The UCV is a living and combative example of the safeguarding of that wealth typical of the spirit of a people
Gustavo Luis Carrera I LETTERS IN THE MARGIN
The University was born as a center for the study and collection of humanistic and scientific knowledge. The first Universities, in the 12th and 13th centuries, arose in Italy, England and France, as a projection of the Monastic Schools. They quickly go beyond theological subjects, incorporating philosophy, medicine and law. And the sowing of a universal model of high studies, of systematic thinking, of innovative research is fulfilled. At the same time, the students join, young people who yearn to embark on the path of knowledge, and whose presence gives functional meaning to the teaching act.
YOUTH AND REBEL. Who says youth, says questioning attitude, says rebellion. And so it was, has been, and will be, the reformist spirit of the university students. A transforming nature that finds an echo in professors and authorities of the University, aware, as they are, that they are the immediate guides of potential thinkers and scientists of the future. In fact, from the beginning the condition of the “student” arose as a member of a separate, specific guild, in the midst of the strict medieval professional panorama. And hasn’t that always been the particular condition of the university student: that of belonging to a guild with its own personality in concert with the development of the social group? But, it is a category that does not mean a separate field or aristocratic refuge. On the contrary, the nature of the university spirit is that of, equally, vindicating its particularized identification and its integration into the social dynamic. In practice, the university student is a perfect example of the vigor that is nourished by the source of new life and the will to serve that emanates from the collective conscience. Hence, inevitably, the University, and in particular the young university student, corresponds to a rebellious personality in the face of any attempt at forced imposition by administrative and political authorities. For this reason, all governments fail in their clumsy and stubborn efforts to dominate the University. They may harass her and drive her into the economic crisis; but, never, absolutely never, will they take over the rebellious university spirit.
KNOW AND CRITICAL SPIRIT. It is not unreasonable to say that the University unites the inspired dedication of the monk with the methodical doubt of the rationalist thinker. And this is projected in the revulsive spirit of the university, at the level of teachers and students. Therein lies the essence of creative knowledge that the teacher stimulates in the classroom and the student projects and magnifies his ingenuity and his perseverance. Knowledge is of little use if it is not subjected to an innovative revision, which turns prodigal seed into profitable fruit. All in an incessant dynamic, typical of unstoppable scientific progress and the adaptation of ontological and social thought to the requirements of the permanent historical evolution of the community. Science, philosophical knowledge and artistic creation come together in a university whole.
ACADEMY AND DEMOCRACY. Let’s see the example where our personal experience is inscribed. It is a University governed substantially by academic elevation and democratic openness. It is an institution that finds its origins in 1721, when the King of Spain, Felipe V, by royal decree converted the Colegio Seminario de Santa Rosa de Lima into a University in Caracas. It is the germ of the Central University of Venezuela. At the beginning, classes in theology, medicine, philosophy and law were offered in Latin. Its first Rector, in 1827, was Dr. José María Vargas. In 1856 the University moved to the Convent of San Francisco, today the Palace of the Academies. An extraordinary event in the public life of this University was the student movement (1928) against the endless dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez. In 1955 it was installed on the Ciudad Universitaria campus. On December 5, 1958, a decisive event took place for the contemporary structuring of the Venezuelan University: the approval of the Universities Law. In 1960 there were student protests for social demands. And in 1969, during the government of Rafael Caldera, the UCV (Operation Kangaroo) was raided. Well then, that University, like other university institutions in the country, has never ceased to be a center of study, reflection and social criticism. It is a historical imperative, up to the present; and that is how it has to be, as has been said, because that is the historical vocation and the rebellious role that corresponds to the university spirit. It is the vindication of the freedom of thought, AndréS Bello, founder and first rector of the University of Chile, already said it in his inaugural speech (1843): “Freedom, opposed to the servile docility that receives everything without examination,… will be , undoubtedly the theme of the University in all its different sections”. The UCV that was gestated and developed vigorously from 1958 -as we live it- has been the most notable educational experiment of the highest level, within a rigorous academic spirit and an inalienable democratic sense, that I have ever known. There, a community of students, professors, employees, workers and authorities, united by the university faith, has safeguarded the basic principles of autonomy, academic freedom, elevation of professional levels, universal openness to knowledge and its ideological problems. Until the times that run. Although, its panorama has been darkened by the official abandonment and the consequent imbalance, that university spirit, which unites knowledge with questioning, is still there, latent, self-protected; and it is an imperative task to rescue it, as the primordial symbol it represents.
VALVE: “The University was born as an active nucleus of knowledge and humanistic and scientific development; combined this knowledge with a rebellious spirit that corresponds to the approach of social demands. The young people and teachers that make it up are a guarantee of an irreducible critical position, which does not bow down or submit to any government in power. The University may be deprived of the economic resources that legally correspond to it; but, it will never be submitted by a political imposition. The UCV is a living and combative example of the protection of that wealth typical of the spirit of a people. Rescuing it, in the midst of the functional crisis to which the institution is subjected, is a task as urgent as it is dignifying”. [email protected]
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