To begin, I would like to reiterate a special thanks to all the workers, officials, students and professors who have put forth their maximum commitment and fight to keep the University open, supportive and critical in the face of the country's problems. The National Pedagogical University continues to work collectively with all instances to be able to strengthen solidarity processes as evidenced by the campaigns that have been carried out to deliver more markets and financial support to our students, including the Great solidarity bingo that allowed that many officials were integrated with their families and we could collect more than 500 markets to favor the most needy students of the university community. We will continue working for these spaces of solidarity that allow us together as an institution, to continue facing difficult times.

In the same way, we will continue working in the defense of public education, for free higher education, which depends on bodies such as the Government of the Republic and the National Congress. We reiterate that, with a great effort from the University, zero enrollment was achieved for students in strata 1 and 2, and the subsidy by 50% for the other students, as well as the payment of enrollment balances to 342 students who were pending from 2020-1; This implies a total investment of $ 3,833,844,106, of which $ 2,122,934,623 are from the University and $ 1,710,909,483 were provided by the National Government.

The University has also arranged humanitarian assistance for the student protesters on 72nd Street. In addition, last Saturday, September 5, a five-hour meeting was held directly with them to listen carefully to them with the mediation of the president of FECODE and the representative of the Chamber María José Pizarro.

In accordance with the progress made in this meeting, it is expected that the students will return home and be safe and sound.

Finally, the request of professors representatives was attended to not give way to a proposal for a statute that had been working on the disciplinary issues of occasional professors and professors. Attention will be focused on working on regulations that make it possible to address the problems of gender violence and sexual harassment allegedly presented by professors and occasional professors involved.

We invite the entire university community to continue advancing in the development of the programs and projects consigned in the Institutional Development Plan 2020-2024, which are aimed at strengthening academic excellence, positioning the university both at the national level as international, to the construction of peace and environmental training.

We continue with the commitment to defend and continue to build the educating university of educators to strengthen education as a right, the construction of peace and to address the problems that underlie and become more acute with the health emergency.

"The word is not the privilege of some people, it is the right of all", Paulo Freire

Leonardo Fabio Martínez Pérez
Rector, National Pedagogical University
Bogotá, D.C., September 8, 2020