The extraordinary news that the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) will recover, starting in August, its Neurosurgery residency, which it had closed after losing its accreditation in 2021, is a great event for more than one reason.

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The first, of course, is how important it is, not only for the UPR, but for all of Puerto Rico, the existence of a residency that allows doctors to graduate here in one of the most complex and difficult to recruit specialties such as neurosurgery, a specialty that is currently practiced by only 25 physicians in our country.

The second is the shining example that the triumph of the Medical Sciences Campus (RCM) gave to the rest of the UPR system when it went from lamenting the loss of the residency to decisive and imaginative action to recover it just four years later.

It is no secret to anyone that the state university has been going through a severe crisis for nearly a decade now, mainly because the government’s bankruptcy forced it to reduce practically half of its budget. This has been compounded by ineffective management, a reduction in the number of students, undermined infrastructure (which in some cases has not been rehabilitated since Hurricane María in 2017) and obsolescence in some of its academic programs, among many other problems.

The latest manifestation of this crisis was the sudden resignation this week of President Luis Ferrao, who resigned a few days after components of the university community rejected his proposal, which he eventually withdrew, to put on hold 64 academic programs with limited enrollment.

The predicament of the UPR, which continues to be, despite all its problems, the main university on the island, may seem insurmountable because of its complexity and depth. It will be necessary to return, then, to the experience of the RCM, so that the system understands that with realistic and executable plans, plus the strategic use of internal and external resources, even the greatest challenges can be overcome.

To reclaim the Neurology residency, the RCM leadership designed a strategic plan and did not deviate from it until they reached the goal. One of the most interesting aspects of the strategy was the establishment of agreements with three private hospitals to serve as practice sites for new residents. With the fiscal situation of the UPR preventing the development of new facilities, integrating private hospitals was a masterful move.

This is the kind of courageous and effective attitude that can bring the UPR out of its morass. It seems to us that now that the UPR Board of Governors is beginning the delicate task of recruiting a new president, they should look for the profile of an imaginative, energetic entrepreneur who will not be intimidated by the challenges, including the budgetary ones posed by the Fiscal Oversight Board, as the directors of the RCM did. In this effort, they must rigorously evaluate highly competent candidates beyond the local level.

The UPR, whose challenges include the announced cuts in federal funds, must learn to live in the reality of the 21st Century, focus on the needs and characteristics of Puerto Rican society, develop the programs that can serve us while strengthening the existing ones and discarding those that, for valid, studied and explained reasons, can no longer continue to exist.

The new president should undertake, without delay, the urgent reforms that the UPR needs, among which is a greater use of technology to, for example, establish hybrid courses, as many other universities are successfully doing.

The last few years have been very hard for the UPR. The triumph of the RCM with the Neurosurgery residency, plus the recruitment of a new president, bring us hope that the future will be less arduous for the beloved “Iupi” of all Puerto Ricans. With skill and will, it will be.

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This content was translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence and was reviewed by an editor before being published.