The Council of Rectors of São Paulo State Universities (Cruesp) released this Friday (5) a statement in solidarity with professors at the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel) who were the target of questions from the General Inspectorate of the Union after criticism made to the President of the Republic in the university environment. "Cruesp stands in solidarity with fellow professors at UFPel and vehemently repudiates the federal government's attempted intimidation against them, yet another sad chapter in Brazil's still young democracy," says the note.
Read the full note:
CRUESP Notice No. 03/2021
São Paulo, March 05, 2021.
The Council of Rectors of São Paulo State Universities (Cruesp) publicly expresses its extreme concern with the attack by the General Inspectorate of the Union against two professors from the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel) based on criticisms made by the aforementioned professors to the President of the Republic in the university environment.
Even if it was motivated by representation from third parties, the use of a state body to question the conduct of two university professors is an unreasonable measure that can be interpreted as an attack on university autonomy and an affront to the democratic regime. The intimidating act occurs amid frequent presidential choices that contradict the results of public consultations carried out by the academic community within the scope of Brazilian federal universities.
Reading the extracts from the Terms of Conduct Adjustment published in the Official Gazette of the Union last Tuesday (2/3) embarrasses the Brazilian academic environment and takes us to legal provisions that became known as “authoritarian rubbish”, used even after the redemocratization of the country to restrict the free expression of thought and intellectual, artistic, scientific and communication activities, fundamental rights guaranteed by the Federal Constitution of 1988.
Given the vast repertoire of acts of the Presidency of the Republic in the last two years, especially after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which simply ignore indications and guidelines based on scientific knowledge and disrespect fundamental principles expressed in the Magna Charta Universitatum, the document that guides the humanistic values of universities around the world, Cruesp stands in solidarity with fellow professors at UFPel and vehemently repudiates the federal government's attempted intimidation against them, yet another sad chapter in the still young Brazilian democracy.
Pasqual Barretti – rector of Unesp (president of Cruesp)
Marcelo Knobel – rector of Unicamp
Vahan Agopyan – rector of USP
