Weekly News Briefing: strike, application, tuitions, and more

• UPR will cover full tuition to new doctoral students in STEM careers
  • The University of Puerto Rico will cover the totality of the tuition of doctoral students of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), during their first year of studies, and will receive a stipend up to $1,000 for their development of their investigation project. The eligible candidates must be in first year of doctoral studies and completed the FAFSA, or the equivalent in the case of international students.
  • The offices of Graduate Studies from Río Piedras, Mayagüez and Medical Sciences will be orienting students about the help.
• Women’s Attorney will radicate complaints against the UPR
  • The Office of the Women’s Attorney assured that will radicate complaints against the precincts of Río Piedras and Utuado of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) of not complying with their information requirements related to cases of harassment and sexual assault in the institution.
• UPR in Ponce approves strike of 72 hours
  • During the extraordinary assembly held at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), in Ponce, specifically in the Deanship of Students, approved, on Tuesday, a 72-hour strike, informed the General Student Council of the campus.
  • Some of the reasons in which they held the strike, is to demand and know who the beneficiaries of the politics of the economic helps are, indicated the General Student Council of Ponce, via Facebook.
  • The Student Council of Ponce in a publicity via Facebook.
  • The UPR of Ponce wish to demonstrate to the administration that they can decide the future of the University and achieve solidarity and fight of the other 10 unities.
• Commemorate 1,402 students that did not payed their tuition on time in Río Piedras
  • Students and protesters left 254 notebooks, on Monday, in the Plaza Baldorioty de Castro of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, to commemorate the 1,402 students that did not payed their tuition on time in Río Piedras. Out of all the notebooks collected, 216 will be donated to students of poor economic resources.
• Administration denies the loss of 1,402 students in the IUPI
  • The administration of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Río Piedras Campus, denied, on Monday, that 1,402 students of the campus, that did not payed their tuition on time, will be out of the institution.
  • The interim director of the Office of Communication of the UPR in Río Piedras Alegres Barrios informed that the cancelation of the tuition is a process habitable that occur every year when expires the term to complete the first payment, and that it is not related to the actual cost.

• Column: The hidden “violence”
  • On Wednesday’s column, the student of Laboral Relations, Randiel J. Negrón Torres, indicated that “ if the violence is abundance of force according its definition, a state is violent with the power that their population gives it by choosing it.

• IUPI launches first mobil application of the campus
  • The University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus published, on Monday, to the platforms of App Store and Play Store, the fist mobil application of the institution, IUPI MAP, that it is based in a map with the history of the buildings of the campus.
  • The idea of creating IUPI MAP came from the director of the University Archive, Aida Irizarry Martínez, noting that, at the beginning of each academic year, students were unaware of the facilities of the Riopedrense campus.
  • In the semester of August 2018, Professor Carlos J. Corrada Bravo assigned the students José Quiñones Flores, Roberto López Rivera, Marc de Jesús Ellsworth and José Vélez Gómez, of the course Introduction to Software Engineering (CCOM 4030), that will develop the application for Android smartphones and Apple iOS.
• Rector of the UPR in Ponce declares illegitimate the extraordinary assembly of the campus
  • On Wednesday, the rector of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) in Ponce, Hortenzia Cruz Rivera, assured that does not recognize the legitimacy of the decisions taken on the extraordinary assembly celebrated by the General Student Council  of the campus, in which included a strike of 72 hours.
• Governor announces benefits for university students of Vocational Rehabilitation
  • The governor of Puerto Rico, Wanda Vázquez Garced, announced, last Thursday, new benefits for university students that are part of the services of the Administration of Vocational Rehabilitation.
• General Student Council of the IUPI decree ultimatum to the administration
  • The General Student Council of the UPR in Río Piedras decreed, on Friday, an ultimatum to the university’s administration so they can prove the budget for the celebration of the General Students Assembly and establish an academic recess.
  • At the moment, what prevents the allocation of funds to the student body is that the General Council is not constituted, but that it is running on an interim basis, which is not sufficient for its operation, according to the dean of students, Gloria Díaz Urbina.
• UPR campuses receive orientation visits about economic helps
  • The vicepresident of Student Affairs of the UPR, doctor José L. Perdomo Rivera, will have a series of visits in the campuses of the institution this week, in order to orientate the students about how apply for and beneficiate from the new model of economic help.
  • The orientations are the result of a petition made in a reunion from the General Student Council of the UPR in Ponce, represented by their president, Hani Elmusa and the president of the UPR, doctor Jorge Haddock Acevedo.

Edited: Jason L. Domenech Nazario