Santiago Guillermo Ventura, president of Faprouasd, the association of professors of the state university, blames the present rector of the UASD, Ivan Grullon, for using the budget of the state university to hire persons that render no service to the university.
He said the UASD budget for payroll was RD$534 million in February 2014 and had ballooned to RD$600 million in 2016, despite that fact there were more faculty on the payroll in 2014 (3,257) than are currently employed (3,108). He demanded an explanation of how, with less professors on campus, the payroll has increased so much.
Guillermo Ventura said that cutting waste in the payroll budget would result in free up sufficient funds to implement the requested 15% wage increase demanded by the striking professors. He said the payroll savings would also be sufficient to finish the construction of the Colegio Universitario building, the physics, chemistry and biology labs, and more.
He also said the money could be used to hire the around 2,000 teachers that are necessary to reduce class sizes that now average around 70 students.
Guillermo Ventura said that wages of state university professors are based on an hourly payment by category that ranges from RD$385 to RD$617 the hour. He said professors can make from RD$4,500 to RD$125,000 per month, plus benefits.
Meanwhile, a story in Listin Diario, points to the irony between what Guillermo Ventura says and his own teaching practices. The report points out that Guillermo Ventura bills for teaching 10 subjects but only teaches three. When asked about the situation, Guillermo Ventura said this is because he is a union director. He said he makes RD$102,360 a month in wages as a professor plus RD$40,000 as the president of the professor federation and is allowed to only serve 25% of his academic load while in the position. This is in addition to the most generous benefits among university professors in the Dominican Republic that Guillermo Ventura receives as a UASD professor.
The Listin Diario also criticizes that the spokesman for students (FED association), 45-year old Ambiorix Rosario for being ‘a professional student’. Rosario has been enrolled in medical school at the UASD for 27 years. Ten years into the career, he had only passed 15 subjects and had a grade average of under 60 points, according to a story published in Rumbo magazine by Maria Isabel Soldevila in 2011.
The UASD faculty strike has kept students out of classes since the semester began at the end of January. There are around 200,000 students enrolled in the UASD.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
Acento
8 February 2017
