Upon reading the article "Dissenters Fight Spain's Reform Law" (Bulletin, March 2002) I was appalled that once more only the voices of the socialist and communist unions have been heard. These unions are largely responsible for the drastic descent of quality and increase of corruption that Spanish universities have suffered since the mid 1970s. It is simply not true that the reform is intended to privatize post-secondary studies.

During the 1980s and early 1990s hirings were made based not on academic concerns but partisan ones. Even now new positions at universities are not advertised nationally, only internally, if at all. Graduates who want a job, for example, at the University of Madrid, have to study always in Madrid, under the aegis of the professor whose turn it is to have the next job created in his/her area. A student who decides to study somewhere else is automatically out of the race.

The only qualifications of some of my professors at the University of Valencia were to be members of the political party advocating the independence of the Catalán-speaking provinces, a party which provides infrastructure to the terrorists who murdered a law professor in Valencia after one of his lectures. Although an isolated event, it shows how the voices that advocate academic quality and academic freedom are silenced if they are not in line with what the unions say.

The main goals of the present reform are to regain academic standards and to achieve transparency in administration. The reform proposes national advertisements of all university jobs. The reform wants to get rid of tenure because of the many unqualified individuals occupying lifelong jobs. And, to guarantee academic quality, the reform proposes an externally reviewed "habilitation" after the PhD.

Reyes Berrtolìn Cebrián
Greek & Roman Studies, University of Calgary