UPR idled for full week due to general strike

Interim UPR President Miguel A. Muñoz declared an academic and administrative recess at all 11 campuses system-wide, with the exception of the Medical Sciences Campus, where steps were being taken to ensure services to patients.

“The safety of all the students and the university community in general is and should be our biggest priority. We can’t permit elements from outside the university system to undermine the democratic principles of free expression and association that the UPR has always promoted,” Muñoz said.

Students have shut down several UPR campuses with strikes since the Fortuño administration announced late last month that more than 16,000 public workers would be laid off as the government works to close a $3.2 billion budget deficit. The administration is aiming at cutting spending by $2 billion a year, a move it says is needed to protect Puerto Rico’s credit from a downgrade to “junk” status. The flagship Río Piedras campus has been idled at least three times in about a month for various protests on the layoffs and other labor issues.

“The proponents of these demonstrations have expressed their intention to continue this week in their quest to violate the health academic environment that should rein at the UPR,” Muñoz said.

Muñoz recognized the right of members of the university community to express themselves, but said the right to freedom of expression of some groups should not impinge on the rights of others to continue studying and working.

“We hope that this academic and administrative recess contributes to calming things down to allow the university community to think calmly and constructively about the problems facing Puerto Rico and the solutions that can the university academic community can help articulate,” Muñoz said.

A group of UPR students blocked traffic along Ponce de León Avenue in Río Piedras to protest the recess, allowing only public buses to get through.

“They have violated our rights of freedom of expression because we have a previously convened student assembly scheduled for tomorrow,” said Amaris Torres, of the Law School Student Action Committee.

Torres said the assembly would be held Tuesday in the middle of Ponce de León Avenue and did not discard blocking traffic for the rest of the week.

Meanwhile, UPR Mayagüez professor Arturo Massol said he would hold classes despite the recess.

"I think it is the responsibility of all professors to hold classes. I cited my students through e-mail to come to class,” said Massol, a member of the Biology Department faculty at UPR Mayagüez.

Massol said he would try to access the campus through the main gate to the Biology Department at 8 a.m. Thursday. If it is closed, he said he would hold classes right outside the gate.