UPR Students Launch Strike, Demand President Resign
UPR students expand coordinated strikes, demanding leadership changes and addressing governance and funding issues.
UPR in Río Piedras paves the way for a 72-hour strike en route to a general strike . Photo: @ElNuevoDia
April 22, 2026 Hour: 5:08 am
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Vote triggers 72-hour strike and plans for indefinite shutdown across campuses
Students at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) in Río Piedras have approved a 72-hour strike starting Wednesday and announced an indefinite strike beginning April 27, demanding the resignation of President Zayira Jordán Conde.
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The decision followed a student vote in which 769 supported the strike and 501 opposed it. The measure is intended to allow “political and logistical preparation” ahead of the broader indefinite strike. The General Student Council (CGE) reported participation of around 1,600 people in the assembly where the motions were adopted. The indefinite strike had initially been scheduled for May 4 but was moved forward.
Student mobilizations have expanded across multiple UPR campuses. The Río Piedras campus agreed to join the Medical Sciences campus, where students approved a 48-hour strike last week if Jordán Conde does not resign before May 1.
At the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (RUM), students have maintained an “indefinite demonstration” since April 13. Meanwhile, students at the Humacao campus approved a 72-hour strike beginning May 4, allowing access to athletes, trainees, researchers, and contractors to continue essential activities.
In a hybrid assembly, students rejected the university’s 2021 Fiscal Plan, describing it as “a deficient, repetitive document, lacking institutional imagination and offensive to the university community.” They argued that the plan “does not constitute a serious response to the University’s crisis, but instead reproduces a logic of cuts, subordination, institutional impoverishment, and administrative improvisation.”
Governance and funding concerns
María del Mar Rosa Rodríguez, president of the Puerto Rican Association of University Professors (APPU), said: “The crisis of the UPR is budgetary, the crisis of the UPR is one of governance, the crisis of the UPR is a lack of vision and a lack of will to invest in the country’s main public higher education institution and its most important social project.”
She added: “We know that the problem of the UPR is also due to partisan political interference and the total absence of university autonomy. The crisis facing the UPR cannot be addressed from within alone, as it is imposed from outside.”
Opposition to Jordán Conde intensified in late March after she forced the departure of rectors from five campuses, further escalating tensions within the university system.
The coordinated actions point to a widening student movement across UPR campuses focused on governance, funding, and institutional autonomy.
Author: MK
Source: El nuevo día
