But anyway, it's quite interesting. Banners and posters everywhere, signs, rep's (students) going around trying to get their word out, debates, and legit elections that are going on today and tomorrow. AND my friend Flavia, who is from UCLA but from Chilean/Italian parents (she speaks fluent Spanish, lucky girl), just happened to write an excellent summary of everything that's going on. She posted it on facebook as a "note" --like blogging on facebook. I asked her if i could post it here because it was interesting and she did an excellent job. Here it is:
"And everything is the same... except the country, the language, and the t-shirt colors"
Just because this stuff blows my mind, I thought I would share my thoughts with you all; some chileans, some study abroad students, and some alumni...
At the most prestigious university in Chile, political parties are basically having a run-through and facing off via the students... Lista1a (Ready first), NAU (New University Action), OI (Independent Option), a socialist party, and Voto Nulo (Vote Null) are currently throwing it down at the voting stations all over PUC's four campuses.
The best part is, this is actually an incredibly accurate reflection of the country at large. Lista1a is a major conservative party- without blinking. Their presidential candidate (according to a conversation I eavesdropped) is a law student (law is a major here) who defended Pinochet's coup in class with a natural law argument. NAU is center left, OI independent, etc. etc.
And yet, the issues are all the same.
Lista1a is "proud to believe in the UC" (Universidad Catolica), "proud to believe that students come first", "proud to believe that participation is service", and just basically... "proud to believe". I read through their flyer, and I couldn't find any platforms. Thanks. Next!
Compared with NAU- whose slogans are, "Alguien tiene que hacerlo" and "La universidad es tuya!" or, "Somebody's got to do it", and "The university is yours!" (that sounds particularly familiar). Their posters feature not only their candidates, but inspiring figures like Father Hurtado (a social liberationist priest from Chile), Albert Einstein, as well as Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump and Uma Thurman as The Bride. Okay.
They state, "The university is yours, for a community that makes sense". They tout campus wide activities not just for students, but for campus service workers and academics, like a week of culture, a festival of music, and a college Olympics. They state, "the university is yours, a university for Chile". They tout a center for campus service workers and a special immersion program in Mapuche (indigenous) communities. There's more, but the best one is that they're going green: they want an Office of Sustainability, green grades for different campus buildings, pilot programs for green-friendly technologies, a campaign for Environmental Conscience, and a Sustainable Practice Guide for distribution.
It's just student elections, but here, these are the sons and daughters of Chilean elite (have I mentioned this is THE most prestigious university in the country?). In a few years, they will be the elite. It's like watching the entire psychological development of a country unfold. It's a barometer for Chile's present and future...
There were easily at least 300, 400 people packed into an auditorium to hear the debates. It was more like a soccer match than a debate, with drums, flags, tshirts, whistling, hooting, cheering, cussing, and direct attacks between candidates as well as audience members.
The most fascinating part is how incredibly present is Chile's past. Whenever Lista1a started cheering or chanting, the entire crowd supporting NAU would make fun of them by making military salutes, and there were several chants calling them out for being Pinochetistas, or Jaime Guzman demagogues (Jaime Guzman was the godfather of the conservative movement in Chile). Lista1a didn't even fight it- they just rolled right along with it. It has also become pretty clear that UDI, Chile's conservative party, gives Lista 1a money to run their campaign.
It's hard to forget that the university is run by the Vatican. NAU said that this isn't a school for priests anymore, it's a university for intellectuals. The presidential candidate for Lista1a didn't understand a question about anti-contraceptives and their on-campus distribution- she went on to say that while there still exists doubt about the validity of the methods, we shouldn't put at risk the lives of innocents. When the presidential candidate for NAU closed the debate, he recounted how at his internship, the person working above him denied legal services to a woman because she was divorced.
The right (Lista 1a) contended that if you don't like the educational formulation that the university provides, then you should go somewhere else. If you don't like the university's censorship, you should go somewhere else. "If you don't like it, then why are you here?" was the recurring meme. The entire concept that students should be at the receiving end of their education, as opposed to a more formulative role, is very entrenched for conservatives everywhere.
NAU kept discussing access to the university by students in municipal schools, referring to those who get left behind by the system. They showed a profound interest in reforming how people enter the university. The PSU (SAT equivalent) is held nationwide and is pretty much the defining factor in university acceptance. Naturally, the students in private schools score high, and the municipal schools score low. Sounds like a familiar issue.
The country's more controversial issues entered the debate- NAU wants to create an immersion program so that students from the university can immerse themselves in Mapuche communities. "The press calls the Mapuches terrorists, but the United Nations is scandalized with the way we treat our indigenous citizens", stated one NAU candidate.
Also of debate was how to help students with financial aid, those in the third quintile, etc. The university is expensive, the scholarships are few- it's a difficult issue for them to grapple with, and I think there was the most confusion about how to deal with this than with any other topic.
What really moved me, and is something that I feel lacking at my own university, is the expressed relationship NAU has with service workers at the university. They stated that they are trying to build a true university community, one which is composed of three parts: academics, students and workers. They talked about worker capacitation, about investigating the living conditions of workers, about dealing with subcontracting and the fact that because many workers are subcontracted, they don't have the right to unionize. They went off several times describing the condition of university workers, how poorly they are paid, and how more attention needs to be paid to them. Regrettably, this relationship is extremely weak at my home university. We show up for the big events, but we are not involving them as much as we could.
One candidate for NAU said, "people tell us, if you want to make a change, go to U. Chile. We go to PUC, and we want to make some change here and now" U. Chile is the country's official state university, and is known for being more rabble-rousing than the elite at PUC. They're definitely on an upward battle as far as fighting a hierarchical structure goes.
NAU's candidates were pretty frank- yes, their vision is utopic, idealist- but they're willing to lay out the programs to at least try and take the university there.
It's the same stuff everywhere. It's the same crowds, the same problems, the same discussions. At the root of the debate, the discussion is the same. Do students have power? Should they have power? Should they exercise that power if they have it? Lista 1a kept insisting that we're students, that we're here to learn after all, that we're preparing to become leaders for tomorrow. NAU insisted that we're adults, that the time is now, that we need to be leaders today, not tomorrow.
In another note is the complete text of a flier that some people were handing out. It's in Chilean spanish, try and read it if you dare...
At the most prestigious university in Chile, political parties are basically having a run-through and facing off via the students... Lista1a (Ready first), NAU (New University Action), OI (Independent Option), a socialist party, and Voto Nulo (Vote Null) are currently throwing it down at the voting stations all over PUC's four campuses.
The best part is, this is actually an incredibly accurate reflection of the country at large. Lista1a is a major conservative party- without blinking. Their presidential candidate (according to a conversation I eavesdropped) is a law student (law is a major here) who defended Pinochet's coup in class with a natural law argument. NAU is center left, OI independent, etc. etc.
And yet, the issues are all the same.
Lista1a is "proud to believe in the UC" (Universidad Catolica), "proud to believe that students come first", "proud to believe that participation is service", and just basically... "proud to believe". I read through their flyer, and I couldn't find any platforms. Thanks. Next!
Compared with NAU- whose slogans are, "Alguien tiene que hacerlo" and "La universidad es tuya!" or, "Somebody's got to do it", and "The university is yours!" (that sounds particularly familiar). Their posters feature not only their candidates, but inspiring figures like Father Hurtado (a social liberationist priest from Chile), Albert Einstein, as well as Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump and Uma Thurman as The Bride. Okay.
They state, "The university is yours, for a community that makes sense". They tout campus wide activities not just for students, but for campus service workers and academics, like a week of culture, a festival of music, and a college Olympics. They state, "the university is yours, a university for Chile". They tout a center for campus service workers and a special immersion program in Mapuche (indigenous) communities. There's more, but the best one is that they're going green: they want an Office of Sustainability, green grades for different campus buildings, pilot programs for green-friendly technologies, a campaign for Environmental Conscience, and a Sustainable Practice Guide for distribution.
It's just student elections, but here, these are the sons and daughters of Chilean elite (have I mentioned this is THE most prestigious university in the country?). In a few years, they will be the elite. It's like watching the entire psychological development of a country unfold. It's a barometer for Chile's present and future...
There were easily at least 300, 400 people packed into an auditorium to hear the debates. It was more like a soccer match than a debate, with drums, flags, tshirts, whistling, hooting, cheering, cussing, and direct attacks between candidates as well as audience members.
The most fascinating part is how incredibly present is Chile's past. Whenever Lista1a started cheering or chanting, the entire crowd supporting NAU would make fun of them by making military salutes, and there were several chants calling them out for being Pinochetistas, or Jaime Guzman demagogues (Jaime Guzman was the godfather of the conservative movement in Chile). Lista1a didn't even fight it- they just rolled right along with it. It has also become pretty clear that UDI, Chile's conservative party, gives Lista 1a money to run their campaign.
It's hard to forget that the university is run by the Vatican. NAU said that this isn't a school for priests anymore, it's a university for intellectuals. The presidential candidate for Lista1a didn't understand a question about anti-contraceptives and their on-campus distribution- she went on to say that while there still exists doubt about the validity of the methods, we shouldn't put at risk the lives of innocents. When the presidential candidate for NAU closed the debate, he recounted how at his internship, the person working above him denied legal services to a woman because she was divorced.
The right (Lista 1a) contended that if you don't like the educational formulation that the university provides, then you should go somewhere else. If you don't like the university's censorship, you should go somewhere else. "If you don't like it, then why are you here?" was the recurring meme. The entire concept that students should be at the receiving end of their education, as opposed to a more formulative role, is very entrenched for conservatives everywhere.
NAU kept discussing access to the university by students in municipal schools, referring to those who get left behind by the system. They showed a profound interest in reforming how people enter the university. The PSU (SAT equivalent) is held nationwide and is pretty much the defining factor in university acceptance. Naturally, the students in private schools score high, and the municipal schools score low. Sounds like a familiar issue.
The country's more controversial issues entered the debate- NAU wants to create an immersion program so that students from the university can immerse themselves in Mapuche communities. "The press calls the Mapuches terrorists, but the United Nations is scandalized with the way we treat our indigenous citizens", stated one NAU candidate.
Also of debate was how to help students with financial aid, those in the third quintile, etc. The university is expensive, the scholarships are few- it's a difficult issue for them to grapple with, and I think there was the most confusion about how to deal with this than with any other topic.
What really moved me, and is something that I feel lacking at my own university, is the expressed relationship NAU has with service workers at the university. They stated that they are trying to build a true university community, one which is composed of three parts: academics, students and workers. They talked about worker capacitation, about investigating the living conditions of workers, about dealing with subcontracting and the fact that because many workers are subcontracted, they don't have the right to unionize. They went off several times describing the condition of university workers, how poorly they are paid, and how more attention needs to be paid to them. Regrettably, this relationship is extremely weak at my home university. We show up for the big events, but we are not involving them as much as we could.
One candidate for NAU said, "people tell us, if you want to make a change, go to U. Chile. We go to PUC, and we want to make some change here and now" U. Chile is the country's official state university, and is known for being more rabble-rousing than the elite at PUC. They're definitely on an upward battle as far as fighting a hierarchical structure goes.
NAU's candidates were pretty frank- yes, their vision is utopic, idealist- but they're willing to lay out the programs to at least try and take the university there.
It's the same stuff everywhere. It's the same crowds, the same problems, the same discussions. At the root of the debate, the discussion is the same. Do students have power? Should they have power? Should they exercise that power if they have it? Lista 1a kept insisting that we're students, that we're here to learn after all, that we're preparing to become leaders for tomorrow. NAU insisted that we're adults, that the time is now, that we need to be leaders today, not tomorrow.
In another note is the complete text of a flier that some people were handing out. It's in Chilean spanish, try and read it if you dare...
