On 9 September 2022, the Pontifical Catholic University Madre y Maestra celebrated its 60th birthday with a mass with President Luis Abinader in attendance, and a huge concert of typical music featuring the Cibao Symphony Orchestra, attended by 10,000 folks, or so.
The PUCMM is the country’s oldest private university. It has around 11,000 students studying 166 courses in 41 undergraduate programs, 84 masters degree programs and two doctoral programs. This is a long way from the 60 students and 15 professors back in 1962. There are 1,400 professors at the university today.
Among its many contributions to the country, the PUCMM created the Plan Sierra to protect the nation’s forests and the people that live in the areas. The university was behind the Tripartite Dialogues that eased tensions between labor and management and government. It was also the university that settled the impasse after the 1978 elections, which eased Antonio Guzman into the presidency.
In a very recent interview, Father Secilio Espinal, the current rector, noted that the university will concentrate on research in the future, in order to find solutions to many of the current issues, such as climate change and new labor markets.
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PUCMM
Listin Diario
12 September 2022