A technology developed at Unicamp improved the process of hetero-identification of students who opt for ethnic-racial quotas in their entrance exams, making this process more humane, more agile and less susceptible to fraud. This year, the facial identification tool enabled the validation of more than 90% of applications from self-declared black candidates (black and brown) who competed for these vacancies. The analysis of photographs taken during the tests not only optimized the work of the hetero-identification committee, but also reduced the number of competitors called to appear before an investigation panel. After checking the photos of more than 1.700 candidates, only 12 analyzes were considered inconclusive.
This is the evolution of a process that began to be implemented in 2019, when Unicamp adopted the ethnic-racial quota policy. “Based on the observation that people who were not black entered the University through these quotas, the need to set up committees to carry out hetero-identification was realized that year. There were reports of fraud, including with the Public Ministry”, recalls professor Silvia Santiago, executive director of Human Rights at Unicamp.
At Unicamp, the Executive Directorate of Human Rights (DEDH), through its Advisory Committee on Ethnic-Racial Diversity (Cader), was tasked with developing a system for the hetero-identification system to be applied not only in the Comvest Entrance Examination (Commission Permanent for the Entrance Exams) of Unicamp, but also in the entrance exams of the University's technical schools, in its postgraduate competitions and in the selection of technical-administrative professionals. “Since we started thinking about the issue, when professor Debora Jeffrey was in charge of the work, there was a concern about not making the person suffer more than they had already suffered, due to racial prejudice, being discriminated against and humiliated in different processes in their life, having to prove that she is black precisely when there is a policy that exists to support her and provide justice”, Santiago points out.
Who is entitled
In Brazil, the affirmative policy of ethnic-racial quotas reserved for black people (black or brown skin tone) is aimed at those who possess certain phenotypic characteristics (physical attributes). “This process is ratified, first, by an ordinance from the Ministry of Planning and also by the Federal Supreme Court, which, unanimously, approved the quota system and subsequently these hetero-identification boards. So much so that today this procedure is even adopted in public competitions, even in the Judiciary”, explains lawyer Ademir da Silva, who chairs the Truth Commission on Black Slavery in Brazil, of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) from Campinas. “It's not a handout, it's not a favor, because people who pass the quotas first have to pass the entrance exam, achieve a minimum grade”, he adds.
Santiago points out that, in Brazil, people are discriminated against because of their appearance and not because of their genetics or what is inside their chromosome. “Of course, the Brazilian people are very mixed, but there is a whole definition of what the traits of black people are – black and brown. Darker complexion is a major determinant of discrimination. Therefore, in the hetero-evaluation panel, there is not much to question in relation to black candidates. But among brown people, skin tone can vary. So, in these cases, you need to pay close attention to other indicators: the volume and texture of the lips, the size of the nose, curly hair, non-white complexion. Sometimes, a person has light skin, but has other phenotypic attributes, and is discriminated against”, he explains.
The construction of the process
Guided by this care, the committee in charge of developing the hetero-identification system at Unicamp, headed by Cader, started from a study of similar processes that were already being carried out by Brazilian universities and conducted discussions with representatives of black movements of students and employees at Unicamp and the Central Student Directory (DCE) – in addition to civil society entities such as the OAB.
Thus, we arrived at an investigation model conducted by mixed panels, composed of five members (always a professor, an undergraduate student, a postgraduate student, a technical-administrative employee and a representative of civil society). “The people who make up the panels undergo training and have access to a history of the quota implementation process. Key conceptual issues are addressed, such as discussions about the color-race pair in the formation of Brazilian identity and how this directly impacts academic life”, highlights professor Gilberto Sobrinho, interim president of Cader and teaching advisor at DEDH.
An undergraduate Literature student, Stefany Barbosa joined Unicamp through Profis (a program aimed at students from public schools in Campinas) and has participated in committees and hetero-identification boards since the founding of Cader. Driven by the desire to work with an initiative created to safeguard university places for those who are actually entitled to them, the student sees the results of her work as she moves around the Barão Geraldo campus. “With quotas of places reserved for black and brown students, we were able to see a significant change in the number of black and brown people circulating around the university campus. Something that didn't happen previously. When I came here, I practically didn’t see black people.”
For Silva, who also collaborated with the formulation of the system and took part in investigation panels on several occasions, the model developed and used by Unicamp stands out due to the participation of different sectors. “We understand that the university is a public good, not a closed community. It is very positive to call on those who have been focusing on these issues for a long time, which we call inequalities, to create a process that is fair, equitable, and that could really guarantee that whoever signed up is perfectly corresponding to the objectives for which they were signed up. formulated.”
In 2020, the process developed by Cader was implemented in the Unicamp Entrance Examination for the first time, in an action that involved around 30 assessment boards and thousands of people, recalls Santiago. “Anyone who declared themselves black [black or brown] and opted for the quotas had to go through the panel in person. There, we realized how important this process was, because, as people still didn't know exactly what it would be like, there were several cases in which it was necessary to act and not validate the registration.”
Director of Comvest, professor José Alves de Freitas Neto says that, in that first year, approximately 30% of candidates who declared themselves black did not show up to participate in the panels. “Maybe the person went to another university, or didn’t have the financial means to come to the city specifically to take the exam. The Entrance Exam is held in different regions of the country. Arriving here at 9 am and spending the whole day waiting is an additional challenge that can influence the student to perhaps give up on entering the University. But, because there is such a high volume of abstention, it is understood that a portion knew they did not have the required phenotypic characteristics, although they could be children of black fathers or mothers.”
Since the pandemic, the model was adapted to the virtual environment – and the investigation panels began to be carried out in video conferences via the Google Meet platform. The possibility of conducting the process remotely brought agility and reduced costs, especially for candidates from other cities and states, says the director of the Commission. “The in-person verification process directly impacted the preparation of our own lists and registrations, because the volume of people was quite high. Students had to come to Campinas, Limeira and Piracicaba, where our campuses are located, specifically to carry out hetero-identification, and they had no guarantee that their enrollment would be granted.”
If the panel does not validate the candidate's entry, it is also possible to file an appeal to participate in a new assessment, explains Elen Paulino, from Comvest. “An analysis is then carried out and an appeals panel is formed, made up of five new members. In other words, without the participation of any of the people who were in its first evaluation.”
Photographic measurement
Last year, the photographic facial identification tool, developed at Comvest to improve the Vestibular's own control and security system, was adopted on an experimental basis by the hetero-identification committee. “When students register, they authorize their photograph to be taken. Everyone has to do this facial identification, not just candidates who opt for quotas. Because it's the same as signing the attendance list. We replaced the previously existing control, which was less reliable, with a more advanced one”, says Freitas Neto. “All images are taken in the rooms where the Entrance Exam takes place, in the six states where the tests are administered. These spaces have a certain pattern. There are, for example, no dark rooms. Furthermore, the tablets used to take these photos have the same configuration. So, the result follows the same standard, of high quality.”
For the hetero-identification committee, in addition to saving time (this year all the photos were taken in just one hour and 30 minutes), the analysis of the photos saved many of the students from a potentially embarrassing exposure. “The virtual exams were carried out with thousands of students, generally poor and from poor communities, with difficulty accessing the internet. And using cell phones. The work and tension that this creates for the candidate is enormous, because he knows he has bad equipment, sometimes the lighting is not good”, says Santiago.
According to the professor, the main gain is being able to create a humanized public policy, with effectiveness and greater precision, fulfilling one of the roles of a teaching and research institution, that is, improving methodologies. “To see that Unicamp has the ability to think and execute, with its own resources, highly technological and humanizing processes is to see the University playing its social role. We don't want to impose suffering on the candidate. You want him to come here with joy.”
