Good evening! Here’s what you might have missed last week:
Valeria S. Rodríguez Pagán became the youngest competitor to win the competition after beating her opponent 3 to 1, this past Sunday. The criminal justice student at the University of Puerto Rico, Bayamón campus was also the first Puerto Rican to win the competition.
The members of the Financial Oversight and Management Board (JSF because of its Spanish acronym) said that they had not asked for more financial cuts other than those established in the University’s fiscal plan. The Board addressed this matter after the president of the University of Puerto Rico, Jorge Haddock Acevedo, sent out a letter stating that the institution rejected any more cuts established by the body.
The president of the Hermandad de Empleados Exentos No Docentes (Heend), Jannell Marina Santana Andino, branded the president of the University of Puerto Rico’s, Jorge Haddock Acevedo, planned investiture ceremony as shameful. Santana explained that in moments in which the JSF seeks to “suck more blood” from the university budget, the last thing that should occupy Haddock Acevedo is a ceremony of investiture that isn’t even tradition in the institution.
The HEEND celebrated an extraordinary informative assembly, this past Tuesday, in the Theater of the UPR Río Piedras Campus to discuss the increase of the employee’s contribution imposed by the Government Board, and the cost of their health insurance. Previously, the JSF had demanded that the monthly contribution be reduced to $125 for non-teaching staff, and $390 for teachers. However, after an evaluation of the budget, the president of the UPR determined that the amount could go up to $450.
After the assembly, members of the HEEND marched to the Central Administration Offices to perform a parody of the investiture ceremony of the president of the UPR, who was represented as a yam with a tie. The union gave him a medal of “charlatanism” because, as Santana Andino indicated, “he is the most mediocre president who has passed through the University”.
The three UPR campuses of Bayamón, Mayagüez and Carolina were penalized by the Office of the Women’s Procurator after failing to turn in their Action Plan to ensure compliance with the Law to Guarantee Equal Employment Opportunities by Gender (Law 212) on time. This law establishes that public agencies must comply with the surrender of the Affirmative Action Plan that indicates how they will “implement the necessary measures to identify, evaluate, correct, and eradicate discriminatory treatment of women workers and aspiring workers in the public service”.
Furthermore, the rector of the UPR in Carolina, Valentín Asencio, asked, in a press release, for an extension to turn in the Action Plan. Meanwhile, the Mayagüez campus informed, in a written statement delivered last Wednesday, that they had been late in handing the required documents because their plan required more information.
The Puerto Rican Association of University Professors (APPU because of its Spanish acronym) along with nine professors filed a lawsuit, on April 16, in presence of the Federal Tribunal against the Financial Oversight and Management Board because the entity exceeded authority by presenting modifications to the Retirement System on the Fiscal Plan of the UPR. Also, the union highlighted the failure of the tasks by the university and the president of the institution.
The Student Council of the School of Architecture rejected the decision made by the Committee for the Evaluation and Disposition of Real Estate to not give the old Paradise theater to the Community Board of Río Piedras through a written statement. Currently, the building is used as a parking lot for the Cambridge Technical Institute.
