Partisan politics have historically been embedded in the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). What has changed is how explicit and blatant the interventions by political parties in power have become. There is no longer even an effort to conceal their influence in selecting who leads the public university system, which encompasses 11 campuses and a student population of more than 44,300 as of May 2025.
Despite not receiving support from the nine campuses that submitted recommendations to the UPR’s Governing Board, Zayira Jordán Conde was elected with eight of 13 votes in a secret ballot. Her selection followed a campus consultation process that many in the university community claim was tainted by interference from La Fortaleza, the Governor’s office, and a lack of transparency. Concerns that Governor Jenniffer González favored Jordán Conde surfaced as early as February, when the governor admitted her team had intervened in the vote to select interim UPR’s president Miguel Muñoz.
Jordán Conde was a 2020 candidate for resident commissioner with Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana and has been identified as a pro-statehood advocate. She also served on Governor González’s transition committee in December 2024.
The eight votes in her favor came even though there were candidates with more academic and even administrative experience within the same institution. She has never worked at the UPR. Since 2023, she has presided over Atlantic University and previously taught engineering and computer science at the Polytechnic University. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Iowa State University.
Although there is an official search and consultation process, this time it was conducted at record speed. All candidates had known ties to the governing New Progressive Party (PNP, in Spanish), and Jordán Conde had the governor’s direct endorsement. That seemed to be the decisive factor for her inclusion in the shortlist, above and beyond her merits to preside over the University. Following her election, Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz rejected the decision, not for undermining university autonomy, but because he claimed Jordán Conde was not PNP enough.
The UPR Governing Board chose Jordán Conde to lead a financially depleted university —its budget has been cut in half over the past decade. The UPR is now deeply polarized and may lose millions in federal funding due to conservative policies from President Donald Trump. The direct attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at universities and public agencies is the spearhead of these conservative policies. But so too is the halt of research on topics such as the climate crisis or science and evidence-based projects on health issues.
Did the eight board members who voted for Jordán Conde truly believe no better-qualified candidate existed to face these challenges?
Beyond being an outsider to the UPR, her “election” threatens what remains of university autonomy and raises serious governance concerns.
Three members of the Search and Consulting Committee told me that Jordán Conde was not recommended by any of the campuses due to her inexperience and lack of administrative knowledge of the UPR’s complex structure. Only the Carolina campus initially supported her, but its academic senate rejected that recommendation.
I was able to review the analysis that a member of the Search and Consultation Committee shared with me, which concluded that the designated president lacks the necessary skills to lead the UPR in terms of institutional planning. Although she “proposes an international, modern, and technological vision” for the University, she did not provide specific evidence on how she will incorporate these issues during her administration. This report came about after extensive interviews with all the candidates.
In the Committee’s analysis, Jordán Conde is recognized for her “leadership and strong communication style,” but it is worrisome that she lacks any experience managing unions and guilds. In addition to the various student movements, the UPR has union groups such as the Puerto Rican Association of University Professors (APPU in Spanish), the Union of Exempt Non-Teaching Employees (HEEND in Spanish), and the Workers’ Union and the Bonafide Union of Security Officers Their diverse demands require negotiation processes, agreements, and collective bargaining agreements, which sometimes lead to the mobilization of their members, who have the right to call strikes and request strike votes. The evaluation conducted on Jordán Conde indicates that her problem-solving strategy is “focused on technological alliances and external experiences, but lacks examples in a public context or with a complex budget.”
A key issue on which Jordán Conde did not present specific proposals is the professional development of university staff or tools to address student needs, as she prioritizes attracting international students. This vision contradicts Trump’s statements opposing the issuance of international student visas for those seeking to attend universities in U.S. states and territories.
Against this backdrop, the Governing Board’s vote could naively be portrayed as a leap of hope into the unknown over experience about the University governance to overcome the crisis. But it is well known, after so many years of partisan intervention in these processes, that most of the governing body preferred to stick to the political script, as if running the UPR were merely a matter of public relations and political connections.
The truth is that, once again, the UPR — our university — is facing a presidency that lacks traction with the community it will lead, that defied the consensus of the consultation process, and, as the interview process reveals, is not adequately prepared to face a financial, political, and social scenario that demands much more than good intentions.
If anyone still doubted that partisan politics dictate the course of the UPR, they only need to listen more closely.
