06/12/2024
He Governor Andrés Julián Rendón announced this Wednesday that, as a measure to alleviate the cash flow problems that the University of Antioquia is going through in the midst of the financial crisis that detonated before public opinion after it became known that for the first time in its history the university was unable to pay the payroll to teachers and administrative staff on time.
According to the governor, in view of the “complex times that the finances of the University of Antioquia”, the departmental government decided to give it cash flow and disburse $11,000 million corresponding to the department’s contributions that are part of the months of June and July, so that in this way the university can assume the payroll commitments that have them in trouble.
But Rendón, accompanied by the departmental Secretary of Education Mauricio Alviar, also took the opportunity to criticize the current board headed by John Jairo Arboleda, as he pointed out that in the face of the crisis that the educational institution is going through, “real commitments to austerity” need to be undertaken and May this be reflected in the reduction in the hiring of teaching hours, travel, travel expenses and excessive bureaucracy.
“You have to set an example and be consistent with the financial situation. Every weight matters. If 50% of the teaching hour contracts were released, the University could save $60 billion per year. UdeA professors with a doctorate and those with a master’s degree should give more classes, allocate up to 30% of their time to teaching,” said the president.
Rendón also announced that the Governmentn will disburse $1.1 billion to finish the sports infrastructure of the Bajo Cauca headquarters. “In this way we make a real commitment to regionalization. The message is one: support and commitment from the government, but please, austerity on your part.”
It is worth remembering that in the assembly that was called two weeks ago to address the university’s financial crisis, teachers and students asked that the board take concrete actions such as reducing costs in travel expenses, security, cleaning and cafeteria; make rational use of water and energy; or reduce expenses on stationery, advertising and institutional goods.
In this assembly, the overflowing missionary growth was also protested.. And 2023 closed with the highest increase in operating expenses in the last 14 years. A professor said in the assembly that on average an undergraduate student—there are more than 35,000—costs Antioquia $11 million, of which he must put in about $3 million of his own resources.
They also harshly criticized Arboleda for the alleged lack of management to increase or at least conserve the resources that enter the university on behalf of the services offered by the university: courses, research, inter-administrative agreements, among others, and which represent more than 50% of the total resources that enter the University (another 44% is provided by the National Government – 94% of that percentage and 5% is provided by the Government of Antioquia).
For their part, the university’s directors, led by the vice-rector general Elmer Gaviria, defended the management of the current rector’s office and pointed out that part of this financial crisis is due to the fact that in recent years they have spent from the endowment fund, to which they had entered $70,000 million to leverage operating resources with its profitability. According to Gaviria in the assembly, Mauricio Alviar —rector 2015-2018 and now next to the governor— would have requested $10,000 million and Arboleda, $50,000 million, due to the effects of the pandemic.
So, according to this, Gaviria pointed out that new treasury credits cannot be made or resources from the patrimonial fund used, nor is there much maneuver to sell assets that they received in payment from the Government of Antioquia to settle debts accumulated over time and that are were used to obtain resources to leverage the projects.
