Support and solidarity with La Biblio se queda, a university movement at UASLP

From the CLACSO Working Group on Critical Legal Thought and Sociopolitical Conflicts We express our support and solidarity with The Library Stays, movement constituted by the academic community of the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí (UASLP) beneficiary of the services of the Library of the Center for Information in Research and Postgraduate Studies (CIIP).

The CIIP Library, with more than twenty years of operation, houses a collection from the Postgraduate Studies divisions of the Faculty of Law, the Center for Research and Postgraduate Studies of the Faculty of Accounting and Administration, and the Institute of Metallurgy; it is located in a multidisciplinary building constructed with public resources, with the purpose of supporting the academic activities of the postgraduate programs.

The announcements made by the UASLP administrative authorities regarding the relocation of the CIIP Library are in response to their interest in using the space for the expansion of the Potosino Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEIP). The CEIP was created in 2022 without consulting the university community through an agreement between the UASLP, the San Luis Potosí State Secretariat of Economic Development, and the civil society organization StarlupLap.mx.

As denounced by the "The Library Stays" movement, the activities of the CEIP are reduced to acquiring the physical spaces of the multidisciplinary building that supports postgraduate studies; given that there is no real program of linkage between these private companies, academia and the needs of society, thus blurring the objectives and the public character of the university.

This academic body, comprised of researchers from various Latin American universities, recognizes that the implementation of administrative mechanisms aimed at promoting business activities in universities reflects the adoption of a neoliberal model of educational management. The reduction of state financial participation leads to a redirection of university activities, now based on policies aligned with market demands rather than guaranteeing social rights and interests.

Therefore, we urge:

1. We call upon the administrative authorities of the UASLP to halt and reverse the measures of gradual privatization of the physical and academic spaces of the University, and to enable the construction of mechanisms for dialogue with the affected university community.
2. We call upon the National Council of Humanities, Science and Technology (CONAHCYT) to intervene in favor of the conservation of the CIIP Library, since it has been reported as part of the academic infrastructure that the UASLP is committed to having at the service of the postgraduate programs registered in the National System of Postgraduate Studies (SNP).
3. We call upon the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico to intervene in the search for solutions that favor the interests and rights of the university community, taking into account that the CIIP Library is recognized within the Cultural Information System (SIC Mexico).
4. We call upon the State Human Rights Commission of San Luis Potosí to carry out the necessary investigations in order to determine the possible violation of human rights of the university community using the CIIP Library, and consequently take the corresponding measures to prevent it.

June 8th, 2023
CLACSO Working Group
Critical legal thinking and sociopolitical conflicts

This statement expresses the position of the Working Group Critical legal thinking and sociopolitical conflicts and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.