Student Association leadership sets ‘self-sufficiency’ as goal for new term

Mário Mateus da Costa took office on Thursday as president of the Faculty of Sciences Student's Association (AEFCL) of ULisboa and immediately took the opportunity to make a confession: ‘Since my first year of college, I've been saying that I wanted to be president of the AEFCL,’ said the newly inaugurated president before the Grand Auditorium of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Ciências ULisboa). On the contrary, José Maria Diogo, outgoing president of the AEFCL, admitted in his farewell speech that he had never thought about the position until he became leader. In addition to the new presidency, the ceremony also inaugurated Rita Lopes as president of the General Student Assembly (MRGA) and Carlos Gonçalves as the first member of the AEFCL Supervisory Board. The heads of the three AEFCL management bodies ran in the elections on the ‘Unir Ciências’ list, which will now take on the new term with several faces from the previous board.

‘Our goal is to maintain good financial health and develop mechanisms to build a self-sufficient AEFCL that can train its leaders,’ said Mário Mateus da Costa. The new president also advocated a ‘reformist’ approach for the new Student Association team: ‘We want to be more present in academia and have more influence in defending students,’ he added, while also expressing his appreciation to outgoing president José Maria Diogo.

In turn, José Maria Diogo took advantage of his end-of-term speech to give a brief personal assessment of his entire time at AEFCL: ‘It has been four years of sacrifice and some sleepless nights, but I can say that I feel enormous pride.’

The audience gave the outgoing president an emotional standing ovation, as well as an effusive welcome to the new leadership, which ended with a musical performance by Vicentuna. But well before that, some of the main institutional representatives of the academic community had already made their expectations known about the new AEFCL leadership. ‘I would like to say that you can count on the Rector's Office whenever you want to make suggestions,’ emphasised Luís Castro, vice-rector of the University of Lisbon (ULisboa), reiterating his interest in maintaining dialogue with the new AEFCL leadership.

The vice-chancellor also mentioned that ULisboa's leadership is aligned with the interests of the academic community, both in promoting university sports and in building university residences. As a recommendation, he also pointed out that university life ‘is not just about attending classes’, as it also involves ‘growing as a person and a human being’ and ‘the work that associations do is very important’ in this personal growth.

The vice-chancellor also acknowledged the personal sacrifice made by the digital leaders and did not have to wait long to hear a similar comment from Hugo Miranda, deputy director of CIÊNCIAS ULisboa. ‘I want to thank you (the members of the new board) for giving up your time and perhaps one or two points in your final grade so that you can work for the community,’ emphasised the deputy director of Sciences at ULisboa. "The Board of CIÊNCIAS ULisboa is always available to listen to you. You are a very important channel for letting us know about things that may be happening (at the Faculty)," concluded the deputy director of CIÊNCIAS ULisboa.