University of Guadalajara

"Universidad de Guadalajara" redirects here. For the football team, see Club Universidad de Guadalajara.

University of Guadalajara (UDG)
Universidad de Guadalajara

Latin: Universitas Guadalaxaræ
Motto	Piensa y Trabaja (Think and Work)
Established	November 3, 1792, Legally established 12 October 1925
Type	Public university
Endowment	MXN 8,884,031,388.00 (2012) ^[1]
Rector	Itzcóatl Tonatiuh Bravo Padilla (since 1st of April, 2013)
Students	229,667 (apr 2012)
Other students	1,610 active researchers
Location	Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Athletics	Club Universidad de Guadalajara
Sports	Swimming, Football, Baseball and Fencing
Affiliations	ANUIES CUMEX International Association of Universities College Board CONAHEC
Website	www.udg.mx

University of Guadalajara ((Spanish [universida'd de gwadalaxa'ra] "Universidad de Guadalajara") is a public university in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. It is the second oldest university in Mexico, the fifth oldest in North America and the fourteenth oldest in Latin America.^[2] It is regarded as one of the most significant universities in Mexico, only behind the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in student population.

The Guadalajara International Book Fair, the second largest book fair in the world, is organized annually by the University of Guadalajara since 1987.

The University is distinct from the Jesuit University of Guadalajara, a name for the Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education.

History

The University of Guadalajara has changed its structure, governing boards and goals throughout its 200 year history. Nevertheless it has retained the same educational focus and motivation throughout the years. Due to this consistent focus and motivation, this institution is considered to have its origins during the Spanish colonial period instead of at some point during later reforms which resulted from numerous political and social changes throughout Mexican history.

Beginnings

The creation of the university was a slow process that took approximately 100 years. The first person to request the creation of a university in Guadalajara was Father Felipe Galindo Chávez y Pineda, who asked King Charles II of Spain to elevate the Royal Council Seminary of San José to the rank of Royal University on July 12, 1696.

An image of the former building structure of the University of Guadalajara

The second person to take up the cause of the university was Matías Angel de la Mota Padilla, who in 1750 forced the city council to make the founding of a university one of its priorities. Nevertheless it was not until the expulsion of Society of Jesus (Jesuits) from Spanish territories in 1767 that the necessity of a university in the region of the Nueva Galicia became urgent, because the Jesuits had administered the two most important schools in the city: the Colleges of Saint Thomas and Saint John the Baptist.

On December 12, 1771, the person considered responsible for the foundation of the university arrived: Father Antonio Alcalde y Barriga, the new bishop of the diocese of New Galicia. In 1775, he responded to a royal certificate from King Carlos III of Spain, in which the king asked for commentary on the placement of a university in the city of Guadalajara. The king received a positive response and noted Fr. Alcalde y Barriga's personal involvement in the project and ability to gain the support of various notable persons in the city. Due to these positive events, in 1791 the king issued a royal certificate pronouncing the foundation of the University of Guadalajara.

The following is an extract from this royal certificate:

Resulting from consultation with my Indian Consul, the fifteenth of March of this year (1791), we elevate and establish a University in that city (Guadalajara of New Galicia), which applies only to the building of the School of St. Thomas, who was expelled, and the capitals of its clearly great and positive works, with the precise obligation to fulfill them, we pay for the erection of the building that was necessary, for the people of the city... I, the King.

The University of Guadalajara

Between 1820 and 1924

Between 1820 and 1924, the university experienced numerous changes, including temporary closings, fractures, refinancing and changes of denomination, caused on more than one occasion by political reasons. On June 14, 1820, the director Diego Aranda y Carpinteiro swore obedience in name from the university to the representative of the independentists of the Plan of Iguala, general Pedro Celestino Negrete . With this recognition, the university lost the title of "Royal and Literary Academy of New Galicia" and became the National University of Guadalajara, leaving the shield granted by the Spanish monarchy and taking the one from the independentists. In spite of such declaration of loyalty, the first temporary closing of the establishment decreed to Prisciliano Sanchez to it, the first governor of the state of Jalisco, in 1826, due to the turbulent state of the economy and the policy of the country after independence. The institution reopened its doors in 1834. Nevertheless such opening would not be free of trepidations.