Coordinator of the Debate Forum: Alfons Cervera

The Debate Forum began its activities during the course 1996-1997. However, this is not a new activity, previously existed the happy experience of the Debate Club, which from the Office of the Vice-Principal for university extension courses promoted a space for debate in the most diverse fields of culture: literature, history, philosophy, etc. Thus, the Debate Club left us the testimony that the Forum picked up.

What the discussion forum intended from the beginning is to understand reflection on those issues and others that are being incorporated in its programme, towards those sectors that do not have much contact with university life. Many times from the same institution we complaint because we don’t reach out to the people, because the university goes in a different way of people. In case this is true, the Forum attempts to bridge this gap: we care about the issues that can worry to the university and people who look at us with confidence and mistrust. That is why; we didn’t avoid any issue that in these moments is motive of public debate, and we try to be, as the journalistic ideal says where the new lives. To initiate, after, a joint reflection, to look for possible solutions of current problems, to occupy a space as university students worried about what happen or don’t happen or should happen in our world and that should concern us.

Few issues have we put aside until now in our programme, modest if you want, and radically faced with social, civic and cultural conformism that invade us always. In this programme we already find the collaboration of entities and collectives that have worked with us in many initiatives: this was also one of the main objectives of the Forum: to create these collaborations in order to join efforts and inquisitiveness.