Both the staff and students of the campus of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) in Barcelona, capital of the Anzoátegui State, have been fighting against government abandonment of the institution for more than a decade.
lapatilla.com correspondent
José Castellanos, faculty coordinator of this campus where they currently only teach the bachelor’s degree in Education, said that the big headache there is the roof leaks in the rainy season, which has had serious consequences on the infrastructure.
He added that on repeated occasions they asked different administrations of the Mayor of Barcelona and the Governors State office of Anzoátegui for help to solve the problem, but to date they have not received a response.
“Almost all the walls show the effects of humidity and there are some rooms where we had to remove part of the ceiling because the leaks destroyed it,” explained the coordinator, himself a graduate of this university.
Castellanos added that due to the aforementioned problem they only have three operational classrooms out of six that exist in the institution.
Staff and students fight against the government’s abandonment of the Venezuela’s Central University (UCV, Universidad Central de Venezuela) campus in Barcelona
However, he emphasized that these three classrooms are in acceptable conditions, because they, with the help of students, friends and private agreements, have been adapting them to be able to use them.
“We don’t yet have decent bathrooms for ladies. We had to convert the computer room into a classroom, because the last provision of equipment was 20 years ago and we even had to reduce the library to have one more room,” he assured.
The spokesperson highlighted that the little they have been able to do is “on their own” trying as best they can, because as coordinator what he earns (monthly) is approximately 13 U.S. dollars.
“We would like to do more, but we can’t if there is no support. Even the university authorities want to include the careers of Social Communication, Psychology or Nursing, but this is not possible,” he stated.
Perseverance
Staff and students fight against the government’s abandonment of the Venezuela’s Central University (UCV, Universidad Central de Venezuela) campus in Barcelona
Students like Scarlet Hernández assure that perseverance is the only thing that keeps them motivated to continue attending the deteriorated center.
The girl, who is already in the tenth semester, said that although she is asthmatic and the humidity harms her, she is still not afraid to be the first to grab a broom when it is necessary to push out the rainwater.
It is worth noting that those who study at the institution do so under the modality of supervised university studies. This means that they assist on Fridays to receive some guidelines and on Saturday they must attend to receive the class.
Castellanos explained that they currently have 104 regular students and 38 in introductory training in the preparatory course, waiting to see how many pass to become permanent students.