More open than the sky

More open than the sky

For the flight of the condor

It has open space

Our university

Open to ideas

No dogmas or borders

Open to pluralism

And to diversity.

It is the beginning of the anthem of the University of Azuay that this month reaches the half century. Nobody has the truth, but it exists as soon as we all look for it. It is an ideal, an incentive for the spirit to refine its faculties and project itself to the unattainable. Dogmatisms have vanished over time. What at one time was considered true indisputable has been overcome by this tireless tendency to venture into the unknown.

There are many ways to advance in this process that generate different ideas and approaches. Essential to a university in our days is respect for these differences so that those who complete their studies have broad criteria for making choices and making decisions. The indoctrination, as some in agreement with systems and epochs believed that it was the reason of being of the university, is anti university since the development of the thought requires, like departure point and goal the freedom. The title of one of Paulo Freire's books: "Education as a Practice of Freedom" is linked to this approach.

Living does not end in thinking, living is acting and doing; In this sense, the university equips the students with adequate knowledge so that they can efficiently deal with the different areas of human activity. The "todology" was buried in a distant past and the circumscription to spaces of thinking, being and acting is typical of our times. To fulfill this purpose, a university must strive for academic excellence that, apart from the solidity of knowledge, strives to overcome selfishness and encourage the tendency to share it in multiple ways.

In the past, the sage was identified with a person who lives in the clouds oblivious to the problems of reality. The university must, in theory and practice, be aware that service to the community is one of its priorities. The commitment to others must be present so that those who graduate, overcoming selfishness and self-esteem, consider their careers as a service to others in the respective areas. Completing university studies is a privilege of a small minority. We must return this privilege with responsibility to the community

The University of Azuay has traveled this centenary with these purposes, with realism and without pettiness, without abandoning the nonconformity in the sense that we must always improve. Perfectionism is the negation of a university.