Fifty Years of the University of Piura

 
Hon. Vice Grand Chancellor, Mr. Rector, worthy authorities, illustrious academic Faculty; Ladies and Gentlemen.

On Wednesday (24), we remembered at the opening ceremony of Lima, that on April 24, 1966, the first trip was made to Piura to make contact with the bishop of the city and get an idea of what the project entailed. to found a University in the Piuran desert.

On that occasion were the then Engineer Eugenio Giménez, vice president of the Association for the Development of University Education (ADEU); Father Vicente Pazos, Counselor of Opus Dei in Peru; the then Dr. José Navarro Pascual, who was rector of the University in the 80s, and Father Antonio Ducay.

Mons. Hinojosa invited them to lunch at a restaurant on the outskirts of the city, overlooking the Piuran desert, part of whose land would later be donated to constitute the current University Campus.

Long before people began to think about the University of Piura project, the desire for a new university was already nestled in the heart of San Josemaría Escrivá. The University of Navarra, founded in 1952, was just the beginning of this type of educational initiatives. Where would a new project of this nature start? We already know the story. Towards the end of the Second Vatican Council, Mons. Erasmo Hinojosa – bishop of Piura and conciliar father – wrote a letter to Saint Josemaría Escrivá expressing his desire for Opus Dei to develop university work in the city of Piura.

Saint Josemaría's response, dated November 9, 1965, was prompt and full of hope, expressing "his conviction that in this city and with the university center a great service would be performed for the Church, for Peru and for so many souls." . And, as appropriate, he conveyed the request to the directors of Opus Dei in Peru.

Father Vicente Pazos with his proverbial concision wrote: “The Father transferred the decision to the directors of the Region. We were very few, we did not have resources even for the little that was done. But we couldn't say no, not having said so."

The Association for the Development of University Education (ADEU) takes on the challenge, becoming the promoting entity of the University of Piura as stated in its minutes of the general assembly of January 9, 1967. From the beginning, ADEU associates They understood that the project had to be encouraged by private initiative, of a civil nature and in accordance with the legal regulations of a university nature in force in the country. ADEU, under the presidency of Dr. José Agustín de la Puente, entrusts the vice president, engineer Eugenio Giménez, with the direction and execution of the project.

I want to take this opportunity to reiterate our gratitude to Dr. De la Puente for his company during all these years. His discreet presence, the warmth of his treatment, his greatness of heart, his finesse of spirit are a legacy that gives distinction to our university.

The first presentation of the University project was presented on September 14, 1967. The activities, meetings, conversations followed one after another.

The generous response of so many Piuran families and friends adds to the work of the promotion group.

The negotiations before the Congress of the Republic came to a successful conclusion, authorizing the University of Piura by Law 17040 of June 12, 1968. The first inauguration of the Academic year was on April 7, 1969, whose Inaugural Lecture was given by Dr. José Agustín de la Puente. Classes started a few days later, on April 29.

Since then, several decades of intense work have passed. We have been on our hands for fifty years, few for a university institution that has a heritage of centuries; enough, however, to consolidate our founding ideology.

A few years into our institutional journey, in August 1974, Saint Josemaría Escrivá, in the various meetings he held with various groups in Cañete and Lima, referred to the University on many occasions. In one of those family gatherings, on the morning of July 14, in the garden of what is now the Cultural Center of the University of Piura in Campus Lima, La Casona, he said: “We have to think that, with God's blessing, will increase the work of the University of Piura. We will put all the powers. A good Medical School would also be good.”

It was very clear to all of us that we had to put a Faculty of Medicine into operation, the National Assembly of Rectors officially registered it on September 10, 2014. Forty years had passed since Saint Josemaría's suggestion. We did not imagine that the Faculty headquarters would be a few meters from the La Casona garden. In this way, and with the particular encouragement of Saint Josemaría, the professional career of Human Medicine at our university takes its first and firm steps.

***

“Everything is done and everything remains to be done,” Saint Josemaría told us.

Everything is done: although we are young, we are a university with a consolidated ideology, with two campuses, three locations, the university is licensed, the undergraduate programs are accredited or about to be accredited, in short, we already have the desired Faculty of Medicine.

And everything remains to be done: how will we face the following years?

The words of Bishop Javier Echevarría, also Grand Chancellor of the University of Piura, come to mind, who reminded us that the university “must constantly reorient itself towards the search for truth, a path that is accompanied by the love of good and for “enjoyment of beauty.” This statement points out the fundamental points that must govern our work, a route that leads to academic excellence: demanding research work, good teaching and generous support to our students in advising.

***

We want to help reveal the truth that lies in reality. A teacher is a tireless seeker of truth. Being a university professor is a vocation and an occasion for continuous amazement. Benedict XVI says it beautifully[1]: “In all truth there is always something more than what could be expected, in the love we receive there is always something that surprises us. We should never stop being surprised by these wonders.

What moves us is the love of truth and in this we will continue to strive, seeking the best academic training of our teachers, encouraging interdisciplinary research, seeking internationalization, being brave in innovation and, like the millennium in which we move, According to Charles Handy, it is marked by continuous learning and change as a lifestyle, the University is called to be a center of continuous innovation. Therefore, we must have a true desire to make progress as we walk, reinventing our knowledge and promoting innovative research that enriches the sciences we cultivate.

Therefore, the desire for success is not the ultimate reason for the University, it is the desire for service that moves us. We improve professional skills, we provide the infrastructure and technology that the environment requires, mainly, to serve better.

***

Search for truth and also orientation towards good. From its beginnings, the University of Piura was established as a community of practices, where teachers, students, administrative and support staff, all shared good practices for the cultivation of intelligence and character. We do not want the heroic work of the pioneers to be a mere memory of times past. In fact, on more than one occasion we have heard or remembered with nostalgia the atmosphere that existed at the University in the times of Ramón Mugica, Luz González, Rafael Estartús, Thèrese Truel, José Ramón de Dolarea... Times of academic demand and friendly closeness. It is a trait that belongs to the organizational culture of the university, it is the roots that give rise to our corporate identity.

We are also aware that in our educational proposal – in the words of Saint Josemaría – “There is no university properly in schools where, to the transmission of knowledge, the comprehensive formation of young personalities is not added.[2].” This conviction is included in the Ideology of the University of Piura when we refer to the comprehensive training of our students. Comprehensive training is helping to grow cognitively, volitionally and emotionally. We teach and train at the same time, hence personal advice to our students is not a circumstantial aspect of the teaching task, it is the very substance of our work. Years of experience confirm that old professors' assertion: “you only learn from those you love.”

We know that it is a titanic effort not only to reach all students, but to reach each one of them. The goal surpasses us, but it does not discourage us and we will continue in this effort to help them grow.

We also have the responsibility of seeking the conditions that favor the achievement of a good life in society.

In Piura, there have been many projects carried out by the University to raise the human and social level of the rural population. We will continue in this effort to also create more opportunities so that all those good and qualified students can pursue their studies in our classrooms, overcoming the difficulties of economic barriers.

The University's Ideology also points out another feature that has characterized us from the beginning: the humanist and Christian – Catholic – inspiration of the educational project. Jerusalem, Athens and Rome are the columns of Western civilization, whose virtuality bubbles in the Peru of all bloods, in renewed living synthesis, according to the teacher Víctor Andrés Belaunde.

The search for the integration of all knowledge is a continuous endeavor that is renewed from generation to generation. Humanistic training is accompanied by Christian identity open to transcendence, whose features have been carefully developed by Professor Alfonso Sánchez Tabernero in his inaugural Lecture. The Humanities give consistency to the teaching and research that we develop at the university. The Christian identity raises the gaze and broadens the heart. If Saint Augustine said: “Pondus meum, amor meus”, my weight is my love, we can say that the cultivation of the Humanities and Christian identity give specific weight to our university proposal. The love of Peru, its history, its ancestral customs, its artistic expressions, are an incentive to reach the Bicentennial with a renewed willingness to serve the greatness of our Homeland.

***

Professor Luz González has referred on several occasions to the education of good taste. The simplicity of beauty, the affection for nature, the attentive care of the facilities, the neatness of the environments, are not mere coincidence. The Architecture major, whose first class graduated last December, has a particular responsibility in its hands in this area, to make life in the city friendly and beautiful.

The new Building E is an example of this dialogue between culture and nature, worthy of several national and international awards for its proposal.

And here, I want to thank each and every one of those who throughout these fifty years have contributed to the maintenance and decoration of our Lima Campus and Piura Campus: each one with its own style, both with the same spirit of care for the small things and good taste. Thanks to the hidden, silent, sacrificial work of the staff who before and now clean, maintain and monitor our facilities, we can have a welcoming campus that shows in its well-maintained facilities what we teach in the classrooms.

***

Upon celebrating forty years of institutional life, we made special mention of the first promoting group and the professors who began this university adventure. On this occasion I would like to honor the memory of the pioneers who left us over the course of these last ten years.

Father Javier Cheesman died on August 25, 2010. Elegant, discreet, with limited knowledge of the Spanish language. Even today it is an obligatory reference in the knowledge of Abraham Valdelomar.

Engineer Ricardo Rey Polis, our first rector, died on December 26, 2010. Sincere, determined, transparent man; It was played completely, without fuss or drama. Behind him remains a trail of fertile life. He sowed with full hands and his effort has not been in vain.

Rafael Estartús died on March 24, 2013. A man of Spartan sobriety. He had the magnimity of a generous soul: he did not keep things to himself. With the same enthusiasm with which he prepared and taught his Geometry classes, he also became interested in investigating the relationships between faith and science. A thorough teacher, a pioneer whose life testimony is a pillar of our institutional identity.

Father Vicente Pazos left us on May 25, 2015. He has been the unmoved engine that gave life and sustained the first babblings of the University.

Professor Thèrese Truel passed away on March 26, 2017. A great teacher and magnificent advisor to her students. His joviality and good humor brighten the history of the University.

The ING. Miguel Samper died on July 20, 2017. He was the soul of the Faculty of Engineering, exceptional in his intellectual gifts and organizational capacity, a thorough teacher.

José Ramón de Dolarea died recently on November 10 of last year. We called him Joserra. His pen adorned the white sands and green carob trees of the university campus with lyrical costumes.

***

Dear graduates who today receive their professional title or their master's degree, dear families and friends who join us tonight at the Inauguration ceremony of the Academic Year, marked by the celebration of fifty years of the University, I wish to express our deepest gratitude. , our congratulations and we want to share with you the joy of this event.

Many thanks, again, to all the Piurans and Peruvians who donated land and money for the first building, and to the nations that understood this commitment to education, one of whose ambassadors is now present at this event. Generosity that was reciprocated, from the first moment, by the commitment that was born in the small promoter group and the first teachers willing to contribute to the development of this region that welcomed them.

Generosity, prayer and encouragement, likewise, from a saint, Saint Josemaría Escrivá, Founder and first great Chancellor of the University of Piura.

I finish with the help of some verses written by José Ramón de Dolarea, fifty years ago:

Friendship tonight
has come to look for us

(…)

In the auspicious night
There is an air of hugs.

(…)

Never men, never
as friends and brothers
they have been so happy
They have understood so much.

I declare inaugurated the 2019 academic year, the year of our fiftieth anniversary of the start of classes

Good evening and thank you very much.

 

---

[1] Caritas in veritate, n. 77.

[2] ESCRIVÁ, Josemaría. PhD Speech Honoris Causa, 24- XI- 64