OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF THE RECTORY N°6

La Serena, November 04, 2019.

Dear ULS Community:

Continuing with the policy of keeping our entire community informed, I would like to inform you that today, Monday, November 04, Extraordinary Session No. 8 of the Academic Council was held.

The central theme of the meeting was to analyze in depth the contingency and its implications at the institutional level, with the objective of defining courses of action related to the use of our facilities and administrative and teaching tasks.

In this regard, to address decision-making, the day began with the report of the administrator, in charge of institutional security, who provided a detailed account of a series of events that involved the facilities of the University of La Serena from the day October 18.

In this sense, the person in charge of security explained that in his opinion the measure of having kept the institutional units closed was the most correct, given that keeping the Campuses without access has made it possible to minimize the possibilities of exposure to attacks on both people as well as dependencies.

In this same context, to analyze the event, the Academic Vice-Rector delivered a report on the Higher Education institutions belonging to the Council of Rectors that were mobilized as of November 02. The information was collected from the Student Affairs Directorates of the Universities of each institution.

In this regard, the registry determined that of the total of 28 universities consulted (CRUCH), 61% of them are in total stoppage of their activities. Of this same total, that is, of the 28 universities consulted, 24 of them do not have a defined date to resume their teaching activities. Of the universities, 90% of them expressed that they would resume their administrative activities starting today, Monday, November 04. Of the latter, today, several of them are functioning only administratively, with limited hours and spaces for meetings and reflection activities.

In the main, after the intervention of the representatives of the Association of AF Academics, Association of AF Officials, the Student Federation and the four Deans; The Academic Council decided to define what the state of mobilization of the University of La Serena will be for the coming days. At the meeting, the need to be able to have meeting and reflection spaces, preferably their own, was coincident; however, it was suggested that the safety of people and the infrastructure of the campuses should be prioritized and that the spaces should gradually be opened.

After an extensive dialogue, agreements were:

1. The University of La Serena will maintain its state of mobilization without teaching activities, until this Friday, November 08, with the participation of the student, academic and civil servant groups, adhering to the days of reflection that have begun throughout the year. country. The situation will be periodically evaluated; However, critical administrative tasks and institutional commitments that cannot be postponed, including contracting proposals, processing of service commissions, tenders, payments to suppliers and responses to controlling bodies, must be executed in a timely manner according to needs. All this requires –and it is necessary to request it– of a greater management and effort in the procedures by the interested parties, due to the current situation, different from usual.

These tasks must be coordinated between Heads of Units and the respective Vice-Chancellors.

2. The spaces of the Exhibition Hall of the Ignacio Domeyko Campus, the Parking Lot of the Isabel Bongard Campus and the Mistral House of the Companies will be enabled to generate meeting spaces and instances that allow for work proposals to address the current crisis that is being experienced. our country. These spaces will be operating between 08:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. from Tuesday, November 05 to Friday, November 08. The use of the spaces must be channeled to the person in charge of Protocol, Ms. Karina Damke, through the representatives of the academic and non-academic associations or the Student Federation, as well as by the Deans of Faculties.

3. According to the results of the scenario evaluations, it is expected to gradually open the university facilities, starting on Monday, November 11. Always based on the protection of the entire community and the university facilities.

4. It is agreed to modify general terms and transient way, the Academic Calendar for the second semester of 2019, corresponding on the one hand to the weeks between October 21 and November 04, to regularize the two weeks of suspension of activities for security reasons that have already passed, and on the other hand the corresponding suspension with activities indicated in Points 1 and 2, from November 5 to 8.

Once the agreements were made, the lawyer Ms. Elizabeth Escobar later reported on the work to support the care of students who have been detained in the context of the mobilizations, a commission led by Ms. Elizabeth Escobar, the Social Worker Ms. Patricia Astroza and academics of the Law career.

At the request of the interim President of the FEULS, as of this week, Ms. Marcela Segall from the Office of Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination joins this team, who will contribute with the work that is necessary to coordinate or refer psychological support of those who have been affected.

Finally, it is worth reiterating that all the measures taken by the Academic Council had as a priority the protection of the safety of people and the property of the institution. And that it is everyone's duty to contribute as an institution of the State of Chile to the collaborative process of generating proposals that allow us to build a more just and equitable Chile.

Dr. Nibaldo Aviles Pizarro

Rector