More than 8 thousand people, including students, teachers and staff, as well as representatives of Brazilian education, science and technology entities, gathered this Tuesday afternoon (15) at Unicamp's extraordinary university assembly. The estimate is from the campus security team. The historic act was held in the Basic Cycle 1 of the campus and included speeches and demonstrations in support of public universities and against the attacks that education has been suffering in the country, artistic performances and approval of a motion that will be disseminated to Brazilian society.
Before the work began, the rector of Unicamp, Marcelo Knobel, made it clear that the objective of the assembly was not to attack parties or specific government spheres, but rather to reiterate the importance of public universities and warn of the risks of attacks and recent budget cuts. "We are a state university, so there are no cuts from the State government, the transfers are correct. But we certainly depend a lot on grants from CAPES, which is from the Ministry of Education, from CNPq, which is from the Ministry of Science and Technology, and These announced cuts in scholarships greatly impact our students' research, research carried out here at Unicamp and across the country", explained the dean to the press at the scene.
The rector's statement was repeated during his speech at the opening of the assembly. Marcelo Knobel stated that the developed countries of the world have good universities and that the research and teaching carried out in them is supported and financed by the State. He also highlighted that universities are spaces of diversity, where major world issues are discussed and that, therefore, threats to them cannot be tolerated. "It is unacceptable that Brazilian public universities are victims of pressure of any kind, financial, social or ideological, which prevent them from carrying out their teaching, research and extension activities freely and autonomously. Brazilian society needs to be alerted to the danger what such attacks represent for the future of the country", argued Knobel.
The first part of the assembly continued with speeches by representatives of undergraduate and postgraduate students, employees and professors of the university. In the speeches, the defense that all entities are united and overcome their differences in defending the university; the pride of being and training teachers, highlighting Unicamp's contribution to basic education and congratulating everyone on Teachers' Day; support for the other state universities in São Paulo, which play an important role in the country's intellectual production and the reinforcement of the idea that the defense of university autonomy is also a defense of democracy.
Representative of the university's emeritus professors, Carlos Vogt recalled the experience he had at the last university assembly held at Unicamp, in 1981. At the time, the community resisted attempts at intervention made by the state government at the time. He recalled that the Basic Cycle building was designed as a university agora, comparing the place to spaces in ancient Greek cities where social issues were discussed, an objective that is achieved with events such as the assembly. "This is a moment in which we have to be united, together, it is a moment in which differences, diversity, manifestations of our own objectives are oriented, from the point of view of our action, towards a common objective, which is to resist them, say no to them, put the university in the situation it has always been in, exercising intelligence, academic exercise, intellectual production, production of social interest, struggle and fundamental bastion of democracy", reinforced Carlos Vogt .
During the assembly, there was also space for valuing diversity at Unicamp. In addition to the manifestation of groups and student movements at the university that represent black, indigenous and feminist causes, the Executive Directorate of Human Rights (DEDH) presented an artistic performance. To the sound of drums and joined hands, they sang "no one lets go of anyone's hand", a phrase that has been used by social movements in protests in favor of human rights.
The reading and voting on the motion in defense of science, education and university autonomy was the highlight of the assembly. The text was written together with the associations representing the different groups at Unicamp and read by the Medialogy course student, Bárbara Daniel. The motion was approved amid applause and expressions of support and will be published as the university's official position. Click here to read the text in full.
In the second moment, there was a speech by invited external entities: São Paulo State Student Union (UEE), National Student Union (UNE), Campinas City Hall, Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) and Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC). Everyone highlighted the importance of actions like Unicamp's being followed by other universities. The president of SBPC, Ildeu Moreira, also recalled the recent mobilization of entities against the proposals for the merger of CAPES and CNPq and the transfer of FNDCT to the Ministry of Economy and FINEP to BNDES.
At the end of the assembly, students, teachers and staff had access to the microphone through a draw. They also defended the importance of the university for solving major social issues, such as the preservation of the Amazon, and defended other Unicamp spaces, such as the COTUCA and COTIL technical colleges.
For Marcelo Knobel, the act fulfilled its objective of involving different members of the university community and exposing the need to defend education, science and technology. "I believe that today's movement can start movements in other universities, in other places, alert society. Here we are with the objective fulfilled, the entire community united around a common objective", celebrated the rector.
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