With the Board of Governors, university trustees, faculty members, researchers, students, workers and reporters in attendance, UNAM Rector Jose Narro formally launched the work of the Commission in charge of organizing the centennial celebrations of the National University. He invited everyone who plays a role in the University life to contribute to the program of festivities, in light of the challenge of laying the foundation for “a bridge spanning this century and carrying the University into the coming decades.”

Rector Dr. José Narro Festivities Commission launch address.Read more...

“The University of the Nation will celebrate one-hundred years of existence in September 2010, and we are preparing to celebrate this important milestone. We will do so by reexamining our past and turning our gaze to the promise of the future. We will celebrate by reasserting the values that describe us in order to confirm the principles that will define the University in the coming century. The commemoration shall serve to take stock of our achievements as it provides us a prime opportunity for contemplating the future.”

(…) In the inaugural ceremony held on September 22, 1910, Sierra acknowledged that, through the formation of competent professionals, the University was founded for the benefit of all; (…) the mission included the duty of preparing the country’s intellectual elite while at the same time bringing the benefits of its actions to society at large.
From the distance of one-hundred years, the UNAM can tell Mexico: Mission accomplished…because it is easy to document everything (…), because enrollment lists show the names of hundreds of thousands of competent professionals educated over the years (…), because its great intellectuals, scientists, artists and humanists have contributed to national and international culture.

“Because of its heritage of more than 450 years, its outreach throughout the country, its roots in society and its nature as a emblematic mosaic of our reality, our University is truly a national institution ( ...)”

Finally, I convoke any and all members of our community to join this “joyous centennial celebration and to contribute to Mexico as we also celebrate the Bicentennial of Independence and the Centennial of the Revolution”; allowing these milestones to inform your commitment to and faith in the National University, which has served and serves as “the beacon leading your efforts to organize our celebrations.”

Ciudad Universitaria
November 26, 2008

REFERENCE
Excerpts from the address of UNAM Rector José Narro Robles on the occasion of the launch of the festivities program of the centennial anniversary of the national university.
http://www.dgi.unam.mx/rector/html/set26nov08.htm