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The occupation, or “toma,” which began when a group of about 30 students entered the building early on Aug. 16, marked the climax of a series of student strikes and demonstrations demanding drastic reform of Chile’s education system. The decision to vacate the facility follows a vote Friday at a special meeting of the Federation of Students of Universidad de Chile (FECH), and comes in the wake of increased calls by various university organizations to end the occupation many considered unproductive.
“I appreciate the return of the main campus on the part of FECH and the students, which welcomes the calls that have been made by the university administration...and the vast majority of our community,” Director Víctor Pérez, an outspoken critic of the occupation, told El Mercurio. “This allows us to recover internal cooperation and to continue united in the fight to assure that the country carries out the changes necessary to strengthen the quality and equity of public education that we believe are fair.”During the first days of the occupation, FECH president Gabriel Boric expressed his hope that it would spark a student movement on the scale of last year’s “Chilean Winter.”
“Today (Universidad de) Chile, tomorrow all the other universities,” Boric said.
A recent ebb in student protest, however, combined with a continued lack of cooperation from the ruling administration of Sebastián Piñera administration, had led members of the university community to demand a change in tactics.
“(The occupation) puts a property at risk that forms an important part of the cultural heritage of the country, constitutes an act that divides our university community and has become an inadequate strategy,” the University Senate of Universidad de Chile said in an open letter, published on Sep. 6, in support of Pérez’s previous criticism of the toma.
In an statement to La Segunda on Wednesday, Pérez sought to establish a campus consensus regarding the matter, stating that the lifting of the occupation “respects the decision of the majority of the university community that occupation is not the most appropriate means to achieve the educational demands that we all share.”
While some may consider the end of the occupation to be a clear setback to the Chilean student movement, the FECH at least has attempted to put a positive spin on it, emphasizing the continued use of the space as a center for student advocacy.
“(The central campus) will enter a new stage of mobilization, because we believe that the forms of mobilization need to serve the political objectives and ours is to deepen the debate about public education,” Boric told Radio Universidad de Chile. “This means we need to have a dialogue between academics, officials and students about what the new state of the central campus is going to be.”
The following day, protests were staged in various neighborhoods around Santiago. A march culminating in a rally at the until-recently occupied central campus building was also tentatively planned for Friday.
Tatiana Cruz, a first year journalism student at Universidad de Chile and one of hundreds to gather for a march in Santiago’s southern Ñuñoa neighborhood, expressed her dismay with the change of tactics for the toma.
“I think it’s a bad thing that they abandoned the toma … because I don’t think this strategy will get us very far,” Cruz told The Santiago Times. “I hope we return to a student occupation because I think this will generate something greater.”
Despite this setback, Cruz remained hopeful about the student movement as a whole.
“The high schools are very strong,” Cruz said. “Support is a little lacking from the universities … but still, the seed has been planted and we’re going to keep fighting.”
By Lee Purvey - The Santiago Times
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