VERONA (ITALPRESS) – “The University of Verona is a place of continuous growth in knowledge, innovation and technological development. It is the result of a cultural project for all the people who study and work at Univr and of a social project for the community of reference that today finds in the Athenaeum a place open to listening and dialogue on the great themes of contemporaneity. Today, Verona, is ‘University City’ thanks to the presence of an open university, rooted in the territory and capable of integrating with its community.” This is how Magnificent Rector Pier Francesco Nocini opened the inauguration of the 42nd academic year of the University of Verona, the last of his term as rector, held this morning in the Aula Magna of the Zanotto campus. Numerous guests spoke, including Roberto Vecchioni, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo and Giovanni Malagò. Also present were Italian and world sports icons Federica Pellegrini and Sara Simeoni to whom the rector presented the university seal and entrepreneur Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio.In his report, Rector Nocini retraced the stages of the university’s development project in recent years: ‘Thanks to the valuable support of the Bishop of Verona Pompili and the invaluable willingness of the City of Verona, Mayor Tommasi and Deputy Mayor Bissoli, the collaboration of the Don Mazza College of Merit, and the ongoing commitment of Esu, in particular President Claudio Valente and Director Giorgio Gugole, the number of beds for our student community has increased significantly ‘from 430 in 2021 to 540 today and will rise to 670 by next year and I hope they will continue to increaseè. ‘We have facilitated access to the right to study for as many female students as possible by significantly expanding the No Tax Area, from 22 to 27 thousand euros of Isee,’ he said again. ‘Above all, thanks to this action, in these years of our mandate 11,399 university students have been exempted from paying the annual tuition fee. From the 2019/2020 academic year to date, we have hired, including the coverage of the over shift, 359 lecturers, researchers; 240 collaborators, technical administrative officers and readers. Courses of study, including doctoral programs, graduate schools and master’s programs have increased from 153 to 190 including 37 undergraduate courses. Bringing our student community to an important growth: the 25,771 enrolled in 19/20 have now become 29,875 (+ 4,104 students). Our Athenaeum is also financially virtuous. We have a net worth of about 27 million euros as of 12/31/2024″.Nocini also recalled the milestones that will be achieved by September 2025 including the start of the renovation of the second Ateneo Nursery School, in collaboration with the city administration and in particular with Councillor La Paglia; the project of the new Vicenza campus for the health degree courses and we are working with Mayor Possamai and Adamo Dalla Fontana President of the Vicenza Studies Foundation; and the completion of Biological 3 in the Borgo Roma campus that I will inaugurate before the end of my term.The rector then anticipated the will to kick off the much-dreamed of University of Verona campus project. “With the collaboration of entrepreneur Leonardo Del Vecchio Thanks to the foresight of Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, the desire to support the knowledge produced in our university, the training of our girls and boys, and the full trust in the public system of higher education – characteristics that distinguish the spirit of the philanthropist – the University of Verona Campus project dreamed of by all of us, could take shape, with his fundamental support and with the collaboration of ESU and the City of Verona in Borgo Roma, inside on university land adjacent to Cà Vignal and the future Biological 3.” After Gaudeamus igitur and Mameli’s Hymn performed by the University Choir accompanied by the University Orchestra, it was the turn of greetings from Univr community representatives Irene Lupi, newly elected president of the Student Council. “The right to study, enshrined in our Constitution, often remains unfulfilled,” she said. “We reiterate this every year in this context and beyond. There are still 786 people who since last year are waiting to receive the scholarship, to which they are entitled. 1322, on the other hand, are waiting for it this year. Structural deficiencies affect not only those who study, but also those who work at the university: because research is work. Yet, doctoral students and researchers are increasingly condemned to precariousness, with insecure contracts, inadequate salaries, no protection.” And following this, quoting Vecchioni, he added, “Dream, boy, dream, but under these conditions how can we dream? We are not represented by the rhetoric that young people are not willing to do their part: because we are here, in front of you, and we take responsibility for the present and the future before us. The challenge before us is complex, but decisive. And the University, in this one, must present itself as a united community. A living and driving force. We thank the Chancellor for the collaboration shown in these years, with the hope that together with this Governance and the future one, we can continue the joint path to give centrality to the University and the student community. “This was followed by Elisabetta Guidi, representative of the technical administrative staff, who emphasized, “It is not only the beginning of a new year full of commitments but it is also the last academic year under the leadership of the Magnificent Chancellor, Professor Pier Francesco Nocini. This six-year term has been a period of great expansion for our University. The strategic vision and commitment of this governance have allowed the University to grow and consolidate its role as a fundamental institution for the dissemination of culture and as a point of reference for the territory. “Valeria Mantovan, councillor for Education and Training of the Veneto Region, then took the floor: “Verona and its territory boast a high attractiveness, perfectly reflected in the dynamism of its University where education, research and training play a central role for the progress of the Veneto and the entire nation. This university represents a strategic reality, a bridge between the academic world, the territory and the production system. The University of Verona stands out as a pole of excellence in university education, a reference point that the Veneto Region is proud to follow with attention and gratitude for its valuable contribution to cultural and economic development.”Mayor Damiano Tommasi emphasized, “We believe that being a university city, with a student population of about 30,000 male and female students who choose Verona for part of their lives, represents an extraordinary wealth for our territory, an opportunity to invest in to become more and more a city of excellence in the various sectors that distinguish us, from entrepreneurship to culture, from entertainment to sports, and the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games certify that we are up to the task. Parents need to know that sending their children to study in Verona means sending them to a city that is ready to team up and take on new challenges to grow and improve. Among these is undoubtedly that of giving concrete answers in terms of affordable housing for male and female students, a challenge that sees us united with the University and the Diocese and that will make Verona even more attractive not only to study there but also to live there. “It was the Bishop of Verona Domenico Pompili, after a brief greeting, who read Pope Francis’ message of good wishes addressed to the rector and the university community of Verona.Special guest was the singer-songwriter, writer and teacher Roberto Vecchioni. From Dante’s Inferno quoting Prometheus to the telling of anecdotes from his family history Vecchioni recounted “A Great Future Behind Us,” the great legacy of the masters of the past on which solid roots for the future are founded. Following this, Rector Nocini presented Vecchioni with an honorable mention merit for “his continuous closeness to the new generations, with whom he has woven an inseparable relationship of permanence of confrontation. Vecchioni has been able to represent their deepest problems and aspirations, thus contributing significantly, in the evolution of the times, to the overall development, both cultural and social, of reality. “Luca Cordero di Montezemolo then took the floor, with the lectio “The courage to dare, the revolution of high speed” to which the honorary degree in “Management and Business Strategy” was awarded. Montezemolo reviewed the history of Italo, an entrepreneurial success story. Montezemolo focused especially on the biggest liberalization in Italy after the liberalization of television: high-speed rail with Italo trains, a unique case in Europe, studied by all countries that want to liberalize the rail transport system Av. Thus competition has driven down prices. Italo, in fact, not only defeated a centuries-old monopoly (that of the State Railways) but also introduced in Italy a new way of traveling, the cardinal principle of which was attention to the traveler. When you consider that project on the Av started from a sketch on a sheet of paper in 2006 and today the Italo world (trains plus bus) carries 25 million passengers, you have the magnitude of the success achieved in just a few years. Today, with the entry of Msc, Italo has become the leading intermodal group in Europe. Montezemolo then cited his history in Ferrari, sporting and commercial successes. And speaking of research, he dwelt on Telethon, of which he is president, which he called a “business” of the heart. “The common thread of my great entrepreneurial experience has been attention to human capital. And on Verona and the regional territory Montezemolo added, “If there is a region with true widespread entrepreneurship where the entrepreneurial family has found a role again after becoming inebriated in finance, that is the Veneto Region.” To the students he said, “Dream to realize your dreams with ability, because the most capable wins, but my wish is that there is a country capable of believing in your dreams.”Next, Giovanni Malagò, president of CONI, who gave the lectio magistralis “Sport as a paradigm of sustainable growth under the sign of innovation,” was awarded an honorary degree in “Management of sporting activities, innovative and sustainable,” the first graduate of the new course of study he had presented with the rector in October 2023, emphasizing its strategic importance for the purpose of consolidating a model that considers sport a neuralgic element of development. The specificity that connotes it aims to transfer strategic and managerial skills to future managers in the sector, in the wake of those parameters that today constitute the polar star to follow. The University of Verona has been able to intercept, in a far-sighted way, the possibility of giving form and content to this axiom, strong also of the reflections and spin-offs guaranteed by Milan Cortina 2026 now just around the corner, with the city at center stage and theater of the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games and the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games. The vision of the Athenaeum gives depth to the most ambitious projects and also succeeds in synthesizing the main contents of the personal journey within the system. “And on Verona’s role in Milan Cortina, Malagò said ‘A great victory, a great legacy that Milan Cortina will leave to the city of Verona, which finds in the Arena of Verona a functioning stadium of extraordinary beauty, synonymous with inclusion, beauty and sporting and social functionalityè.To the students he said “I recommend that you be able to do what I did: me on the ground, wings open. If you are lucky enough to take care of something that is synonymous with passion for you you will have done well, if you have not found it keep looking for it. “The motivations for the two degrees conferred by Rector Nocini were read by Chiara Leardini, director of the university’s Management Department.Next on the podium was entrepreneur Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, who received the honorable mention honorable mention award from Rector Nocini. “This is just the beginning of a path we will take together,” he said, “and for that I thank the magnificent rector and friend Pier Francesco. My task will be to work together with you so that the dream of the University of Verona campus can take shape à. A campus that responds to the needs of female students and gives them the opportunity to live the university parenthesis to the fullest, with special attention to families in greater difficulty who see in the path of university studies the opportunity to offer the best future to their children. “Among the contributions are also video messages from Martine Rothblatt, biotechnologist and founder of United Therapeutics, and Andrea Orcel, administrator of the Unicredit Group, guests expected soon at the University of Verona. Rothblatt will be at the university to receive an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree. The award will be given to her for her outstanding contributions to the research and development of innovative therapies for orphan diseases, such as primary pulmonary hypertension, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and childhood neuroblastoma. While Orcel, in the spring, will meet with students in an open discussion on various topics, including innovation and the state of the financial sector.The Chancellor wanted to close the Ceremony with the awarding of Certificates of Merit, medals and university seals to faculty and guests to commemorate their commitment to the growth of the university, in support of its students and the entire university community. This was followed by the presentation of certificates to honorary professor Tiziano Villa and faculty emeriti Alfredo Guglielmi and Leonard Peter Bos.
– photo University of Verona press office -(ITALPRESS).
