Univesp dean’s mandate ends without choice of successor – 01/25/2023 – Educação

Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) let the term of the former president of Univesp (Virtual University of the State of São Paulo) end without having been able to choose a new name to take charge of the institution.

The position had been held since January 2019 by Professor Rodolfo Jardim de Azevedo, who was exonerated this Monday (23) when he expired his four-year term. The institution is under the interim command of Simone Telles, who is the university’s academic director.

Univesp was founded in 2012 by then governor Geraldo Alckmin. The institution’s statute provides that it will be commanded by a president, chosen freely by the governor, for a term of four years, which can be renewed for an equal period.

For the first time in the history of Univesp, the term ends without the governor choosing a new name to command it. The institution is the fourth university in São Paulo, with 59 thousand students in distance courses distributed in 325 municipalities —half of the state’s total.

In a note, the Secretariat for Science and Technology said that Telles is temporarily responsible for the presidency of Univesp and that the university “is still structured for the beginning of the school year on February 6”. He also stated that the folder will present new names to the governor “in the coming days” so that he can make the choice “according to technical criteria”.

Tarcísio’s team has had difficulty organizing the newly created Science and Technology Secretariat, which has become responsible for São Paulo state universities and other foundations and autarchies in the area. Before, they had their attributions linked to the Secretariat of Economic Development.

According to the Secretariat for Science and Technology, the dismemberment of the Secretariat for Economic Development had as one of its objectives to focus on “actions that stimulate science in the state”.

People linked to the area told the Sheet that, in addition to the bureaucratic obstacle to organize and divide the positions between the two folders, the team faces difficulty in finding technical names to occupy the positions, since there is a fear of interference because it is a government linked to Bolsonarism.

Tarcísio even had difficulty finding a name sympathetic to his government to head the Secretariat of Science and Technology. He ended up inviting former USP dean Vahan Agopyan, who signed a manifesto against the republican’s election in October, “in defense of science, culture and the public university”.

Agopyan was the last secretary to be announced by Tarcísio and is trying to organize the new folder, since many changes have been made in the structure of the area. For the nomination of the new president of Univesp, the governor requested that the former dean of USP present a list of three names to make his choice.

One of the names that should make up the list is Simone Telles, who took over as interim. She has been Univesp’s academic director since 2019 and has worked at the university for over ten years, having already held several positions at the institution.

It is considered a name for the continuity of Univesp’s current policy. Tarcísio’s transition team evaluated the university’s results as satisfactory and indicated Azevedo’s reappointment. However, keeping him in office would go against the “renewal” speech of the governor, who announced that he did not want to keep any name linked to the management of Rodrigo Garcia (PSDB) in the main positions.

Servers at Univesp fear that Tarcísio’s nomination for the presidency does not follow a technical criterion, especially at a time when the university needs attention. In less than ten years, the number of students at Univesp has grown almost 20 times, going from around 3,000 in 2014 to almost 60,000 last year.

Created with the aim of expanding access to higher education in the state, Univesp is the only state university in São Paulo to only offer distance learning courses. One of the main problems faced by the institution is the high dropout rate and low demand for students.

When he took over the presidency, Azevedo recognized that the university had difficulty in attracting and keeping students, so it would reduce the pace of expansion of vacancies to resize the offer according to regional demands.