The University of Guadalajara is indignant that the Jalisco legislature has decided to “reassign” state funding from a museum project to an unfinished metro-area public hospital.
In an emergency measure, legislators voted to move 140 million pesos they had approved for construction of the UdG’s Museo de Ciencias Environmentales (Environmental Sciences Museum) to the budget earmarked for the conclusion of work on the new Hospital Civil Oriente in Tonala, which began in May 2019.
Although legislators said the UdG should receive state funding for its new museum, they stressed that “public health is the current priority.”
Daniel Robles de León of the Citizens Movement (MC) said legislators acted on concerns voiced by constituents in Tonala who are anxious to see work on the hospital move ahead. He denied that MC legislators received instructions from the state government to reassign the funds, and stressed that the move is not an “attack” on the UdG in reprisal for the university’s decision to postpone the start of in-person classes, as some commentators have suggested.
Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro accused “third parties” of spreading unfounded rumors of tensions between the UdG hierarchy and the state government.
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