​​If living is a privilegy, occupying is a RIGHT!
The History of Campus Accommodation
The Student Housing at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) is a product of the intense fight of students in the years 1986-1988.
​For two years, students of different courses occupied the building of Basic Cycle, one of the busiest of the campus.
The movement was called TABA. In that time, students collectively transformed the classrooms into their homes against the refusal of the Rectory to ensure housing for low-income students. Taba demanded not only homes, but also a space for student experience exchange, where the basic needs for students' permanence at university could be met.
The occupation movement resulted in an agreement signed between the Rectory and the students.
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Therefore, based on such contract, the Rectory should build more 2500 vacancies to accomplish the agreement. Unfortunately, TABA 2 went through one of the biggest process of repression in this University: the military police entered the Campus to ensure the repossession of the student dorm administration. It is important to remember that even during the dictatorship the military police didn't enter UNICAMP. Five students that had taken part in the movement were punished, losing all their scholarship and also being banned from university for six months.
After six years of reformation, the student dorm at UNICAMP is still precarious. Last week, one house was closed, with all the dwellers' belongings inside, because it was ( and still is) about to fall down. The funny thing is that this house has already been reformed.
Writen by Fósforo Quadros
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It was decided that a student dorm would be built and that the program of student housing (Programa de Moradia do Estudante – PME) would be implemented. With those terms of agreement, 1500 vacancies were supposed to be guaranteed until the end of 1989. But, unfortunately, this agreement was never fulfilled, and today UNICAMP student dorm has only 800 vacancies, which does not mean proper or sufficient room. Furthermore, the student dorm buildings, with time, began to deteriorate, showing cracks and holes and making the situation unsustainable. In 2007 house B4 started to fall down.
Again, the students got together to fight for improvement and change concerning the situation of the student dorms at the university. They went on a general strike, claiming for more vacancies and for the reform of the students' dorms. This movement lasted 1 month and it involved the occupation of the Rectory. But the only victory was the reform of the student dorm or, as we call it, Moradia. In 2010, another movement happened. It was called TABA 2 and was a reference to the first movement, which culminated in the construction of the student dorm at UNICAMP. This time, the students, with the document signed by the Rector in 1989 in their hands, tried to negociate the implementation of the contract, which stated that the total number of vacancies had to represent ten percent of the total number of students at UNICAMP. However, in that year, enrollment reached the exorbitant number of thirty-three thousand.
I wonder why, after so many manifestations and protests, the student housing is still derelict. Why does UNICAMP spend millions to build a square, while one house in the student dorm​ is almost collapsing? Why doesn't UNICAMP have enough housing for low-income students? Why does this university prefer to provide rent scholarship instead of building more dorms? Does it have any relation with speculation within real state business?
