This afternoon (June 3), a group of students, mostly enrolled in courses at the Departments of Engineering, Economics, Business and Statistics, and Scientific Studies, occupied the kiosk located on the ground floor in front of building 8 on Viale delle Scienze, always a point of reference for Unipa students, thanks to the efforts of some university associations to keep it open and active. In recent times, the kiosk has remained temporarily closed while waiting to be reassigned to the students, who have made various requests and participated in meetings promoted by vice-rectors and professors.
“For 5 months, negotiations have been ongoing with university leaders to obtain reassignment, which has ended with delays, denials, and excuses, to avoid admitting that the space was promised to an engineering professor to facilitate the arrival of an external Start Up at Unipa – explains Anthony Graziano, an engineering student – We believe this is very serious because the space risked losing its purpose as a self-managed and open place for the student community, for the interests of individual companies. University spaces belong to the students and should remain so. Hence the choice of occupation.”
The name chosen for the new space is “Faidda,” which in Sicilian means spark, in line with the decision to transform it into a reference point on topics such as youth emigration and the right to education in Sicily, with the aim of rekindling the student community on these issues. “We believe – Graziano continues – that when university institutions fail to meet the needs of students, it is the right of students to take action and develop practices of self-recovery of spaces. And that is what we intend to do from today. The kiosk will be a reference point for everyone, it will be a laboratory of knowledge, practices, and initiatives primarily aimed at raising awareness among young people about the dramatic phenomenon of forced emigration. According to Istat data, the exodus that is bleeding our island, due to the persistent conditions of disadvantage in which it is trapped, has not stopped at all in recent years, quite the opposite: from 2013 to 2023, more than 200,000 Sicilians have been forced to emigrate, mainly young people. A tragedy for families and for young people themselves, on which we absolutely must intervene.”
Università di Palermo, gli studenti occupano l’edicola
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