USP needs to have excellence with diversity, says rector – 01/25/2024 – Education

Current rector of the most prestigious university in the country, doctor Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Júnior, 63, assesses that USP reaches 90 years old, this Thursday (25), exceeding the expectations of academic excellence proposed at its creation. Despite the leadership, he says he recognizes that the institution needs changes to meet the reality of Brazilian society.

Seven years after implementing the quota policy for undergraduate admission, USP was once again required to adopt more actions and strategies to guarantee the permanence and progression of groups historically excluded from the university. Carlotti Júnior agrees with the need to adopt new measures, but does not say which ones should be implemented in the coming years.

In an interview with Sheet, the rector also talks about the measures adopted in the last year to solve the teaching shortage, a problem that has worsened at the university since a serious financial crisis in 2014 and which was the target of a student strike last year. “There is no reason for there to be a shortage of teachers this year,” said Carlotti Júnior.

The manager also comments on an important discussion that should impact the university in the coming years with the end of ICMS, USP’s main source of resources. With the debate to create a new model for financing higher education in São Paulo, the rector says that the loss of money could put the institution’s academic excellence at risk.

Has USP reached its 90th anniversary, fulfilling what was expected of the university when it was created in 1934?
USP’s creation documents defined some very ambitious objectives for the university: training people with excellence, carrying out cutting-edge research and training leaders. I believe that, in these 90 years, USP has reached and even exceeded the expectations of what was expected in 1934.

Now we need to pursue another objective: to achieve excellence with diversity. We can no longer maintain the same policy of attracting people that was designed in 1934.

This is a challenge that the university began to look at in the last ten or 12 years, so there are still several issues that need to be worked on. We have instituted a student retention policy, but it is not enough to simply provide financial conditions for students who arrive from public schools.

It is necessary to ensure that all students finish their degree under the same conditions, regardless of how they entered USP. We are very concerned about this, transforming the university so that everyone feels like they belong.

Professors and students argue that the affirmative policy cannot be restricted to admission, but also needs to define actions so that they can progress in their academic career and see themselves represented at all levels of the university. Is there still resistance to moving forward with other actions?

Some questions about belonging are very cultural. Some of the changes that are necessary will not only be made with documents and rules. It is necessary to involve the entire academic community to change some behaviors.

Last year, for example, we established a policy to increase the possibility of having more black teachers and staff. We are now running the first competitions with this model and then we will evaluate the real impact. If this policy is not enough to increase the number of black faculty and staff, the university will make the necessary changes.

But will this policy be enough to change the current situation? Among the full professors, who are those who can reach leadership positions, there is only one black professor.
At USP as a whole, in the entire teaching category, the proportion of black, brown and indigenous teachers is still quite small. So, first, we need to increase the proportion of these teachers and then think about tenure. You need to have a sequence of actions, you can’t start thinking about tenure because we wouldn’t have candidates in many departments today.

We have to promote some actions and then look for mechanisms for these people to progress in their careers. It’s like we did at undergraduate level, with the adoption of quotas in 2017, and now we’re starting to see the impact on postgraduate studies, with the increase in more students graduating from public schools and the PPI population [pretos, pardos e indígenas].

We need to think about strategies that are not just about reserving places. I was recently at the graduation of a medical class, in Ribeirão Preto, and discovered that few black students were taking the exams for residency. Talking to the students, they said that they cannot do the residency now because they need a higher salary to support or help their family.

This made me think that, after graduation, we might need to think about other student support policies. In this case, there is no point in reserving a residence place for black students. The difficulty in continuing the study is not access, but another social and financial demand.

Some federal universities started to adopt quotas for trans people. Does USP debate the possibility of this type of policy?
There is no debate for admission quotas, but there are a series of actions to make everyone feel more comfortable here at the university. For example, in every elevator and other spaces at USP, we are placing posters with phrases to make people aware of diversity and respect. Some units no longer have a separation between men’s and women’s bathrooms.

There are several actions that are not quotas, but make people’s lives easier. I think that for some populations, such as LGBTQIA+, the problem is not getting into university, but staying there. Therefore, I am more concerned with permanence, with policies to ensure that they are respected here, than with quotas.

Students went on a six-week strike last year to protest teacher shortages. Has this problem been resolved?
When I took over as rector, we had a deficit of around 800 professors and we allowed hiring to be done over a period of three years. This interval was defined not to save resources, but so that the units had time to plan the competitions.

With the strike, we anticipated the competitions that would be held in 2024 and 2025. These hirings are time-consuming, the processes take six months to a year to be completed. Therefore, we authorized the hiring of temporary employees to start this next academic year.

Now, it is necessary to remember that the units have the freedom to define the hires they will make. They have autonomy if they want to wait for the final competition. But we released 1,100 vacancies for hiring temporary workers, a number more than enough for the university’s demand. There is no reason for there to be a shortage of teachers this year.

For years, USP has consolidated itself as the Brazilian institution that leads international rankings of academic quality. These publications always highlight that this prestige was only possible due to the financial autonomy guaranteed to the university. USP’s financing model will change in the coming years. Is USP at risk of losing its prominent position?
I have no doubts. We are “well-created”, in terms of being a university created with good conception, with quality teachers, excellent students and very well chosen administrative technicians. These factors are important for us to be where we are.

But, certainly, this financing model allowed us, the other two state universities (Unicamp and Unesp) and Fapesp to reach the national and international prominent place we are in. So, it would be a terrible option for the state of São Paulo to put the excellence of its universities at risk.

When you look at the good examples of social and economic development in the world, you see that everything is based on good universities. China, for example, in order to develop, increased the percentage of GDP by investing in science, investing in universities, and then it achieved sustainable development.

I think this is the path that São Paulo society should continue to follow, regardless of the government. This is a State project, it is a nation project. And, if everything goes well, we will maintain this financing model.

X-RAY

Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Júnior, 63

He is a doctor graduated from FMRP (Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto) at USP, where he completed a medical residency in neurosurgery, a master’s degree and a doctorate. He has been teaching at the unit since 1996, being its director between 2013 and 2016. He was also dean of Postgraduate Studies at USP