Unicamp approves ethnic-racial quotas in postgraduate courses

Unicamp's University Council (Consu) took another step this Tuesday (1st) towards consolidating the inclusion policy at the University. Unanimously, the 60 board members present approved the proposal to implement the ethnic-racial quota system for admission to graduate courses.

According to the decision of the collegiate, considered the highest instance of deliberation at the University, “all graduate programs are oriented to establish affirmative action policies in modalities of ethnic-racial quotas (black, brown, indigenous) in their processes entrance exams”, says the approved text.

The percentage allocated to affirmative action policies in this type of access modality must add up to at least 25% of the total available vacancies.

According to the proposal approved by Consu, the percentage of compliance with the specificities of each program can be increased until the goal of having among the entrants the same percentage of self-declared black and brown people domiciled in the State of São Paulo, as per indicated by the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Today this percentage is 37,2%.

The measure means the institutionalization of an initiative that first appeared at the University in 2015, when a policy of ethnic-racial quotas was approved for postgraduate courses at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH). Subsequently, other units adopted the measure. “The approval of this measure to expand affirmative action through ethnic-racial quotas in postgraduate programs is a fundamental step in Unicamp's inclusion policy”, said the dean of Postgraduate Studies, Rachel Meneguello.

“Responding to society's demands, the University has been adopting several measures that seek to improve the working conditions that qualify its public and democratic nature”, he adds. “This measure shows that Unicamp's postgraduate system, recognized nationally and internationally for its quality and importance in scientific production and human resource training, considers inclusion as a condition for academic excellence and goes directly to meet the needs of the State of São Paulo and the country for its economic and technological development and for the reduction of historical inequalities”, she says.

postdoc researchers

During the voting process on the proposal for the adoption of ethnic-racial quotas in postgraduate courses, this Tuesday (1st), the rector of Unicamp, professor Antonio José de Almeida Meirelles, announced the publication in the Official Gazette of the State of a notice prepared by Unicamp, which provides for the reservation of ethnic-racial vacancies for post-doc researchers.

The dean recalled that these decisions are the result of a process that has been consolidating at the University. “[the adoption of postgraduate quotas] comes to crown the end of a first stage of what we can call inclusion”, said the dean. “We have several challenges ahead of us, but my feeling is that we have gone through a route that incorporates practically all the main sectors of the University”, he evaluates.

“The story is long. It started way back with Profis [Higher Interdisciplinary Training Program]. Then it continued with the scores in the selection processes for the graduation of wide competition. Then, there was an important moment, during Professor Tadeu's administration [former dean José Tadeu Jorge], when the hearings were held. Then there was another important moment, at the beginning of Professor Marcelo [Knobel's] tenure, when we defined the parameters of the graduation process. Then came the employee selection processes,” he recalled.

“In our management, we had the approval of the norm for teacher selection, which has not yet been applied because we have vacancy restrictions. But I remember that today [1st] was published in the Official Gazette, finally, the post-doc public notice, with our own resources, in which a quota is foreseen for black and brown post-doc researchers. And today we are dealing with postgraduate studies”, said the dean.

“This, therefore, is a very important moment because we complete a cycle that involves practically all the main segments of the University. These movements have a force that comes from the community, but they also need to mobilize, together with the people who command the, who interfere in the management of the University ”, he concluded.

Other groups

In addition to the ethnic-racial quotas for postgraduate studies, the board members also approved an indication that opens up the possibility of adopting quotas in postgraduate programs for other marginalized social groups - those who do not present conditions to compete on an equal basis in the selection processes due to historical and cultural factors involving inequality and marginalization. 

According to Meneguello, the Working Group (GT) that dealt with ethnic-racial quotas also opened up possibilities for starting a process that includes these other groups. “Within the WG we try to equate something that we consider very important, which are the many segments that are also marginalized and that have had their emancipation processes controlled by the conservative Brazilian society itself”, she said.

“But I think that institutional change has two ways: from below and from above. These segments now have to start building demand. By the top it's here [approved]. Article 1 is saying that graduate programs can do this. The demand has to appear now from the base”, he concluded.

Author: tote nunes
Photos: Antoninho Perri
image editing: Alex Calixto

Text originally published on the Unicamp Portal