Macri nixes talk show producer as Secretary of University Policy nominee after political firestorm.

Argentine President-elect Mauricio Macri's initial nominee for the post of Secretary of University Policy, talk show producer Juan Cruz Ávila, has been withdrawn from consideration yesterday after days of bitter controversy within Macri's "Let’s Change" (Cambiemos) coalition as to his appointment.

The post, one of the most important within the Ministry of Education, will instead be filled by Dr. Albor Cantard, the Chancellor of the National University of the Littoral (UNL).

The University Policy Secretariat serves as an intermediary between the Education Ministry and the 45 autonomous national (public) universities. The post, under outgoing Education Minister Alberto Sileoni, has been held since 2009 by Dr. Aldo Caballero, who has ample academic experience including four doctorates from Argentine and foreign universities.

Ávila would have been the first Secretary of University Policy with no academic credentials in Argentine history. The controversy over his nomination came after several national universities had already expressed their concerns over statements made by Let’s Change coalition officials and by Macri himself ahead of the November 22 runoff about what he sees as the irrelevance of the 15 new universities created during the Kirchnerist administrations since 2003.

Ávila's nomination was especially controversial with students’ unions, scholars, and with Macri's own allies in the centrist UCR. The UCR is Argentina's oldest existing political party (1891), has a long history supporting public education, and is represented at the universities by the influential Franja Morada students' society. Their objections and advice led Macri to instead nominate Dr. Cantard, who has close ties to the Santa Fe Province UCR.

Dr, Cantard graduated with a Law degree at the UNL, Argentina's 8th largest university, in 1992. An expert in Labor Law, he started his career as a professor in 2005 despite lacking postgraduate courses at the time, and a year later became the dean of the Social Sciences and Law School at the UNL. He was designated head of the Commission of Foreign Affairs of the National University Council (CIN) in 2008, he was elected chancellor of the UNL in 2010, and a year later became head of the CIN (the National University Council, a roundtable of college presidents and deans from across Argentina).

At: http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/204412/tv-exec-nixed-from-team
_____________________________________________

The nomination of the eminently unqualified Mr. Ávila as Secretary of University Policy had two main motives: as a spiteful insult on Macri's part against the National University Council for having endorsed his opponent, Daniel Scioli, for President; and the fact that Ávila is the son of the founder of a sports channel controlled by the Clarín Media Group (Macri's most vocal supporters).

The CIN's reasoning was simple: public higher education budgets had tripled in real terms during the Kirchner era, 15 new public colleges had been opened, thousands of academics had returned from Spain, enrollment was way up, and so on. For them it was a simple question of rewarding a good record.

But for Macri, it was a personal slight. His reaction? Nominating the boorish Mr. Ávila as a very deliberate insult against both the CIN and Argentina's 170,000 faculty staff.

What Macri did not count on, was the clout academics have in Argentina (when they're united) and the public outcry against the nomination of the decidedly unprofessorial Mr. Ávila - a man who could have easily been cast as one of Rocky Balboa's trainers (with apologies to Burt Young).

After a few days of that, Macri relented. Save the photo, as they say, because it doesn't happen too often.

As an aside, I should mention that the man who held the U.S. counterpart post (Asst. Secretary of Postsecondary Education) during President Obama's first term, Dr. Eduardo Ochoa, is an Argentine-American. I'm sure he's quite relieved Macri came - or was brought - to his senses.