We are summoned and we gladly celebrate this second activity of the Week of Merit, which since it began a few years ago at INTEC, in the Rectorate of Dr. Miguel Escala, has managed to register as a new INTEC tradition. Remembering how we celebrated the first fiftieth anniversary of INTEC last year, with the motto: "A legacy that inspires and moves us to the future”, We started this Week of Merit last Monday with the recognition of a large and varied group of professors and professors and collaborators, for their permanence in our university for 10, 20, 30 and 40 years. There we had the opportunity to share with professors recognized by their peers -we had among those recognized a teacher of medicine, declared as such by his colleagues- and by dozens of graduates. We also recognized administrative collaborators at all levels, including maintenance, general services, filing, and registration, so that they represented all the diversity of the INTEC community.

Today, we want to recognize individual collaborators and permanent and temporary work teams. As I said in the activity last Monday, at INTEC recognizing is an easy task on the one hand and difficult on the other, which reminds me of Jorge Luis Borges Argentine, Latin American and world literary genius, who said: “we would have to invent a game in which no one wins”.  

Recognizing INTEC is an easy task, because there are so many who give their effort and commitment every day to make our institution a better one, that there is much to choose from. Historically, I recalled on Monday that those who prepared the INTEC report have made us aware that, over 50 years, we have accumulated approximately 7 collaborators, who over time have contributed to INTEC; Of course, not all of them remain, like the 4 professors that we recognized on Monday for their 40th birthday, or that every year we recognize for their seniority and permanence, but among those 7 surely there are many that we have recognized and there are many others to come. which would be easy to recognize.

But it is a difficult task, precisely, because when we get to the moment of formal recognition, one wants to do it very well for fear of excluding others, because there are so many winners and winners that it is not easy to select a few, among so many who they are deserving, like most of those who join us tonight.

And for this reason, following Borges' idea, I would say that tonight, with this act, we all win. First, because honor honors. And also because, by recognizing, as the word says, we know each other again, all of us, in those who are going to be formally recognized. So that, by extension, these acknowledgments reach all of us, in our capacity as intetians.

I have said intecianos and here is a curious fact. There are two natural names among Dominican universities: Uasdians and Intecians, something that does not extend, in general, to the other universities. And I think that says something that should lead us to a minute of reflection in the midst of this celebration.

What is to be intecianos? There is an article by Professor Margarita Rodríguez: "INTEC culture", published in 1998 in Ciencia Y Sociedad, which I invite everyone to read; In these two years and months as Rector, and before too, I confess that I have read and reread it more than once. In that letter, Margarita refers to an article of the INTEC Statutes, article 40, today numbered 46, which speaks of the high sense of belonging and commitment of the intetians, denomination that is almost a nationality. I quote that article: “In the performance of their duties, all members of the Inteciana Community must demonstrate competence, diligence, honesty and adherence to the norms and values ​​that support the institutional work”. And after making that quote, Margarita tries to summarize what her particular perception is about some elements that she considers are characteristic of INTEC, and I allow myself to read them, She says that it is characteristic of INTEC:

• It is born as a response to a need, therefore, it is pertinent.
• It is an academy that seeks excellence, therefore, it is rigorous.
• It does not compromise its values, therefore, it is upright.
• It protects the heritage of future generations, therefore, it belongs to everyone.
• It is made up of a valuable group of people, because it is a unique and special community.
• It has been forged within serious financial limitations, because it is austere, something that we must not forget.
• He continually evaluates and reflects on his work... therefore he evolves towards the future.

And she cites that an INTEC rector received the comment from another rector, from another university, who curiously was Margarita's father, the always well-remembered doctor Leonel Rodríguez Rib, who said:  

"At INTEC they have the particularity that they not only say what they think, but they firmly believe it".

I think this should be a phrase that will characterize us, in this first year of the next 50 years of INTEC, as we have called this year, because we are looking to the future. In such a way, that those values ​​that Margarita mentions, that statutory definition of what is the commitment of the inteciano, we assume it as part of a legacy that inspires and moves us to the future, and how it moves us to the future, looking at the next 50 years of INTEC.

That is the message I wish to send, what is it to be intent, that we look in the documents, in the Statutes, in the stories and in the stories, but above all, we look for everything in ourselves What is? And that is what exalts us and makes us deserving, not only of the recognition that some will formally receive, but the recognition as intecianos that makes us all great.

Let's celebrate this Week of Merit with the same joy and enthusiasm that each one of those who will be recognized will do.

Let's celebrate it as it is the hive that is INTEC: a game that we all win.

Let's celebrate it, already as part of a legacy that inspires and moves us to the future.

Let us celebrate it as part of the first of our next 50 years, which will be more successful and fruitful.

And, above all, let's celebrate it as good intecianos believing us in which we firmly believe. That is what makes us great and powerful to advance as the first university in the Dominican Republic in these next 50 years. And if anyone has any doubts, look again at the results of the QS World Ranking in the latest evaluation of Latin American Universities.

Thank you very much.