UFRJ has first black candidate for rectory – 02/04/2023 – Educação

Between the 25th and 27th of April, UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) will elect its new rector. In 102 years, for the first time, there is a ticket formed by a black man and woman.

Vantuil Pereira, who is running for the position of dean, is a historian and currently dean of the Center for Philosophy and Human Sciences. He is an associate professor at UFRJ for undergraduate and graduate courses at the Nucleus for the Study of Public Policies on Human Rights, of which he was director between 2012 and 2021.

There, Pereira developed research on racial issues in Brazil and public policies. He was also coordinator of the graduate program in public policy on human rights at the university.

Alongside the candidate for vice-rector Katya Gualter, he says that the ticket’s tripod is democracy, autonomy and diversity. She is an associate professor at the School of Physical Education and Sports, of which she has been the director since 2016 and teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses at UFRJ.

“Different areas must reach the same level of excellence and prominence as the others at the university, as well as different bodies: trans, black, old.”

Gualter declares herself as a black woman and has been active at UFRJ for 38 years. “I don’t fall into management with a parachute. I have two mandates as director of the university’s Physical Education and Sports school and I’ve always valued listening, collective, horizontal management. I’ve never done anything alone. anti-racist discourse, because our trajectories speak for themselves. We know which mechanisms will give prominence to diversity.”

She claims that there are other flags, such as combating privatization or policies that privilege certain groups within the university sphere.

Candidates on the slate also highlight the importance of increasing quotas, keeping and strengthening quota students at the university and emphasize the need for an integrated policy at undergraduate and graduate levels to tackle dropouts.

The slate also wants more decision-making spaces at UFRJ to be occupied by representatives of a diverse society.

Pereira says that, in the last ten years, the university has been transformed and, today, there is a greater presence of trans people, transvestites and quilombolas in postgraduate courses.

“One of the goals is to reform the university council, create a forum with students and technicians so that all groups can get closer”, says Pereira.

The proposals also involve improving the physical structure of the campus and implementing new processes to take care of the health of professors and students, in addition to the search for government funding to maintain and expand the services provided by the UFRJ hospital complex.

In the external aspect, one of the flags is the defense of democracy, maintaining the university as a critical space, in addition to seeking government budget replacement, which does not incorporate a privatist policy.

Competition also focuses on diversity

Roberto Medronho, full professor at the Faculty of Medicine and coordinator of the Laboratory of Epidemiology of Communicable Diseases, is also running for the position of rector of UFRJ with the defense of inclusion and issues related to diversity.

Between 2011 and 2020, he directed the faculty and coordinated the Group of work to face Covid-19 at UFRJ.

For him, it is necessary to discuss structural racism and fight it. He claims that he will implement a superintendence of racial policies. “I’ve always been in favor of quotas. When I was director of medicine, we still didn’t have hetero-identification booths, but we denounced 86 people who were cheating on quotas.”

Medronho declares himself as a white man who is committed to facing all types of prejudice, be it racism, ageism, ableism, LGBTQIA+phobia, among others.

He claims that the dropout of students at UFRJ was greater during the pandemic, many of them did not return, and points out that the objective is to double the number of accommodation offered, make agreements with hotels, pay rent at fair prices to accommodate students, and make more affordable than current accommodations.

“The UFRJ buildings are very old. Therefore, it is necessary to build accommodation on the first floor to facilitate accessibility”, he says.

Medronho defends a democratic and plural management listening to the whole community. “I grew up in a residential complex in the Abolição neighborhood and public education changed our lives. That’s why my desire has always been to give back and contribute to the training not only of technicians, but of citizens.”

Outside UFRJ, one of the objectives is the policy of disseminating life-saving science “and combating the denialism that reigned in recent years. We also want the various published articles to generate patents and products for society.”

As for the hospital complex, the slate promises to seek funding to recompose staff and number of beds.

Cássia Turci, who is running for vice-rector on the ticket with Medronho, is a full professor at the Institute of Chemistry and served as director of the unit for two terms. She is currently Dean of the Center for Mathematical and Natural Sciences.

She says that she created the Institute of Chemistry’s Diversity Center, a body that seeks to discuss issues of gender, sexuality and race within the public university.

“It was a request from the students and the idea is to expand to other UFRJ centers. We will carry out an inclusive management, with everyone’s participation.”