History
In the 1930s, several higher education programs established in Vitória by private initiatives offered students from Espírito Santo the opportunity, for the first time, to pursue their studies in their home state. Of these programs, three—Dentistry, Law, and Physical Education—still remain at the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES).
At the time, the fragile coffee plantations were no longer capable of providing Espírito Santo with the dynamism seen in neighboring states. Therefore, Governor Jones dos Santos Neves saw higher education as a tool capable of accelerating change, and envisioned uniting the scattered educational institutions into a single university. As the culmination of this process, the University of Espírito Santo was founded, maintained and administered by the state government on May 5, 1954.
Santos Neves’s goal, however, was to establish a public university that would bring together different fields of knowledge. The understanding was that the institution to be founded should be fully integrated into the new economic phase envisaged for the state, to be brought about by the replacement of the agrarian-export-oriented economic model with an industrial one.
To bring about this change, it was essential to have qualified staff, achieved through an ambitious project. Thus, in his second year in office, Santos Neves sent a message to the Legislative Assembly proposing the setting aside of a site where the new university was to be established. However, the land chosen to house the new institution’s main campus was only expropriated in 1966 by the federal government. Also in 1953, the Higher Education Council (CES) was established, which analysed and drafted a preliminary bill proposing the creation of the higher education institution. On 31 January 1954, the preliminary bill was submitted to the Legislative Assembly. Finally, at the session of 20 April 1954, the bill was approved and, three days later, the final draft was read out in session.
Approved by the Assembly, the bill was signed into law by the Governor and became Law No. 806 of 5 May 1954. The University of Espírito Santo (UES) was thus established. This marked the culmination of one of the most significant historical events of that century in Espírito Santo. On 22 May, Professor Ceciliano Abel de Almeida was appointed by Governor Jones dos Santos Neves as the first Rector, and on the 26th, the new university was officially established. However, whilst the project was ambitious and necessary, its implementation faced serious difficulties, particularly given the region’s severely weakened economic situation.
The new university comprised the faculties of Philosophy, Arts and Humanities; Dentistry; Industrial Chemistry and Pharmacy; Engineering; Music; Fine Arts; Physical Education; and Medicine – the latter not being established until 1960. The Faculty of Economics was established in 1957 by state decree and incorporated into the university in 1961. In the same year, the Faculty of Law, founded in 1930 and federalised in 1950, was also incorporated.
Four years after its foundation, the new university was still facing stagnation in various areas and serious difficulties in establishing itself, due to low investment and a lack of solutions for the development of its university campus. The solution devised during the administrations of Francisco Ataíde (1952-1955); Francisco Lacerda de Aguiar (1955-1959); Carlos Lindenberg (1959); and Raul Giuberti (1959-1962) was to transfer the university to the Federal Education System. The federalisation of the university, however, would be a painful process marked by uncertainty.
In October 1959, during a visit to Vitória, the then President of the Republic, Juscelino Kubitschek, symbolically signed a message to the National Congress proposing the inclusion of the university in the Federal Education System. However, it was not until 15 December of the following year that the President sent the message to the National Congress. The process in Congress was extremely swift, thanks to the decisive involvement of MP Dirceu Cardoso (1913-2003), who campaigned vigorously for the bill to be passed. At the session of 19 January 1961, the bill was read out, containing all the favourable opinions, and was finally approved by both Houses of Congress on 30 January 1961.
The story says that, immediately after the bill was passed by Congress, Dirceu Cardoso grabbed the document and, clutching it in his hands, hurried across the Esplanada dos Ministérios, almost running, in time to catch up with the President of the Republic at the Palácio da Alvorada on his last day in office. The sight of the parliamentarian rushing across the Esplanada dos Ministérios conveyed the urgency of Espírito Santo. Cardoso found JK bidding farewell to his key aides and, at last, secured from him the sanction so eagerly awaited by the people of Espírito Santo, which would have been Juscelino Kubitschek’s final administrative act as president. A new university was born in that very moment, in that very gesture. In 1965, all higher education institutions linked to the Ministry of Education and funded by the federal government came to be known as federal universities. Thus, the Federal University of Espírito Santo, UFES, was established.
