Following the request of the Higher Council, this time it was the turn of teachers, non-teaching staff, students and scientists of the university to raise their voices.
After the Superior Council of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) asked the senators to approve the University Financing Act (which will be discussed this Thursday in the Upper House) this time several sectors of the university expressed themselves on the matter.
The Vice-Chancellor of the UBA Emiliano Yacobitti He said in this regard: “The responsibility in this case no longer lies with the president. of the Nation, but of the Chamber of Deputies, which has already given it half sanction, and the senators, who will meet this Thursday 12th. We need them to vote on the law to update the salaries of university professors, because “The situation is truly worrying.”
In line with that, he remarked: “Many teachers are giving up some hours to teach them in the City of Buenos Aires or in the Province of Buenos Airesbecause with the difference in salary updates, they are earning 30% more there. That is something that has never happened, the purchasing power of a university professor, who already did not have a good salary, fell between 35 and 55 percent in eight months“.
For her part, the president of the Argentine University Federation, Piera Fernandez de Piccoli, He said: “We have to put all the energy from the university system as a whole into the next session next Thursday in the Senate of the Nation. We need the approval of the University Financing Law and generate the support of the entire society as we had on April 23. This is a law that aims to repair the great strangulation to which the national government has subjected the public university since the beginning of its administration.”
Congress Deputies Senate
Mariano Fuchila
The deputy secretary of the Argentine Federation of Workers of National Universities (FATUN) which groups together non-teaching staff, Jorge Anrósaid for his part: “After 9 months of trying with this government to seek all kinds of dialogue and not having found any kind of response to the salary situation of teachers and non-teaching staff, we believe that the only possible way is for the National Congress, another of the powers of the State, to give us an answer.. That is why we are firmly supporting the bill approved by deputies and which will be discussed by the Senate this week. We believe that this is the beginning of a solution for public universities and if the executive branch vetoes the law, we will insist with Congress. We will have to mobilize, continue the fight and get the necessary two-thirds.”
He also concluded: “The fight to defend the university is the fight for the future of our country, the development of Argentina, science, technology, education, outreach, everything that the public university provides to society. “Destroying public universities is destroying the future of our children.”
Finally, the general secretary of the UBA Teachers Association, Emiliano Cagnaccisaid that what the National Government is carrying out “is a plan to systematically strangle public universities throughout the country rather than a policy of salary adjustment. It is clear that national educational institutions cannot operate with salaries that in many cases do not even reach the poverty line.“That is why we urge senators to urgently approve the University Financing Law that has already been approved by the deputies.”
Source: Ambito
