Córdoba, University of

University of Córdoba, Argentina's oldest university, established in 1613 by the Jesuits, and the center of the city's civic and cultural life from colonial times to well into the twentieth century. The university remained under the control of the Jesuits until their expulsion from the Spanish colonies in 1767, at which point it came under the direction of the Franciscans. In 1858, the national government of Justo José Urquiza officially assumed control of its administration. But almost two and a half centuries of church control of education, as well as isolation from the secularizing influences to be found in Buenos Aires, imbued the city with a strong Catholic ethos, and the church retained a preponderant influence in the university, with the clergy continuing to hold the majority of faculty and administrative positions well into the twentieth century.

From early in its history, the city's aristocratic families developed a close relationship to the university and the title of "doctor" was considered the highest social distinction. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the university was a bastion of traditionalism, with a curriculum heavily weighted in favor of a scholastic education in law and theology. Because of its hidebound conservatism and social influence, it became the target of an important reform movement in 1918. In the wake of the Radical Party's 1916 electoral victory, middle-class students organized boycotts and an eventual occupation of the university, demanding a series of reforms, most notably university autonomy, student participation in the election and administration of university councils, modernization of the curriculum, and the competitive selection and periodic review of all professors. To coordinate the reform campaign, students established the Federación Universitaria de Córdoba (FUC), an organization that would dominate student university politics for the next half century.

International influences such as the Mexican and Russian revolutions fired the young minds of the student reformers and radicalized the movement, bringing support from both the Socialist Party and the labor movement and leading to demands for free university education and the establishment of university extension courses for the working class. University issues again found common cause with social unrest in the 1969 uprising known as the Cordobazo. International influences included the Cuban Revolution and the events in Paris of May 1968. The alliance of the university with the trade unions led to an even more explosive social protest, highlighting once again that the university was a central part of public life in Córdoba.

During the dictatorship of 1976 to 1983, the military government slashed funding for the university. It also censored social science classes and scholarship on subjects such as historical materialism and psychoanalysis. To silence critics, the government also "disappeared" many professors and students. In reaction numerous faculty members left the country. When the military government fell in 1983 and an elected government returned, the UC once again followed the democratic principles of 1918 reform. Tension and activism still exist. Students and teaching staff went on strike in 2005 to protest low wages and reached limited agreements with the government to improve compensation.

See alsoArgentina, University Reform; Universities: The Modern Era.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bischoff, Efrain U. Historia de Córdoba (1979).

Buchbinder, Pablo. Historia de las universidades argentinas. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 2005.

Ferrero, Roberto A. Historia crítica del movimiento estudiantil de Córdoba. Córdoba, Argentina: Alción Editora, 1999, 2005.

Flachs, Vera de, María Cristina, and Remedios Ferrero Micó. Finanzas y poder político en las universidades hispanoamericanas: El caso de Córdoba 1613–1854. Córdoba, Argentina: Ediciones del Copista, 1996.

Walter, Richard J. Student Politics in Argentina: The University Reform and Its Effects, 1918–1964 (1968).

                                          James P. Brennan