They were fulfilled on Friday 17 days of indefinite detention of a hundred pro-Palestinian activists at the Faculty of History of the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC). And who knows if they can reach 500 nights at this rate. University officials don't know what to do. Squatting is a safety problem in a defective building. And it has led to almost fifty exams being transferred to other faculties. Moreover, the attitude of those present is radicalizing: on Friday they boycotted a meeting of the USC governing council. The Dean of the Faculty of Geography and History, Marco Virgilio García Quintela, is concerned: «The two functions attributed to me by the USC statutes, namely guaranteeing the smooth running of education and responsibility for the safety of the building, have collapsed, usurped and eliminated,” he complains to this newspaper.
The appropriation of several classrooms in the center by the campers has been forced transfer a total of 48 exams to other faculties, from many other topics, according to USC sources. This count includes the exams of the past two weeks, but also next week. The classrooms of the Faculty of Philosophy, located next to the Faculty of Geography and History, hosted the celebration of these 30 exams. That of Medicine, a total of 17. In addition, the final test of another subject had to be taken simultaneously in the premises of these two alternative faculties.
What started as a legitimate protest, where the Dean of the Faculty of Geography and History tried to combine their right to demonstrate with the normal functioning of academic life, has deteriorated over time. It was agreed that a daily meeting would take place between someone in charge of the center and the spokespersons for the concentrates. “But eight days ago we stopped having contact with the campers. “They no longer showed up at these meetings,” the dean of the faculty explained to ABC on Friday.
There are more than a hundred campers. But only a few are students of that faculty – where the degrees of History, Geography and Art are taught – and many of them are not even students. They colonized the hallways on the first and second floors of the building. with tents, sleeping bags, mats and personal belongings. This disruption also forced those responsible for the center to redouble efforts and shifts of cleaning services. And also the security guards.
But the boycott of the concentrated people – who are not locked up, because the majority are outside during the day and only go to sleep there – is not limited to the four walls of the History faculty. On Friday, they took another step: they boycotted a regular session of the USC governing councilthat the rector had to suspend “due to the impossibility of carrying it out with democratic and security guarantees”, sources from this university stated.
It would take place at the Center for Advanced Studies. But a group of 35 people, who identified themselves as members of the 'internationalist meeting of the students and the working class', prevented the members of this organization from entering the building. The USC government team emphasizes that it does not question the right to free and peaceful demonstration, but “given the experienced situation” The rector will convene “various bodies” to explain the situation and strive for “maximum consensus on the decisions to be made,” USC explained in a statement. She will also convene student representatives.