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University law passes first legislative hurdle

by Eric Jackson, mostly from other media

A new organic law for the University of Panama, which would expand the rector's powers and allow the current holder of that office, self-styled "Rector Magnifico" Gustavo García de Paredes, to extend his term in office, was passed on June 17 by the National Assembly's Education Committee. With a few minor modifications, the proposal that the committee passed was based on a university administration proposal that was "passed" in a snap campus referendum last year with about 10 percent of those eligible to vote participating.

The committee met to discuss the proposal while the university was closed and the nation's attention was riveted on the Seguro Social crisis. That circumstance alone has be the subject of strong protests by a number of faculty members.

García de Paredes, a PRD member who has in the past expressed presidential ambitions, and administrators beholden to him called the proposal a "modernization" in committee hearings. Opponents noted the ongoing controversy in which the university is in the Supreme Court challenging prosecutors' power to investigate corruption in the issuance of diplomas and abuses of the University of Panama's power to charter private universities. The university's faculty is divided over the proposal and the students are mostly apathetic, but the administrative employees --- by and large a PRD political patronage machine --- are strongly in favor of it. A number of business groups and opposition politicians complain that university reform ought not to be seen as an intra-university issue, as the entire national economy is affected by the state of higher education in Panama.

During the course of the debate on first reading committee chairwoman Susana Richa de Torrijos --- the president's aunt and a former education minister --- opined that beyond this particular legislation, the assembly ought to review the procedures by which other  universities are chartered and accredited and the system by which the University of Panama is empowered as the nation's highest authority when it comes to accepting or rejecting diplomas awarded by other institutions.

The quality of education at the University of Panama --- excellent in some departments, abominable in others, and generally held in low esteem internationally --- has so far not been a significant part of the legislative debate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also in this section:
Standoff over Seguro Social continues
Rector Magnifco shuts the university, wins a committee vote
Protest pictorial
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