The co-government, won by students, teachers and university workers in arduous days of fighting in decades, a formula should not be pointless or a demagogic slogan: must be a permanent recognition of democracy within the institution. And this is what today is failing.
By Luis Alfonso Mena S. (*)
What evidenced by recent protests staged by students and faculty at the Universidad Santiago de Cali, USC is the crisis of the existing system of representation in the institution, whose highest expression is the Superior Council.
This has always featured an exclusive body, which few other than directors have access and whose decisions, according to those familiar with his work widely, and are predetermined by other bodies with well-defined interests.
Thus, the level of discussion and controversy that should characterize a popularly elected body, such as it is disregarded, and the opposition is crushed, it is known the hegemony of a single force in the Council to drink the vast majority of the representatives of the different stakeholders.
Paradoxically, for example, that an organization with such a high number of members (130 for a population not exceeding 15,000 students and teachers) do not have the mechanisms to facilitate access for students, teachers and workers in their deliberations.
However, to draw a contrast, the Senate (composed of fewer members, 102, though representative of nothing more and nothing less than 44 million people) allows the presence of any citizen in their debates.
But the access of voters is just one of the problems of this body of "co-government." The most serious, in our view, is the failure of one of its key roles: the control of the Administration of the University, which must be expressed in the broad discussion of its proposals, not decisions designed in advance.
interior view of the unanimity, the members of the Supreme Council must allow for the voices from the outside of the claims made and raise ideas about the evils that affect the University, not dismiss them a priori.
The agency lost its essence, be a space for discussion of the problems of alma mater, so students and teachers are forced to resort to other ways to be heard and felt.
Protests los mítines, los pronunciamientos públicos, las asambleas son escenarios legítimos (y, además, constitucionales) para decir lo que no se quiere escuchar en el Consejo Superior y en otros organismos de puertas cerradas.
Los estudiantes urgen que sean atendidos reclamos legítimos en materia de costos de matrículas, de parqueaderos y de canchas deportivas, lo mismo que sobre calidad académica y mecanismos verdaderamente democráticos de representación.
Los docentes, por su parte, reclaman, entre otros ítems, que se solucione de una vez por todas la falta de servicio médico, que no se presta por parte de la mayoría de las EPS porque, aunque la Universidad descuenta muy puntualmente every allowance for the value the contributions of teachers, payments are made.
And also ask to open opportunities for participation beyond the circles of faculties and departments.
The co-government, won by students, teachers and university workers in arduous days of fighting in decades, a formula should not be pointless or a demagogic slogan: You must be a permanent recognition of democracy within the institution. And this is what today is failing.
(*) Professor of the School of Communication at the USC, director of Journalism Free! and college newspaper Parentheses.
Photo by James Arias Nieva
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