In medicine, the rate of voting was constant. The opposition prevailed / Demian Alday
With a hard-fought electoral fight in Medicine (where the radicalism opposed to the Deanery gave the blow by scoring a resounding victory and relegating Peronism aligned with the Ministry of Health to third place); and victories of the ruling party (also with radical ties) in Law and Architecture (two of the faculties in which there was a dispute), ended yesterday the elections of graduates, heads of practical works (JTP) and graduate assistants in the majority of the 17 academic units of the National University of La Plata (UNLP). In some, the definition was stretched until today (see graph).
In the first electoral chapter of the post-pandemic University, the Graduate Senate put just three seats (out of 16) at stake for the governing councils of each faculty -and one for the Superior Council-. But in some cases it began to clear the puzzle that will end up being completed with the elections of professors (7 counselors), non-teachers (1) and students (5). And that, once assembled, it will conclude -in April- with the appointment of the deans.
On the way to that instance, the Graduate vote almost began to define leadership in some faculties, while prolonging the suspense in others. For example, in the decisive Medicine, where the “University Convergence” list, former reformers from the Purple Strip who presented themselves as the “only” opposition to the Faculty, the Ministry of Health and the IOMA, gave the note of the day by staying with the three directors. Even with the JTP, the only candidacy in which the ruling party that answers to the Dean, Juan Ángel Basualdo Farjat, had presented a list to pave the way for re-election. Without that seat, the current Dean does not yet have the votes to re-elect: he needs 11 or 9, in case he proposes a successor. Today he would have 8, between the 7 teachers and the non-teacher, who in the coming weeks will go to the polls with a single list.
The opposition victory in Medicine yielded another salient fact by relegating the Peronist list “For Comprehensive Health” to third place, whose student reference is Remediar and which was aligned with the IOMA and the Buenos Aires Ministry of Health. This list was immediately below the “Front of Graduates”, made up of leaders of the Platense Medical Association and who came to the election backed by the student left of the PCR and Patria Grande (close to the Deanery). While the “Graduates for Change”, the other radical list opposed to the management of Medicine, was in fourth place.
Already with the victory in his pocket, Dr. Andrés Echazarreta, representative for the Medical Sciences graduates before the Superior Council, celebrated: “Convergence was the only list that announced that it will not vote for the re-election of Dr. Basualdo and that He also proposed returning to common sense: opening the Faculty to students and professors and, above all, representing those graduates attacked during the pandemic by the IOMA and the Ministry. All of that was what people chose yesterday.”
The radicals also celebrated in Law and Architecture. In the faculty of 48 between 6 and 7, the ruling party represented by the “Pluralist Reformist Unit” stayed with the three councilors who fought against the “United Graduates”, a front endorsed by the provincial Ministry of Justice and referenced with La Cámpora. With the triumph in Graduates, the management of Law, which will go with a single list of professors and non-teachers, continuity was practically assured.
The scenario is similar in Architecture, where the government’s list, “University Reform”, was left with the representation of the graduates and the JTP, thus clearing the way for Gustavo Páez (today vice-dean and who sounds like a candidate for the Deanship) can take charge of that academic unit.
A separate chapter deserves the vote of the graduates in Psychology, the faculty that Xavier Oñativia chairs today and that in recent times has been the scene of profound internal discussions. In the building that is located in exBIM 3, the councilors were divided between the JTP that won POIESIS (referenced to the Dean) and the two graduates that obtained the “Movement for Unity”, in which two historically opposed groups coincided ( “Psiconstruye” and “Los Crickets”).
There were no surprises in Journalism, Computer Science, Veterinary Medicine, Dentistry, Social Work, Arts and Economics, where there was a single ballot and the three councilors remained for the respective ruling parties. While Agrarian, Exact, the Observatory and Natural, all with more than one payroll, were left with an open end for today, when the scrutiny of Humanities and Engineering (both with unit list) will also be known.