143 directions, a new project took shape: the creation of a college. Discussed in the past, the idea had been put on stand-by for the future, which was now. To lead that initiative, the Fundação could rely on Eduardo Pimentel’s valuable university management experience. In addition to his connection with teaching, which stemmed from the fact that he worked as a teacher in his youth, Eduardo Pimentel had played a marked part years earlier in the process that culminated in the creation of the Unicamp (the state public university at Campinas city), and the founding of the Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia (Mauá Technology Institute). Under his leadership, the project of providing higher education flourished. Several special commissions were formed to study that project, which, as Carlos Jerônimo da Silva Gueiros, president of the Superior Council of the Fundação, points out, “was part of the founders’ dream.” In addition to Carlos Gueiros, other prominent Rotarians played a decisive part in those commissions, with their knowledge of the subject and strong commitment to the Fundação’s ideals, such as Marcos Paulo Salles, Antonio José da Costa and Ivo Nascimento. Once the decision was made, studies were initiated to determine the best way to go. The options considered were whether to create an institution from scratch or to acquire an existing college. After a number of studies and negotiations, an opportunity arose which was found interesting: Pueri Domus School had structured a college, but then gave up the initiative and was willing to divest the business. Having a consistent project and the required registrations with the Ministry of education, Domus College was viewed as good solution for the Fundação to break into the higher education field. After the acquisition, it turned into Faculdades Integradas Rio Branco. The next challenge was to find a suitable location for the operation of that new maintained entity. While the search was conducted, with the special commissions playing a key role, the College began to operate in Higienópolis Unit, using the classrooms that had been left idle in the evening period. Numerous options were considered. “Among the places we visited and went as far as to negotiate areas like one in Barra Funda district and another in Cidade Jardim distric. But those didn’t work out. Only after sometime one of the commissions was presented to the current space, in the district of Lapa,” Ivo Nascimento recalls. Having participated in the process that culminated in the choice of the property that the Faculdades would occupy, Marcos Paulo Salles relates that, even on a brief examination, one could tell that the building met the required conditions. “The location was a find. It had everything lined up to work out. It was a complete shopping mall with a very good structure, a large parking area, and had been very well designed from a circulation standpoint. There were wide halls, restrooms with capacity for a large public, and shops that could be converted into classrooms. It was a very good building, without any cracks, and the previous honor had even raised the land level to prevent floods,” says he, whose architect’s eye was fundamental to the decision made by the Fundação. The Faculdades creation was faced with many challenges at first. To begin with, higher education was new to the Fundação. It needed to tackle those challenges simultaneously and on several fronts, seeking to resolve the numerous technical, operational, administrative, financial, legal and bureaucratic issues that would come up. Under the leadership of director José Wilson Saraiva, the team in charge was deployed and made the project take off. As time went by, a consistent strategic planning started to dominate the agenda. The number of courses being offered was gradually increased based on a project aiming at continuous growth in the horizon without putting aside the concern with providing the best education. “The Fundação has always given priority to investments in quality and a differentiated approach to education, with small classes, with 30 to 35 students. The same goes to the qualifications of its teachers: from the beginning, our percentage of masters and doctors was well above that set by the Ministry of Education,” says Edman Altheman, general director of the Faculdades. While that was happening, the movement at Colégio Rio Branco was towards planning and implementing innovations that would prepare it for the challenges of the 21st century. “It was a very favorable period for us to advance, as many discussions were taking place concerning the new paths of education with the development of the National Curricular Parameters and the launch of the UNESCO report, coordinated by Jacques Delors,” explains Esther Carvalho. The changes that followed reflected those guidelines from UNESCO and what had been learned from a research into the best practices in place around the world. “A turnabout occurred in the 1990s: the entire literacy learning method was changed as we sought other references, including international ones. For example, we adopted Emilia Ferreiro’s method, which even scared the parents at that time due to its innovative nature,” says Maria Olívia Montenegro. Changes were happening in pre-school, too, in a process
Livro Comemorativo dos 70 anos da Fundação de Rotarianos de São Paulo - Uma história de ideias e ideais
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