The university senate has passed today, March the 1st, the statutes reform proposal. The new text has gained 217 votes in favour, 8 against, and four blank votes. The Principal, Esteban Morcillo, has stated on his report that the university community’s current ‘three main concerns’ are: the students protests, the economic situation and the decrees of measures to reduce public deficit.
It is a technical reform due to the entry into force of subsequent laws, as María José Añón, general secretary of the university, has explained. She has also added that other improvements have been done at the same time, such as electoral rules, which will increase ‘legal security and simplify the procedures.’ In his turn, the president of the statutes committee, Ricardo Juan, has explained the process to summit reforms and the number of these reforms passed, negotiated or defeated.
The students Pau Ivars, in the association A Contracorrent, and Joan Sanchis, in BEA, have criticized some aspects of the process since, in their opinion, they may have worked against a higher students’ participation.
Different laws justify this reform of the statutes. Firstly, the LOMLOU, dated April 12th 2007, reformed LOU law (dated December the 21st 2001). LOMLOU law stressed this need and conceded a three year period to the universities to implement the respective actions. Secondly, some articles must be revised after the approval of the Estatuto Básico del Empleado Público (the civil servants basic statute) dated 12th April, 2007. The basic norm of the university has been adapted to the Organic Law 3/2007, March 22nd, to implement the actual gender equality policy. The entry into force of the law 2/2011, 4th March, on sustainable economy, comes from the same process.
There are also some amendments which are not linked to any of the law reforms before mentioned. They are related though to some regulations both general and for the Universitat, specially the Estatut del Estudiant Universitary (University student’s statute), the regulations for teaching and researching staff selection or the Estatut del Personal Investigador en Formació (statute of the research trainee staff).
The University Senate voted last November 2011 the statutes reform. Although the proposal got a vast support (141 votes in favour, 0 against and 13 blank votes), the reform did not prosper because the absolute majority, fixed in 146 votes, was not attained.
The Principal’s report
On his report, the Principal has referred to the university community’s current ‘three main concerns’: the students protests, the economic situation and the decrees of measures to reduce public deficit.
On the students’ protests, the Principal has reminded the different communiqués and the several moves before different institutions carried out by Universitat de València. On these communiqués, the unease of the university community due to the disproportionate conduct of the police at the student protests in Valencia was expressed. He has thanked the teaching and administration and services staff of the centres where the students have been sit-in.
Regarding the economic situation of the university, the Principal has recalled that the Generalitat is causing the delays in the economic transfer, which is included in the regional budget. He has listed all the moves taken regarding this matter, especially the governing council meetings organized by the five public universities in the Valencian Community to report on the situation. As specific data, the Principal has disclosed that on February 29 the universities have received, through a bank transfer, the salary corresponding to December. Thus, salaries for the months of January and February are still to be recovered.
The third main concern is about the legislative framework of deficit reduction. The Principal has informed that the effect of the regional decree has been ‘very limited’. On the contrary, the Spanish government decree of November did affect the universities directly with wage freezes, non contributions to pension plans, increase of personal income tax, and, especially, recruitment halting, which will affect emeriti professors, lecturers promotions and those enjoying sabbatical years.
Other topics dealt in the meeting are the cuts in public education -and the Universitat’s position in this context, the future of the residence hall Colegio Mayor Lluís Vives, the approval of the next academic year offer, the grants policy, the problems in the registration process, among others.
The highest participation among the students present in the meeting has been performed by the BEA, Contracorrent and SEPC representatives. Different spokespersons have read a manifesto to report on the privatization process of the university system. The delegate of the Government’s resignation has been requested due to the police conduct in the last days and an institutional support regarding the student protests has been claimed, since they plan to continue organizing more demonstrations.
The Principal has thanked the attendants for both their interventions and criticism, and has stated that in this situation it is important to remain united in defence of the public university.
Elections for different bodies
For the senate Héctor Roig and Román Benajas have been elected.
For the governing council, José Manuel Almerich, Elena García Testal, Dulce Contreras, Elena Grau, María Jesús Martínez, Jesús Estruch, Teresa Picher, María José Lorente, Luis Torres, Javier Martínez, Cristóbal Zaragoza, Dolores Forés, Robert Penadés, Pablo Gallén, Abel Baselga, Gabriel Salinas, Rubén Ramírez, Gonzalo Montiel, Miquel Coll and María Luisa Manzano have been elected.
To the estatutes commmittee Miguel Vargas, Joan Colomer, Javier Bocero, Antonio Fabuel, María Murcia, Germán Salazar and Eva Calonge are going to be incorporated.
Alicia Villar has been elected for the teaching committee.
Gabriel Aparicio is incorporated to the language policy commmittee.
Finally, Eduard Comeig Ramírez, Marc Xelvi, Victoria Hurtado, Ignacio Nebot and Carmen Yolanda García are going to be incorporated to the electoral committee.
Last update: 1 de march de 2012 14:32.
News release
