Universidad Politecnica Salesiana has renewed the inter institutional cooperation agreement to maintain the Open Lecture of Citizen Education and Culture of Coexistence program, which is made up by Cuenca's four universities, the Centro de Mediación y Arbitraje de las Cámaras de la Producción del Azuay, and the "Colectivo Cuenca Ciudad para vivir".

The event, held in Universidad del Azuay (UDA), was attended by officials from participating institutions; Francisco Salgado, President of Universidad del Azuay, Pablo Vanegas, President of  Universidad de Cuenca, Enrique Pozo, President of Universidad Católica de Cuenca (UCACUE), Luis Tobar, Universidad Politecnica Salesiana general vice president, Pablo Estrella, director of the Centro de Arbitraje y Mediación, and Ana Cecilia Salazar, representative of Colectivo "Cuenca ciudad para vivir".   

In his welcome speech, Francisco Salgado emphasized how the city and in citizenship have developed the most important philosophical currents about being human and encountering others and ourselves and a different worldview which we can build together.

Ana Cecilia Salazar, representative of "Cuenca Ciudad para vivir" said that they are happy to promote this meeting space between all Cuenca universities for the good of civil society, citizenship and personal choice for making this a better city.

After signing of the agreement, Luis Tobar pointed out that the objectives of this program coincide with those of the Salesian institutional mission to form honest citizens and good Christians with academic and research capacity that contribute to local and national sustainable development in the search for truth and development of culture. He added that UPS is pleased to be part of this cooperation initiative that strengthens the research work and involvement with society that the institution is working on.

Enrique Pozo Cabrera thanked the participating institutions for inviting UCACUE to join the group and said that "building citizenship is the most difficult, committing, and complex task, because fulfilling obligations and duties is complicated. Thank you again for allowing us to be part of this permanent construction for a better life. "

Pablo Vanegas Peralta explained that universities are scientific centers where knowledge, attitudes and values are shared and that they contribute to building an adequate space for getting the university involved with society from a co-responsible perspective.

The Management Council of the program is made up by two representatives of the participating institutions, and is the body responsible for the execution of activities. The workshop to start with the 3rd edition of the program will be held in July 2017 and the topic will be "Viviendo el Derecho a la ciudad de Cuenca, aportes para una agenda ciudadana". The program of the 3rd edition will be implemented as of September 2017.

Anyone who is interested can follow the project and join the activities by contacting people through: 

Facebook: Cátedra Educación Ciudadana Cuenca

Twitter: @educiudadanacue