For Venice, VIU represents the best confirmation of the City's international and global vocation; it is an ancient vocation, which local and national Administrations too often forget.
It is just the opposite view of those who think that the international role of this city should be measured on the number of ‘bread &breakfasts’ or ‘spritzes consumers’.
Tourism is important, and yet there is not a single model for it; the one we experienced is the poorest in economic depth, the most culturally poor, the most ephemeral and fragile. We clearly understand the myopia of these choices or non-choices, looking at the destructive impact of the pandemic on the "hit and run" tourism economy. Still, the effects on depopulation of the historic centre, and the flight of young people, who are already too few to effect of the country's demographic crisis, are permanent and they need to be reversed.
VIU is therefore the confirmation of ancient vocations of the City, and an example that runs counter to the attitude of National and Local politics.
VIU, which benefits from limited support from Public Administrations, is the living collaboration among independent Universities, from all over the world. They chose VIU to tackle the international dimensions of those issues and challenges that Venice poses to the world in terms of sustainability, of the rapprochement between humanistic research and natural sciences, of the development of an urban model in which ancient and modern live together and feed each other.
The growing international recognition of VIU gave impetus to the opening of Venetian universities, which have a much more recent history than the nearby Padua or Bologna, but which then grew due to the international exposure that the City could offer.
Even this process was not painless: the scarce opening of the Italian university system, the very limited financial autonomy and the resources for research reduced to the bone, have placed managerial and cultural constraints difficult to overcome. The Venetian universities have done so, and they have welcomed not only the progressive expansion of international membership, but also that of other Italian universities.
Other considerations could be offered about the meaning of VIU experience in the last 25 years. I want to emphasize these aspects because they not only represent a scarcely recognized 'added value' (as they say in journalistic terms) for the City and for the Universities, but also because these are the reasons why, over the years, I have enthusiastically engaged in the various VIU projects, on behalf of my University.
In this regard, I want to recall the extraordinary program on the environment, in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of the Environment, aimed at China, the Middle Country, as its name means in Mandarin.
VIU brought thousands of Chinese officials and students to S. Servolo, and it brought teachers, experts, and academicians, entrepreneurs to many Chinese cities and universities, fostering environmental sustainability. China was still a ‘middle country’ and it took off quickly. At the time, fully understood, and hasty judgments of our Politicians or even of our entrepreneurs were common.
China took off, as we know, also in terms of environmental policies, doing a lot, perhaps not enough yet. Yet, Chinese cities and people found in the VIU a scientific hub an active support in their capacity building process.
It is another example of VIU independent, authoritative, and effective stimulus in the direction of international openness and capacity to pursue its academic excellence and Venice international and global vocation.
My hope, therefore, is that VIU will be able to continue and extend its role of innovator and challenger; and that Politics, Academia, and Civil Society will better understand, support and appreciate VIU.
Margherita Emma Turvani
