The UDAFE

The UDAFE

It was the year 2011. The paths of the University inspired us. There was a fresh air among us to renew ideas, intentions to serve and a commitment to the dreams of the students.

What mattered was being useful. We needed to reactivate student representation ethically. There was no time to wait and together with several creators of creative projects, decisions and work, we got together in the cause. Little by little, wills joined. Friends arrived, new unconditional, and also, road acolytes. The interdisciplinary thoughts of colleagues who came from the faculties of Philosophy, Administration, Science and Technology, Design, Legal Sciences and Medicine, were the input that fed the ideas of our work plan. We believed that we could transform, influence, be a critical voice, and incidentally, change the world.

That's how it all started. We created 91 candidacies that would make up the Student Federation - UDAFE, faculty associations, school committees, sports associations and co-government bodies. We were a strong and numerous wave. The financing, proper to the student life, was not the most outstanding. We had serious difficulties in facing campaign budgets with an average electorate of six thousand voters. However, no effort was spared. Pennants arrived with recycled resources; giant fabrics painted in mingas that we organized in houses that were offered for the moment; candies of the color of the list; tarpaulins donated by communication and design partners; photocopies to disseminate our work plan that would be endowed by the generous owner of a nearby copier; and also came balloons, musical groups, megaphones and speakers. Everything was spontaneous. We did university politics with the heart.

After several nights of previous work, meetings, review of speeches, interviews, dialogues in the corridors and the campaign itself; The day of the election arrived. We won the 80% of the student representation. We lost in some schools in which different preferences were imposed. From the presidency of the Federation of Students - UDAFE, the management was tireless and the camaraderie in the classrooms and permanent university campus.

From that time, many of us continue thinking of a better society. There is no former student who has abandoned his leading role in the local and national reality. The University of Azuay was the space of integral formation, of the impulse and construction of new roads. He marked the identity of each of his students. It opened its doors to pluralism and diversity. It made us dream about the present and future. Today, when the commemorative parade is celebrated along with Cuenca for its 50 years, it is reborn in the memory that the University remained in the heart. Well, at the end, the UDAFE was the pretext to feel and live-depth-our University of Azuay.