A WORD FROM THE RECTOR
It is with a great pleasure that, personally and on behalf of the community of teachers, students and technical and administrative staff of the University of Palermo, I invite you to take part in the October EUA Conference, in Palermo, from 20 to 23 October 2010.
Our historical and cultural background fits perfectly with the theme of the conference, centred on commonalities when universities have to cope with the social, political and anthropological evolution of European society, the contemporary spread of the economic crisis and increasing competition worldwide, and differences when each institution looks for specific approaches to serve societal needs better.
For centuries Sicily has been a laboratory of reconciliation of difficult dialogues, of cultural inclusion and of stylistic integration. Palermo, its capital, has been the place where the rules of those experiments were drawn up and proposed, where dramatic conflicts exploded but where long lasting solutions were put in place. It has been a laboratory of linguistic innovation – Frederick II established here his celebrated Sicilian poetical school – and of political elaboration, as almost all the innovative approaches to Italian political life have had sometimes controversial pilot scale testing on this island . This is the laboratory which will host our discussions on the growth of the European university system, one of the essential components of our society, nowadays too often overwhelmed by the financial restrictions imposed by the present crisis, but for several years now engaged in a complex, multifaceted, intense dialogue with the European society.
Come to our university and share with us visions and analyses, projects and experiments: the challenge issued to all of us by the contemporary world is too complex to be faced on one’s own. Welcome to Palermo!
Roberto Lagalla,
Rector of the University of Palermo