The University of the South Pacific will elect a new dean this Thursday from three status candidates

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Dr. Aloysio Segurado, supported by the current incumbent, Carlos Carlotti Jr., is considered the favorite candidate in the election. He won an informal community consultation held two weeks ago, which collected 10,000 votes.

Elections are held in a council consisting of the University Council and other administrative bodies in the entity, with a number of about two thousand voters. It is a relatively restricted group within the country’s largest university community, which includes more than 120,000 people, including students, faculty and staff. The election ends at 6pm and USP estimates it will show results at 8pm.

Segurado, Dean of Undergraduate Studies in the Carlotti Administration, competes for this position with architect Ana Lana, current Dean of Diversity and Inclusion, and with architect Marcilio Alves, Executive Director of the Fundação de Apoio à Universidade de São Paulo (FUSP).

The elections will be held via an electronic system via the Internet, which will collect votes from nine in the morning until six in the evening. The name of the winner must be known on the same day. The tripartite list then follows Governor Tarcisio de Freitas to choose whoever suits him among the three. Since there is no fourth ticket, all competitors must be included.

Among the most controversial issues in the campaign carried out throughout this year, one of the dominant themes was tax reform, which runs the risk of taking away the predictability of USP revenues when ICMS is replaced by another tax. Today, the university’s budget is linked to a share of about 5% of São Paulo’s revenues. Internal management was also among the most discussed topics, as well as USP internationalization and technological modernization.

The USP For People ticket, with Segurado at the top and engineer Lady Bernucci as vice president, ran its campaign with a greater focus on improving the teaching structure. It proposed, among other things, an orientation course for new teachers and a code of conduct for the use of artificial intelligence in the academic environment. The duo also proposes creating a special university office to encourage scientific support for state and national public policies.

– We are looking for an administration capable of taking firm leadership actions, but always with a lot of listening and participation, leadership of a calm nature, searching for consensus, harmoniously searching for partnerships, and also able to integrate what we have at its core, responsibility and experience accumulated over many years at our university – said Segurado.

The USP ticket led by Lana was the one who won the consultation among the student group, coming in second overall. Among the promises of the architect and her deputy, chemist Pedro Vitoriano, is a new renovation of the USP housing complex and the creation of more predictable career plans for teachers and staff. Lana used part of the space in the first debate with his opponents to talk about academic independence.

– We defend the university’s independence, which is not limited to the financial dimension, which is more evident at the present time due to tax reform and new tax rules, indicating the end of linking shares of the International Council of Universities to the university’s budget. — We also need to talk about administrative independence, academic independence and autonomy to set our policies and not be caught by surprise with successive changes, laws and regulations that affect our policies.

Third place in the community consultation was the “USP Novo Tempo” ticket, headed by Alves, with director Silvia Casa Nova as vice president. The two promise management reforms at USP to improve its financial situation. An expansion of paid courses and partnerships with companies across the institution is on its agenda, but without abandoning the concept of a free public university. The group advocates measures to speed up the internal flow of resources, such as creating a card for teachers, and promises to welcome leadership.

– I understand that when thinking about people, we manage things that will lead to fewer mental health problems – says Alves. – We will address physical health problems, we will improve internationalization, we will improve graduation, which needs a lot of interaction: this campus life that we defend so much as important and which needs to be strengthened.

In addition to the debate between the candidates at the University of the South Pacific campus in the capital, São Paulo, two other debates were held at the University of Ribeirão Preto and São Carlos campuses. On all three occasions, the candidates interacted in a very friendly manner, sometimes exchanging compliments with each other, and the criticisms were always very subtle.