The University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru

Table of contents :
Introduction..........................................09
General Education Setting.............................11
Student Body..........................................21
Teaching Staff........................................26
University Government.................................34
Budget................................................38
Physical Facilities...................................40
Conclusions and Recommendations.......................46
Teaching Staff........................................47
Ultimate Control, Politics and Co-Gobierno............51
Curriculum............................................55
Internal Power Structure..............................59
University City.......................................60
The word "University".................................62
Appendix: The Problem of the Faculty of Medicine......64
Illustrations.........................................67

Citation preview

'

THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN M A R C O S IN LIMA, PERU

FRANCIS

M.

ROGERS

Professor of Romance Longuoges and Literatures Harvard

University

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"

L I M A , PERU 1961

THE UNIVERSITY

OF SAN M A R C O S

IN LIMA, PERU

by

FRANCIS

M.

ROGERS

Professor of Romance Languages and H a r v a r d University

LIMA, PERU 1961

Literatures

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5

Affectionately dedicated lo the university students oí Peru with the iond hope that their University oí San Marcos will soon have its badiy needed and richly deserved University City.

And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth hurst the bottles and the wine is spilled; and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles. San Marcos, II, 22.

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TABLE O F CONTENTS I

Introduction

*

II

General Educational Setting

III

Student Body

IV

Teaching Staff

V

University Government

34

VI

Budget

38

VII

Physical Facilities

40

VIII

Conclusions and Recommendations

46

11 •

2 1

2 6

Teaching Staff

47

Ultimate Control, Politics, and Co-Gobierno

51

Curriculum

55

Internal Power Structure

59

University City

60

The word "University"

62

Appendix: The Problem of the Faculty of Medicine Illustrations

64 67

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ILLUSTRATIONS Map of Peru

Pág.

67

Main University building. Parque Universitario

Fig.

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Faculty of Medicine (main buildings)

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Faculty of Medicine (Institute of Biochemistry)

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3

Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry

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Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

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Faculty of Dentistry (new building)

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National University of Engineering

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National Agrarian University

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Housing development near University City

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9

University City (stadium)

10

University City (model)

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11

University City (completed building for Letters & Education)

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University City (completed building for Sciences)

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University City (completed residence hall)

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14

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i INTRODUCTION A university almost by definition is a center of ideological fermentation. A corporation of masters and students, it generates ideas and disseminates them throughout the society of which it is the expression. It cannot live in isolation, for its members belong to society and are in unceasing contact with it. The universities of the Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking lands of A m e r i c a are outstanding centers of a kind of fermentation which has ccme to border on the political. Student participation in the government of these universities invites increasing political activity and in fact paves the w a y for agitation. Student strikes often become the order of the d a y and not infrequently encompass students in secondary schools. Strikes of university teachers are not unknown. Founded by royal decree on M a y 13, 1551, and therefore the oldest university in the New World, the Universidad Nacional Mayor de S a n Marcos in Lima, Peru, in recent y e a r s has earned for itselft the reputation of being not a great center of learning but rather a hot-bed of political agitation. E a r l y in 1961 administrative officers of S a n Marcos, and of the International Cooperation A d ministration in both Washington and Lima, agreed that I be invited to look the situation over. M y official title proved to be "Advisor in Administration to the University of S a n Marcos." I should liko to believe that my title in Castilian carried more realistic connotation, for I became known as an Asesor. For the third time I betook myself to the A c a d e m i a S. Marci Urbis Regum in Peru, where I had lectured in 1954 and which I had visited in 1959. This sojourn turned out to be my longest, from

August 21) to September 22 1961. On September 6 I visited L a Cantuta in order to inspect its famed normal school, and during the period September 7-13 I visited the National Universities of Cuzco and Arequipa — respectively Peru's second and third oldest — to obtain a provincial perspective. The rest of the time I stayed in the Greater Lima area, where I was accorded every courtesy by all segments of San Marcos society. I was even privileged to attend and important meeting of the University Council (August 29) and to sit in on a meeting of the Faculty of Education (September 1). 1 discussed university problems with students, systematically interviewed the denns, and had access to personnel records and to the budget. I was greatly impressed from the beginning with the sincere dedication to the amelioration of San Marcos displayed by virtually all whom I met. Indeed, I became frightened by the complete confidence they placed in me, for mine was at best a superficial study. It gradually became clear to me that I was making an evaluation of San Marcos in the light both of its own objectives and of the best international university traditions. One San Marcos officer most succinctly described my mission by stating: "We desire an honest, objective, disinterested look at our institution." I offer the results of my look in the following pages and am fully aware of their shortcomings. I only hope that they may play a role in strengthening the position of San Marcos as the major National University of Peru and thereby effect an increase in the universal company of scholars. Needless to add, the opinions expressed are my own. Most often they reflect the forward-looking views of many San Marcos administrators, teachers, and students. On occasion, however, I have taken the liberty of suggesting emphases quite different from those I encountered in the City of the Kings.

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Impreso, ei los Talleres Universidad