University of Puerto Rico President Resigns
May 24 2017 - 11:38AM
Dow Jones News
Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The head of Puerto Rico's largest
public university announced on Tuesday that she has resigned just
hours before she faced arrest for failing to reopen an institution
that has been shut down by a student strike for nearly two
months.
Interim President Nivia Fernandez stepped down along with three
members of the board of governors of the University of Puerto Rico,
including the board's president and vice president.
The university's gates have remained locked and blocked by piles
of desks and tires since late March as students protest $450
million in budget cuts sought by a federal control board overseeing
the island's finances. The island's governor has proposed the cuts
be reduced to $241 million, but no deal has been reached.
"Unfortunately, the university is being targeted by a
disproportionate ... and unfair funding cut that not only places
the university's physical integrity at great risk, but also the
capacity it still has to attract top-quality teachers," the board
members who resigned said in a letter to Gov. Ricardo Rossello.
The University of Puerto Rico serves more than 50,000 students
across 11 campuses. The system already has been hit with nearly
$350 million in cuts in recent years, and professors have been
denied sabbaticals and salary increases.
The proposed cuts are among several measures the federal control
board is pursuing to reduce government spending as the U.S.
territory prepares to restructure a portion of its $73 billion
public debt load.
A judge had threatened to arrest Ms. Fernandez if she didn't
present a plan to end the strike by Tuesday afternoon. Ms.
Fernandez had asked police and justice officials for help in
reopening the school, but they refused to intervene.
Ms. Fernandez said she met with board members until late Monday
night but said they chose not to proceed with possible strategies
to reopen the university. She provided no further details.
"I have full confidence in a prompt and fair conclusion to the
current and unusual situation that we find ourselves in," she said
in her resignation letter.
Ms. Fernandez served for 13 weeks after the previous president
resigned along with several top-ranking university officials in
late February, also in protest of the looming cuts.
The university has been fined $1,000 daily ever since a judge
ordered it be opened by May 11. Students voted earlier this month
to indefinitely extend the strike, and they are scheduled to hold
another meeting on the issue on Thursday.
Late last week, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education
placed eight of 11 University of Puerto Rico campuses on probation
in part because of the strike. The island's university system
remains accredited.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 24, 2017 11:23 ET (15:23 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.