In an emotional act, the University of the Republic presented former rector Refael Guarga with the title of Doctor Honoris Causa. At the ceremony, several leaders highlighted the value of his work for the regional integration of universities, his defense of public education as a social good and a human right, and his constant concern “for development issues and their technological dimension.”
At the ceremony, the rector of Udelar, Rodrigo Arim, stated that presiding over the ceremony in tribute to Guarga “is a non-transferable pride that I will treasure as part of the most pleasant acts that I have to lead as rector.” “Guarga is a key actor in university life,” he indicated, “he was a protagonist in the difficult and turbulent sixties,” he was part of the resistance in exile, and in the post-dictatorship he was part of the generation that starred in “the institutional reconstruction of our University hit by authoritarianism». In that scenario, he was “a primary player” of the Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Environmental Engineering (IMFIA), then as dean of the Faculty of Engineering and as rector of Udelar between 1998 and 2006.
Guarga “led the University in hard times and allowed it to get through them by improving and innovating despite the restriction of resources and despite an external environment that was not always conducive,” said Arim. “His concern for the University is constant, so much so that when the University was discussing its budget for the 2020-2024 period, the former rector approached us with a proposal to bring together innovative companies that would speak of the importance of the University in their very existence” , as a contribution to make the social value of Udelar visible. For so many reasons, “we are doing an act of justice today and explaining a well-deserved recognition,” he added, and thanked Guarga for “doing the University the honor of accepting this recognition.”
Guarga highlighted some of the innovations made from the design and construction of an innovative glass furnace in the mid-1970s -during the intervention of Udelar by the dictatorship-, to the Selective Inverted Sump (SIS) for the control of frost in crops that he carried out during his exile in Mexico, as well as the development and consolidation of the Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Environmental Engineering (IMFIA) of the Faculty of Engineering upon his return to the country.
During his double Rectorate, the incorporation of the Institute of Physical Education to Udelar and the advances for the creation of the Faculties of Arts, Nursing and Information and Communication stand out. She also made progress in the diversification of undergraduate offers and the unification of criteria for the growth of postgraduate activities.
After receiving the title Honoris Causa, Guarga declared himself excited; He thanked Udelar and all those who accompanied him “on this long road” that he began when he entered the Faculty of Engineering in 1959.
He recalled the stage of the dictatorship and the intervention of the Udelar, when he was dismissed along with hundreds of teachers and university officials. At that time he was lucky enough to get a job at the Cooperativa de Artesanos del Vidrio (Codarvi), where he was “well received by the group of workers, legitimately interested in improving the quality of their production.” In 1976 he was forced to take refuge in the Embassy of Mexico in Uruguay, like other citizens persecuted by the dictatorship, to later emigrate to that country. Guarga reminded Ambassador Vicente Muñiz Arroyo, “an admirable human being to whom hundreds of Uruguayans owe their freedom and in many cases their lives.”
