As potential massive budget cuts loom over the horizon for the University of Puerto Rico, imposed by the Fiscal Oversight Board (FOB) appointed by the United States government to oversee Puerto Rico’s finances, a select few of students from diverse faculties within UPRM are running for positions within the General Student Council (CGE, in Spanish). These students bring new ideas, proposals and rhetoric to advocate for the student body, and very well fight for the future of the university. One of these students is Marcus J. Ramos, a Sociology major in his fifth year, who is currently the UPRM’s Administrative Board Student Representative, and is running for the seat of Arts Councilor for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Student Council. This is what he had to say:
What past positions have you held within the Student Council?
The positions I have held are: Student Representative in the Search and Consultation Committee for the Tenth UPRM Chancellor, Administrative Board Representative, CGE (Consejo General de Estudiantes) Vice President, President of the Law and Regulation Committee, Committee of Appeals and Qualifications Representative, President of the Committee for Student Associations, and Institutional Committee of General Education Representative.
What challenges does the university face under the Fiscal Oversight Board?
The University of Puerto Rico faces a budget cut of 450 million dollars within the next three fiscal years, which represents a little over half the contributions the Government of Puerto Rico issues to the institution. The institution’s biggest challenge is that the university’s administration has agreed to elaborate a fiscal plan based on the FOB and the Government of Puerto Rico’s instructions without considering the academic and structural implications it would bring the institution. Essentially, the UPR is to be reformed and restructured at an expedited pace strictly under fiscal and economic policies that do not meet the university’s best interests and well-being.
What do you propose is done about these challenges?
I have proposed that an alternate fiscal plan is developed where the country’s demographic profile is considered in light of the low birth rates, a population pyramid that is inverting, and emigration.This alternate fiscal plan must also take into consideration the economic decrease that is predicted due to austerity measures and population decline The UPR needs to develop a fiscal plan which allows it to reform and restructure itself according to the country it will operate in, now to five or ten years down the road without foregoing its mission and vision, which has made it the most important emancipatory project in the country. The reforming and restructuring is urgent and must be voiced at the heart of the university community, not from the Central Administration.
The strikes that have gone on this semester have arguably divided the UPR communtity. What are other methods, if any, that you propose to create awareness?
The rallies and protests that have taken place met their goal, which was to let the country know that the UPR opposes budget cuts. If the fiscal plan needs 450 million, then they can seek them elsewhere. Over the past ten years, the UPR has paid the crisis’s consequences, and in the last three years has suffered cuts of over 300 million dollars. We have to flood the media and, like the administration, object from institutional spaces. There is no way of cutting 450 million without abruptly transforming the institution.
To put it into to perspective, this fiscal year budgeted 718 million between the paysheet and patronage. The government’s income projections are exactly that, projections, and are not even close to substituting the proposed cut because cuts are recurrent and income is not. The relatively effective protest method right now is to win the public opinion, we have to be omnipresent within the media and exert pressure on the government and the FOB in all spaces. We must not capitulate.
What is your personality like?
At first glance I come off as serious and reserved, but when it comes to the UPR and politics, I will most likely have an opinion and will make sure to voice it. My honesty has been a virtue and sometimes a setback because I am willing to pay the price for my veracity. Some people respect my what you see is what you get demeanor, others condemn it. That is why I have determined to undertake more diplomatic approaches in certain circumstances. If I had to choose three words to describe my personality they would be: sincere, altruistic and assertive.
What are your goals?
My academic goals are to study Law and a Master in Public Administration, and later pursue on a Ph.D. My goals regarding student government are: one, get elected to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Student Council; two, get elected delegate to the General Student Council; and finally, to one day get elected as President of the General Student Council.
What are some of your achievements in Student Government?
During my time in the Administrative Board and within the Academic Senate, I have been able to promptly influence over the institutional policy, in regulations, policies, and decisions. For example, right now the policy responsible for distributing money by concept of the technology fee has a wide student participation because I participated in its utterance. Another example would be that the Academic Senate reduced the GPA for being eligible for an undergraduate research grant to 2.50, which was the result of my doing.
What is your commitment to the UPRM community?
My commitment has always been to represent the student body with momentum and diligence. It is a commitment with broadening and fostering the student body’s participation in the institutional policy, with defending the emancipatory project that is the UPR in all the forums and in advancing the students’ mandate. We students have to aspire to the university’s co-government on a scheme of governance depoliticized, decentralized, and democratic. My commitment is with that vision of university.