Madrid, Feb 29 (EFE) Esther del Campo, and will be in charge of the largest face-to-face university in Spain for the next six years, after controversial elections.
In the first round, held on March 21, this professor of Veterinary Medicine, with 25.3% of the votes, and the Dean of Policies, with 18.15%, were the most voted among the eight candidates for the Rectorate , a record number of candidates that also included four women for the first time.
The controversy arose after Esther del Campo announced last Friday an agreement to integrate three of the candidates from the first round into her candidacy, as vice-chancellors, specifically the following most voted who occupied the third, fourth and fifth position .
They are María Castro Morera, professor at the Faculty of Education, with 16.28%, followed by Iñaqui López, from the Faculty of Economic Sciences, with 11.8%; and Jesús Pérez Gil, from the Faculty of Biological Sciences, with 10.54%.
The case of López has been especially striking, since not only was he vice-rector with Goyache until last January, but he is also considered a profile tending to the right, while many place Del Campo in the orbit of Podemos, being dean of the faculty where the purple party was born.
After the so-called “Agreement for change”, which Esther del Campo and the three professors staged in an act at the Faculty of Chemistry last Friday, the current rector reacted with a video addressed to the university community, warning of possible “interests personal and political” of this alliance, which in his opinion would be “politicized” since, according to Goyache, the candidate has “a publicly expressed ideology and supports or is supported by a political party.”
Likewise, the former rector José Carrillo, after reproaching on Twitter the appointment of the regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso as an “illustrious student” of the UCM, also made ugly that “the recent and hasty” platform of the four candidates intends to “discredit the management of these four years”.
Del Campo, for his part, assured in an interview with EFE that he had “no connection” with Podemos. “I am linked because a part of the leadership of Podemos comes from the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology. There is a comrade who is in Podemos, like Juan Carlos Monedero; another who has been, Carolina Bescansa; or the leader himself Pablo Iglesias and Íñigo Errejón who were my students. That is my link ”, explained the dean.
Thus, the electoral debate held on Monday, at the Faculty of Information Sciences, included harsh criticism, although in a cordial tone, with a somewhat nervous and defensive Goyache, while the dean was more incisive and took advantage of every opportunity to ask “the change” in the university.
During election day, the National Police has identified seven people, including the president of Nuevas Generaciones de Madrid, Ignacio Dancausa, and other members of the PP in the capital, for distributing envelopes and propaganda posters in favor of the current rector, contravening the electoral law that prohibits campaign acts once it has ended.
On his Twitter account, Dancausa called the students to vote this morning. “We all know the problems that the university has, we need more companies and less politics. You have until 8:00 p.m., vote well, ”he assured minutes before being identified in front of the Faculty of Pharmacy.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere on the Somosoguas campus, where the Faculty of Politics is located, has been normal, according to sources from Del Campo’s candidacy, which has followed the vote count from the Faculty of Mathematics on the Moncloa campus.
WEIGHTED VOTE
The polls have been open from 9 in the morning to 20 hours, and according to the statutes of the UCM, the votes are weighted in different percentages by sectors: PhD professors with permanent links, 53 percent; the rest of the teaching and research staff, 10 percent; students, 25 percent; Administration and Services personnel, 12 percent.
The total census is 76,359 voters, of whom 64,648 are students, 7,934 teachers (3,156 permanent professors with PhDs; 2,145 other full-time teaching and research staff; 2,633 other part-time teaching and research staff) and 3,777 staff members administration and services.
In addition to being the largest face-to-face university in Spain, the UCM has the widest educational offer. In this academic year 2022-23 offer: 74 Degrees; 24 Double Degrees; 10 international degrees; 168 official master’s degrees; 56 doctorates and 199 permanent training titles.