The University of Porto is about to complete the process of dismissing a professor accused of making discriminatory comments, including xenophobic statements against Brazilian students.
Among the phrases uttered were comments such as “Brazilian women are a commodity” and “Do you know what a shotgun is? It’s that weapon that men use to kill women.”
Students accused Pedro Cosme da Costa Vieira, from the Faculty of Economics, of inciting hatred and violence, especially against women, gypsies and immigrants. The process of “disciplinary dismissal” is only waiting for publication in the Diário da República to be completed.
The sanction was approved by the university’s Senate in January. According to a preliminary order signed by the rector, António Manuel de Sousa Pereira, the punishment takes place as a result of “described and proven behavior” on the part of the teacher. After being the subject of a complaint signed by 129 students from the Faculty of Communication, in which he taught an introductory course on economics, the professor had already been suspended from his activities for a period of 90 days in 2021.
In the document, students describe Vieira’s classes as a “toxic and discriminatory environment”, with “several attacks on citizenship, which should not go unpunished”. Sought, the University of Porto informed that it will not officially pronounce itself before the publication of the final order on the case.
Also at the institution, a professor at the Faculty of Law faces a disciplinary investigation process. The docent refused to hand over an exam to a student he considered to be inappropriately dressed. The case generated huge repercussions on social networks, platforms on which students increasingly denounce behaviors considered inappropriate.
Recently, complaints of harassment and discrimination in the university environment have been widely discussed in Portugal. In the last week, it was learned that, in just 11 days of operation, a channel where students can report cases of harassment and misconduct at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon received more than 50 complaints.
The reports referred to 31 professors: almost 10% of the institution’s professors and assistants. More than half of the reports refer to seven professors, one of which has nine complaints. Among the validated complaints, which can be in more than one category, there are 29 of moral harassment, 22 of sexual harassment, 8 of sexist practices, 5 of xenophobia and racism (including Brazilian victims) and 1 of homophobia.
The information was revealed by the newspaper Diário de Notícias, which had access to the report produced from the complaints. The document describes that there are “serious and repeated problems of sexual and moral harassment perpetrated by teachers”. The institution is one of the most traditional in the country, and the case has had enormous repercussions. The direction of the college informed that it will forward the report to the Public Ministry.
Last Thursday (7), student associations, including the Movement Against Sexual Harassment in the Academic Environment, held a demonstration in front of the rectory of the University of Lisbon. About 200 students attended the act, which called for a safer university environment and an end to the perception of impunity that surrounds the abuses practiced by teachers.
The university reality, which is already difficult for Portuguese students, becomes even more complex for foreigners. For more than a decade, Brazilian students form the largest community of foreigners in higher education in Portugal, in which 51 institutions accept the Enem as a form of admission.
Although there is an intensive job of attracting Brazilian students, who pay up to ten times the monthly fee of a Portuguese student in some courses, many complain of discrimination. In 2019, the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon had once again been at the center of a controversy with Brazilians. A satirical collective installed, at the entrance of the institution, a box with stones next to the sign “Free to shoot a zuca [jeito pejorativo para designar brasileiro]”.
The case led to protests by Brazilian students, who report similar situations in several institutions.
Among the main problems pointed out by young people is discrimination against Brazilian Portuguese and the Brazilian accent. With the increase in Brazilian immigration to Portugal, which grew for the fifth year in a row and reached a record 209,072 people in 2021, reports of discrimination have also grown in the school environment. In November 2020, several schools and universities in greater Lisbon appeared vandalized with racist and anti-Brazilian messages.
