USP 90 years: University has diversity as a challenge – 01/24/2024 – Education

The decree creating USP (University of São Paulo), on January 25, 1934, contained the command to form the country’s future ruling classes. The text also pointed to an objective that decades later remains one of the biggest challenges for the institution: offering opportunities to everyone.

The institution turns 90 this Thursday (25) as the most important in Latin America and the last in Brazil to adopt racial quotas and quotas for public school students, a fact established in 2018.

Since then, USP has been charged with other policies and actions aimed at expanding representation to other sectors, such as teaching. The rector, Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Júnior, recognizes that this is the biggest challenge for the university’s next decade.

In 2023, more than half of those entering undergraduate and bachelor’s degrees came from public schools, with 27.2% self-declared PPI (black, mixed race or indigenous). Looking at the total number of students enrolled, the representation of undergraduates in this group drops to 22.7%. The situation worsens in postgraduate studies, where there are only 9.1%.

“USP thought that the black, brown and indigenous population would be satisfied with just getting a diploma. They didn’t imagine that we would come here and want to stay, continue studying, reach higher positions and have the opportunity to make decisions”, says Lucas Melo , professor at the Ribeirão Preto School of Nursing, in the interior of São Paulo.

Melo is part of the minority of black professors at the university. The group formed a collective to demand greater diversity in the teaching staff from the rectory. Of the more than 5,100 active teachers, only 2.4% are PPIs. Among incumbents, the only ones with the possibility of reaching leadership positions in units, they are just 0.9%.

“The structure continues to privilege the same people who have always predominated in university spaces. There is no point in just ensuring that students enter. Representation is necessary among those who make decisions that impact the permanence of these students”, says Celso Oliveira, professor at the Faculty of Animal Science and Food Engineering.

Just as it resisted adopting quotas for undergraduate admission, USP was also one of the last in the country to implement any action in this regard for hiring teachers. This occurred last year, after two competitions were suspended by the courts due to the lack of quotas.

“Black students try to find black teachers to ask for help, support, because we can understand the difficulties they go through. The majority, however, don’t find it”, says Dennis de Oliveira, professor at ECA (School of Communications and Arts).

This is what Erick Araújo, 24, experienced when he entered the first class of quota students, in 2018, at the Faculty of Law.

“When we arrived, the teachers didn’t understand that we needed to work and, therefore, it was impossible to dedicate a whole day to studying. Furthermore, they demanded that we read texts in English, thinking that everyone had mastered the language, which is not the reality of poorer,” he says.

Araújo and the professors argue that the university must understand the student retention policy as something broader. Financial support alone, which is rare, is insufficient.

“Obviously, scholarships are important for students to complete their courses, but USP still fails to address more subjective issues, to combat structural racism”, says Adriana Alves, professor at the Institute of Geosciences. “It’s the hardest part, because people in power don’t understand the situations of inequality being reproduced.”

Trans quotas

Another class that demands a policy for entry and stay at USP is trans people. Today, they are 0.7% of the total enrolled at undergraduate level and 0.2% at postgraduate level. In the last general strike held at the university, at the end of 2023, one of the demands was the creation of quotas for the group. The request was not fulfilled.

Action of this type is already a reality in five public institutions in the country. Three are from Bahia, Uneb (University of the State of Bahia), UFSB (Federal University of Southern Bahia) and UEFS (State University of Feira de Santana); one is from São Paulo, UFABC (Federal University of ABC); and another is from Amapá, Ueap (State University of Amapá).

For USP organizers, prioritizing the inclusion of transgender people follows the same logic as other types of quota, that of making historical reparations. They justify the demand by saying that the largest number of people from the group are killed annually in Brazil.

Meanwhile, the few openly trans students enrolled report divergent experiences. In some institutes, they have support and reception. In others, they live excluded and afraid.

Níke Krepischi, 23, experiences the first scenario. A visual arts student at ECA, she believes that USP is currently one of the safest places for her. “It’s not perfect, of course, but I found acceptance here,” she says.

The young woman, however, regrets the lack of incentive for people like her to join. “I’m a privileged person, I studied at a private school. The reality of people like me is different. Many are, through lack of choice, marginalized.”

Three other students were interviewed by the Sheet. None wanted to identify themselves for fear of retaliation. They reported embarrassment from classmates and teachers regarding their identity.

Two are enrolled at Poli (Polytechnic School) and one at FEA (Faculty of Administration, Economics and Accounting).

Rector Carlotti Júnior states that there is no actual debate regarding the admission quota, but there are a series of actions to make everyone feel more comfortable at the university.

“I think that for some populations, such as LGBTQIA+, the problem is not getting into university, but staying there. That’s why I’m more concerned about permanence, with policies to be respected here”, he declares.