The former secretary general of USAC, offers to prioritize the production of knowledge with an impact on sustainable development; open a program of self-analysis; promote, restructure, regionalize and expand the research system, and develop training and the researcher's career.
Author: Irene García Alvarez
Carlos Enrique Valladares Cerezo is an architect. He has been a university professor, dean of the Faculty of Architecture for three terms and general secretary of the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (Usac), during the three years that the university was directed by Murphy Paiz.
He seeks to become the rector of the state university supported by the Avante San Carlos group. His goal, he says, is to make Usac an inclusive university.
He has postgraduate degrees and specializations on environment and urban planning, but the one that marked his life, he says, was one on Integrated Rural Development, which he studied in 1989 in Israel.
He says that it was there that he realized that he should seek more links between academia and social issues, which would end up becoming "one of the biggest reasons why he entered university political life".
Valladares affirms that running for the presidency was a difficult decision, but that he accepted the challenge with the purpose of serving the University.
He assures that there are no other factors that influenced him to make this decision.
He affirms that he wants to transform Usac to get it out of the crisis in which it currently finds itself. "I want to transform and modernize it so that it fulfills its constitutional mandate".
Why does he want to be rector and what experience does he have?
The Usac requires important structural changes whose treatment has been delayed due to lack of political will, I am encouraged to lead a team composed of people with high capacities and an extraordinary sense of identity and belonging to the institution, with which we can achieve the changes that must be made from the rectory.
Likewise, to facilitate the process of (university) reform that is already underway so that within a year we will have the specific structural reforms to be approved by the University Superior Council, to whom we will not fail to insist on the need for this approval until we succeed in moving forward.
Who are your supporters for the rectorship?
The Avante San Carlos group is made up of professionals, professors and talented students with a strong sense of identity with the university, with whom we have been developing a work plan that we have presented to the university community.
How will you finance your campaign for the Rector's Office?
The campaign has been modest based on the collaboration of members of the Avante San Carlos group and family members, mainly using social networks.
How do you see the current situation of Usac in terms of academics, extension and research?
Academically, the level varies from one academic unit to another; there are good, better and very good units. The best way to measure this situation is through accreditation by international accreditation agencies, part of the work that was done during my tenure as dean of the Faculty of Architecture was the double accreditation of their careers.
With respect to research, something similar occurs, while there are units that carry out a considerable amount of research, there are others with very modest contributions; however, we must encourage research with a high impact on society.
University extension includes teaching activities with the community, the EPS (Supervised Professional Practice) of the academic units, and the EPSUM (Multidisciplinary Supervised Professional Practice Program); the national health system owes much of its functioning to the EPS of Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry and Psychology, to give some examples.
The part of the extension that consists of disseminating culture is very deficient, it is necessary to vigorously stimulate university life as a source for the development of culture and disseminate it throughout the country and beyond its borders.
What is your work plan and your big bets?
The work plan is contained in the document that we have sent to the members of the university community and that is available on the web. The great challenge is to make the major changes that the university needs to respond in a better way to the society that sustains us, for this, some of these changes can be made from the rectory.
Others require the participation of the university community and for this purpose we will provide the facilities so that the reform process advances with the speed that the case deserves and that in less than a year we can present to the Guatemalan society the public university that the country needs and demands.
What is your proposal to demand the budget that constitutionally corresponds to Usac?
The Constitutional Court (CC) issued a ruling on the concept of the ordinary income of the State, stating that such income is the one obtained from taxes; that is to say, the tax income of the State.
This is almost double the amount proposed by the Ministry of Finance and approved by Congress for this year's budget. The sentence of the CC is not completely final due to the existence of an appeal filed that may expand or clarify something, but never change the substance of the sentence, so the Court must be asked to resolve the appeal and demand that the sentence be executed.
What is your plan to include and make the non-faculty schools more involved in political activities within the University?
The university government must be democratized, the academic units must be part of that government and by constitutional mandate their tenured professors, students and alumni must be represented, the way to achieve that is by reorganizing the Schools and University Centers as faculties. The other process that must be democratized is the election of the rector so that he/she is elected by the direct, equitable and weighted vote of his/her professors, students and graduates.
What plans are planned within your administration to ensure biosafety control within the central campus and departmental headquarters?
There is a proposal for an Occupational Health and Safety Regulation that covers all aspects related to this issue and is directed by a Bipartite Committee that has delegations in all academic and administrative units, whether they are in Guatemala City or in the university centers.
Do you plan to reform the evaluation methods if academic activities continue to be carried out virtually?
The evaluation of the academic process is currently carried out according to the General Evaluation Regulations of the University and the specific ones of each unit, the difference is that while the teaching and learning process is carried out virtually, the evaluation activities are carried out in the same way. The same applies to the evaluation of academic staff.
How will harassment complaints of any kind be handled in your administration?
There is already a regulation for this, what is required is that it should work correctly; as part of our project we also contemplate promoting the proposal that is already in the rectory for the creation of a University Rights Ombudsman, as has been the case for several years in Latin American universities. This office does not require the reorganization of the functions of workers who are already hired within the University and therefore does not create bureaucracy.
Valladares was accused by the university group Tejido of having endorsed anomalous practices in the Faculty of Architecture when she was dean, and in social networks there are videos circulating denouncing her participation in corruption cases related to former rectors Murphy Paiz and Estuardo Gálvez, accused in the Parallel Commissions 2020 case, for which both are linked to processes and deprived of their freedom.
Likewise, he has been accused by the Association of University Students of supporting and backing Strike Committees of the Faculty of Architecture and Engineering that have been linked to violent and criminal actions.
However, the candidate for rector disassociated himself from the accusations and affirmed that he rejects corruption. In a message published in his social network accounts he said: "I want to tell you what I will never accept in Usac, I will never accept corruption, I will never accept coercion, I will never accept intimidation and I will never accept that conflicts are generated, we are going for the path of dialogue".
The accusations of corruption against him, he described them as "false news and black campaigns" that seek to damage him.
Also in publications in his social networks Valladares assured that these news seek to tarnish his good image and trajectory. "They want to undermine the work and good proposals in favor of the academy and our house of studies," he said.
To dissociate himself from the accusations, he published certificates issued by the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) and the Comptroller General's Office (CGC), indicating that there are no investigations or objections against him. With this he sought to prove his "probity".
In the document of the MP it is stated that there are two cases where he is accused, the first one for a breach of duties of officials and the second one for abuse of authority and breach of duties, which were investigated and dismissed by the Prosecutor's Office of the Administrative Crimes Section.
The Transitory Certificate of Non-existence of Claim of Charges -known as finiquito- of the CGC, dated January 17, 2022, states that Valladares has no claims or lawsuits pending as a consequence of the positions previously held.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The original version of this interview was extended on March 21, 2022, at 08:50 hours.
Original Note: Agencia Universitaria de Noticias
By: Irene García Alvarez
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