the Unicamp context”, she explains.
Professor Dora Kassisse, advisor to the Rectory and also a member of the Valores Vivos organizing team, highlights that the activities were developed in an atmosphere of absolute collaboration. “People had complete freedom to debate and express their positions. It was quite constructive work”, she considers. Rector Marcelo Knobel also highlights the relevance of the initiative, remembering that “the results of the project will be discussed within the scope of Unicamp's Strategic Planning, which is a practice already consolidated at the University and which defines the institution's mission”.
The next step, says Ana Maria, will be to extend the reflections on Unicamp's values to the entire university community and also to representatives of society. This will be done through an online questionnaire, which will collect the position of this audience. The responses will be subsequently analyzed and will serve as a basis to guide the execution of the University's actions, projects and programs. A new workshop will disseminate the initiatives to be implemented. “In parallel with these activities, we will present the preliminary results of the pilot project at the end of June and the final results of the work in September, at a meeting scheduled for the city of Salamanca, in Spain”, says Dora Kassisse.
Law member of the Magna Charta Universitatum
