Opening of the 2017 Academic Year

 
His Excellency Vice Grand Chancellor of the University, Father Emilio Arizmendi;

Distinguished academic authorities, dear faculty.

Dr. Juan Manuel Mora García de Lomas, Vice-Chancellor for Communication at the University of Navarra.

Ladies and gentlemen:

 

Current situation and diagnosis

We are about to inaugurate the forty-eighth academic year of our University, in a 2017 that is particularly difficult. Various regions of the country are going through a critical situation due to the climatic phenomena, which are well known to all.

 

The painful experience we have gone through, the ravages of which are still being experienced by thousands of Peruvians, has shown us how difficult it is to react effectively to situations of this nature, in which the lack of foresight in dealing with problems works against us and demands an examination of conscience, a review and even a mea culpa.

 

The immediate response

However, in the midst of the tragedy that has struck us, we have seen a great mobilization of different instances of Peruvian society, responding to a damaged population that asked us for urgent and effective support. Our university community quickly organized itself through the “We Are All Piura” Campaign, in which many of our professors, students, administrative and support staff, both from Lima and Piura, have worked tirelessly for several weeks.

 

There are many unknown stories of men and women who wish to remain anonymous. To each of those who have known how to support and continue to support, thank you very much. Thank you because the University of Piura is fundamentally represented by those silent actors, who are part of it and who, with their human nature, with their generosity, have known how to represent us. These are extraordinary circumstances that put our spirit of solidarity to the test.

 

The institutional response from the Udep mission

But in this situation, an immediate response to help with urgent matters is not enough; it is also important to reflect on the role that the university must play in these circumstances. Therefore, we can say that 2017 poses a special double challenge for us: (1) to work with dedication and effort to rebuild our environment full of optimism and hope; and (2) to put our scientific research at the service of society, in a way that is exclusively interested in the reconstruction of our country, as a serious response to the problems of the region.

 

Both challenges invite us to look first-hand at the main mission of our University: the search for truth and the comprehensive training of students and teachers based on a Christian vision of manThe University has taken on this mission since its inception and is pursuing it with greater determination and without hesitation even now, in difficult times.

 

This priority mission is linked to our immediate surroundings, training professionals who understand that their work well done has an impact on others; and seeking that our research, aligned with institutional objectives, identifies and proposes solutions for the development of Peruvians.

 

Today, magnanimity is required to carry out an academic year in the midst of an adverse context, especially in Piura, both due to the weather and the delicate situation of several members of our university community. In the face of these challenges, strength, solidarity and unity are required today. We know that you will provide the first example of solidarity to meet the objectives set this year.

 

Unity in diversity: a government requirement

To successfully achieve this goal, it is necessary to integrate diversity. As seen in recent support and volunteer work, it is necessary to orchestrate all talent to ensure an efficient service. It is therefore essential that the contribution of each of us is aligned with the objectives of the university.

 

At the University of Piura, integrating diversity into unity means, for example, being creative and innovative in our tasks in order to provide the best university education, adapting to new realities and even adverse circumstances such as those recently experienced; joining forces in projects and research in order to contribute in the best way to the development of our immediate environment and society in general, generating a cultured coexistence that goes beyond our personal differences, with open minds and hearts, to enrich points of view and generate new ideas. Achieving these objectives requires establishing criteria and a minimum of measurement and work organization systems, which do not focus on a simple cost/economic benefit assessment of actions, but mainly on the value of the contribution they generate to personal, professional and institutional growth and which will be reflected in the faithful fulfillment of the mission.

 

 

Dialogue open to the world and the immediate environment

Our country needs, more than ever, the most professionally and humanly prepared people. For this reason, universities must be hubs of dialogue, open to the problems of the immediate environment and also of the general public. Each person, from their field of research, from their teaching, from their daily work, must dialogue with the environment and not be oblivious to the problems of others. This is a university and Christian attitude.

 

The first step towards good dialogue is listening, so we must be aware of our surroundings and assume that our science is at the service of others. This dialogue must take place in the two basic tasks of university professors: in research and in teaching.

 

The contribution of the university professor: his research

University work that seeks to impact the environment must materialize in comprehensive proposals that take into account the latest findings in various scientific fields. In this sense, the University of Piura has proposed to form a Group Interdisciplinary of the El Niño PhenomenonThe objective of this team will be to collaborate with viable proposals for the reconstruction of Piura, and its improvement in the long term. We face this climatic phenomenon as an opportunity and not necessarily as a threat. This group will be made up of top-level researchers from different faculties, and will have the mission of helping to detect the cause of the problems and propose solutions that contemplate sustainable citizen well-being. With this we hope to do our bit, our academic contribution to the common good, with no other interest than service.

 

Although Peru has seen an economic recovery in recent decades, many provinces in Peru, including Lima, have not been prepared for natural phenomena. Extreme poverty, informality, and public health problems, among other issues, have once again appeared on the national agenda. These critical contexts are what push us to rethink our course, remembering that our research is at the service of concrete human beings who desire a better quality of life.

 

Although there are many angles and approaches to materialize how university research can contribute to improving society, there is a constant that gives meaning to this work: the person and his dignity. This reflection, under no circumstances, should be a slogan or a rhetorical resource lacking substance. The drama that thousands of Peruvians have experienced should challenge us in the first person. It is an intellectual and moral call to commit to research that is a source of the best solutions. And a call, also, to commit ourselves to a professional training of excellence; human, yes, and for that very reason very demanding.

 

The reconstruction phase is an obvious requirement in cities like Piura, but Lima is not immune, nor can it be. The central government must articulate the diversity of the country, acting not only with technical criteria, but also taking into account the social dimension of its decisions. Thus, the unity of the nation will be possible if we understand that decentralization is not only an administrative division of power. That the country is viewed as a whole is something that all Peruvians expect from the decentralization process. To do so, we need the best professionals, with the ambition to constantly update their knowledge, and with high human sensitivity, capable of analyzing the social cost of their decisions.

 

The contribution of the university professor and his teaching

The improvement of our society goes beyond the development of concrete proposals. Along with a high technical capacity, teachers must have an impact in the different areas of culture. With our colleagues, students, managers, and coworkers we must seek that cultured coexistence, full of values, and inspired by the Christian faith. Our conduct will always be a reference for the people we train; hence our responsibility is very high, especially when the country demands professionalism and humanity from us.

 

We have in our hands the most precious asset for the future of Peru: the youth. That is why it is important to emphasize that true university life is not alien to the virtues that must cement the social fabric: transparency, hard work, trust, friendship, sincerity, justice, demand, perseverance, intellectual growth, personal development, loyalty, solidarity. That our teaching is imbued with these values, not as something imposed, but as the natural outgrowth of our mission, is the necessary condition to train top-level professionals who distinguish themselves not only for their work well done, but because they do it honestly and with a spirit of service.

 

This spirit of service reminds us that the task of a university professor is full of generosity. True professionals are not the result of what is taught but of what is learned. This, which might seem more like a play on words, contains a great truth, to the extent that we understand that training a person is not “learning something” but learning “from someone.” When one learns “from someone,” there is no longer just a teacher who transmits knowledge, but rather one who opens horizons for personal growth where both the apprentice and the teacher win. When there is concern not only for the mind, but for the person in their entirety, education is seen in a different way: no longer as a transmission of science, but as a deeply human activity so that “the other” improves in all their fullness. This way of understanding our work is not new; it has been part of the university tradition since its birth.

 

Christian-inspired university community

The training task is directly related to the mission of service, and the constant improvement of three dimensions in our work: knowing how to do, valuing what we do, and loving what we do. Without the search for excellence, the spirit of service becomes a phrase without content, an empty promise. At the University of Piura, the spirit of service must be one of the driving forces that leads us to become a world-class university.

 

The pursuit of excellence must be accompanied by charity in each of our actions. This virtue will illuminate not only the desire to form the minds of our students, but also the way we see people. For our time, for our country, it is imperative to look at the person holistically. Our society demands that we understand that behind every public, consumer, client, or voter, there are people who suffer when someone does not do their job well.

 

 

A look to the future with hope and optimism

The challenges that “the coastal boy” has brought to the table are not new for the University. But they have offered us a unique opportunity: to capture in the emergency we have experienced what Peru’s vocation should be… to unite Lima and the province, to look from Lima to the rest of the country, to open up to the reality outside Lima that differentiates us but also unites us. “Mediocrity,” said Chesterton, “consists of being in front of greatness and not realizing it.” This apparent misfortune experienced in the past weeks should leave us with a great lesson: that Peru is a whole and that each of its regions is as unique as its people. Let us realize this greatness so as not to fall into mediocrity.

 

Our founder, Saint Josemaría, insisted from the very beginning that a University cannot live with its back turned to any uncertainty of man and society. Today these words resonate more than ever and should be an incentive for each one of us, an incentive that fills us with hope and optimism.

The examples of joy and unity given by Monsignor Javier Echevarría, who was Grand Chancellor of our University until his departure to heaven in December, are part of our inspiration and reference. On the two occasions he visited the University, he left us a message of optimism and hope urging us not to be satisfied with what we already do but to go for more. On his visit in 2010, for example, he said, in relation to the importance of our work as educators: “Pretend that you manage the intelligence of people so that they serve humanity and, above all, serve the Church. Put a lot of effort into ensuring that women and men come out of here who are very responsible, and who have the desire to serve, first of all, Peruvian society. If they are from other countries, let them go to their land with everything they have learned here, so that this place may be an authentic seedbed of formation and of trainers; and an authentic seedbed, also, of Christian and coherent life.”

In January, after being appointed Grand Chancellor, the first words of Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz were a call to live with joy and hope. In a recent interview, he said that although “these are times of insecurity and, at the same time, of desire for change; of distancing from God and of “longing” for God; of sadness and tiredness, they are also times of nostalgia for good; of fear of conflict, together with a great desire for peace. These are the times we are living in, and they are times to open ourselves to the action of God.”

He also highly valued diversity and unity, saying: “Unity and diversity are not opposed; the opposite of unity is division (…) Unity in diversity is precisely communion, which represents a notable enrichment for the Church.”

We trust that diversity, which also enriches university life and that of all organizations, will be channeled into unity. Only by uniting our mission and ideology will we be able to find comprehensive solutions to the main problems that afflict our country. Thus, together with the search for professional excellence and human development, we will be able to contribute to the desired sustainable development.

I declare the 2017 Academic Year inaugurated.

Thank you so much!