Nuevo mundo - Mundos Nuevos (Jun 2022)
La reforma universitaria en tiempos revueltos. El movimiento estudiantil uruguayo antes y después de 1968
Abstract
In 1965, the Uruguayan student movement opposed the launch of a "program to improve science teaching" to be held at the University of the Republic (Udelar) by the Organization of American States (OAS). With the support of a group of teachers, mostly from the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying (FIA), representatives of the student order wrote an eloquent statement in rejection of said program, criticizing its low academic level and claiming that it was at odds with the objectives. general information of the institution. Since they referred to the role of the OAS in the subcontinent, anti-imperialism was a central component of their rhetoric, but the students emphasized the need to reconcile science policy and "national development" within the university. The firm stances of the students could not stop the OAS project, but their actions were decisive in strengthening the alliance they forged with teachers dedicated to the development of scientific research at the institution. They also facilitated the election of Oscar Maggiolo as rector in 1966 and the development in 1967 of an ambitious program to promote science and technology at the university. These facts suggest that the oppositional attitude of the student movement in the mid-sixties favored academic reform. However, the height of the protests in 1968 was a turning point in these controversies. From then on, in the face of growing repression and right-wing authoritarianism, most of the mobilized students put aside the debate on university reform and turned to radical political causes. The horizon of the revolution replaced trust in tertiary education institutions as engines of social change. This article analyzes these changing positions and the development of increasingly violent instances of protest in the period prior to the 1973 coup in Uruguay, which ended up curtailing this and other related debates.
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