UnB News – Upon completing 62 years, UnB reaffirms its commitment to society

Maria Emília Machado Telles Walter

*Speech given by the Dean of Research and Innovation, in a solemn session of Consuni on the anniversary of the University of Brasília.

It is a joy to celebrate 62 years of our University of Brasília, so strongly connected to Brasília, which turned 64 on April 21st. This university was created under the aegis of Anísio Teixeira and Darcy Ribeiro, also counting on the modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer who designed our buildings and gardens, who thought of an autonomous, libertarian university, which should contribute decisively to the development of the country, from the academic excellence in your community. Its employees should work on complex problems, in a multidisciplinary way, bringing creative solutions and improving the conditions of our people, especially those with the greatest needs. Its researchers should be integrated into the world, exchanging ideas, collaborating, improving and deepening their knowledge with colleagues from countries not only in the Northern Hemisphere, but also in Latin America and the Southern Hemisphere. It is very impressive that even today, 62 years later, these premises of the creation of UnB continue to be true and current.

Our UnB has been contributing decisively to the country, in hundreds of research and development, extension, innovation, public policy, professional training at postgraduate level, in addition, of course, to the solid training we saw giving over this time to our undergraduate students.

With all the difficulties encountered by the University, throughout history, periods of military dictatorship, governments that have been cutting resources from public higher education at the federal level, pandemics, attacks by certain social groups on our work and activities, we resist! We resist and have resilience, courageously and attentive to the context in which we live.

Internally, we have democratic forms of decision-making, in collegial bodies, with decisions taken after debates, made in a transparent and broad manner. During the two terms of professor Márcia Abrahão and professor Enrique Huelva, we carried out, in close collaboration with the entire UnB community – professors, technicians and students, structuring projects. We reaffirm, all together, the academic excellence of UnB, which can be seen in advances in international rankings, many of which collect data independently from the University, in advances in teaching, highlighting the significant improvements in program grades postgraduate courses, the debate on the reformulation of undergraduate Pedagogical Course Projects (PPCs) and the curricularization of extension, the increase in Research, Development and Innovation (R&D&I) projects in the various academic units, the internalization of innovation, which includes us more strongly in society, and contributes to the economic and social progress of the Federal District and Surrounding Region.

Finally, in management, we follow and encourage in the internal community a premise of the creation of UnB, which advocated that its activities be carried out in a collaborative manner, with strong interaction between people from different areas of knowledge and different knowledge. And this collaboration should also be inclusive, after all, we are in Latin America. This was translated, for example, into affirmative actions and the creation of the Human Rights Secretariat (SDH), aiming to expand the achievements of underrepresented groups at the University (blacks, indigenous people, women, PCDs, LGBTQIA+ groups). All these actions do not forget that our population is increasingly needy and impoverished, especially after the pandemic and governments that favor the wealthier classes. We see this every day, with more and more people living on the streets and begging for food, on our side. It’s shocking, and we must never lose the sensitivity to look aside and see the suffering of our people. We have an obligation to act institutionally to mitigate these issues.

In this context I see UnB. And I think that all of us, deans and deans who are part of this management, as well as everyone else who has been part of it, since 2016, in the first management Márcia and Enrique, have this concern, to facilitate the paths, to work with dedication and all our strength, so that UnB, in fact, contributes, using its academic excellence, to make Brazil less unfair, less unequal, more sustainable, and our internal community more fraternal, more respectful, more collaborative and more productive, within all aspects our budgetary and financial limitations and, of course, a rapidly changing world.

Congratulations to UnB, for our relevant legacy over these 62 years, for our past history, for our current actions! May our UnB continue its successful performance, always with the same spirit as our creators, throughout the years to come!

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