Here’s what you might have missed last week:
The president of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Jorge Haddock Acevedo, solicited that the budget cuts set for the next year not be completed. According to the new fiscal plan, budget cuts for the UPR would reach $71 million. The possible cuts will be effective in the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1, 2020. Currently, the UPR has suffered a total of 330 million dollars worth in cuts.
Since the required quorum for the General Student Assembly for the UPR Río Piedras Campus is of 1,440 students was not reached during last week’s gathering, the event ran as informative with a peak of 916 students accounted for. For the first point of the meeting, the president of the Student Council of the Humanities College, María Celeste Sánchez Rodríguez, presented a briefing about sexual harassment reports on campus. She established that there are currently 20 ongoing sexual harassment cases. On the other hand, the coordinator of the Gender Committee, Nathaniel Pabón, denounced a transphobic attitude toward and hostile treatment of the inclusive bathrooms in the Business Management College’s buildings. In his presentation, he expressed how semen has been found in the urinals and bathroom sinks.
The former president of the IUPI’s General Student Council, Kemuel Rodríguez Montalvo, expressed his concern over the cancelation of funds granted by the Department of Federal Education. He denounced in his report that by using the money on the design phase, the auction and hiring process could affect the approval of money. The meetings for the remodeling of the ResiCampus were not notified about the closing of the residences in May 2020. The last information that the students received was that the residence would close in December 2019.
Jaime Rodríguez Alicea announced, during last Wednesday’s General Student Assembly, that the Centro de Comunicación Estudiantil (CCE, in Spanish) will resume its work. The CCE, along with Diálogo UPR and Pulso Estudiantil, had their Facebook platforms electronically searched by the Department of Justice during April 26, 27 and 28 of 2017.
In a joint investigation between two professors and a student from the UPR Medical Sciences Campus – doctors Gregory Quirk, Fabrico DoMonte and student Angélica Minier – and researchers from Penn State University scientists have gathered sufficient evidence to effectively treat the human brain after cerebral injuries such as strokes. As it turns out, glial cells are in charge of neuron replacement and are activated after a brain injury. Despite the discoveries, the investigation requires further studying.
