MILAN (ITALPRESS) – Gianni Canova has ended his term after six years as Rector of Milan’s IULM University. During the farewell ceremony – and the inauguration of his successor, Valentina Garavaglia – Canova retraced the most beautiful and significant moments, but also the most painful ones, that involved the Athenaeum between 2018 and 2024: from the milestones achieved, the lockdown period, the innovations made over the years and the distinguished guests who were welcomed, to the tragedy that occurred in early 2023, when a 19-year-old woman was found dead in the Athenaeum’s bathrooms. “I have done everything to honor and enhance the adjective that qualifies our Athenaeum from its name: Free University of Languages and Communication. Free. Free from subservience to politics,” he said. “Free from the algorithmic dictatorship that is harnessing not only universities, but somewhat the entire contemporary world. Free from the prejudices that too often still cloud the gaze of those who face, analyze, speak about non-state universities. Free from certain vices: conformism, flattery, victimhood, which still lurk and often proliferate in universities, as in Italian society and culture.” Canova was later awarded IULM’s gold medal for innovation, communication and cultural excellence. Professor Garavaglia, as her first act in her new capacity as Rector of the Milanese University, wanted to present her predecessor with an award, instituted by himself, that had previously been conferred only on the sculptor Gaetano Pesce. “Thank you to Professor Gianni Canova, who has held the helm with such wisdom and passion over all these years at IULM,” Garavaglia stressed before presenting the medal and later announcing the University’s new appointments.
– photo eb/Italpress -(ITALPRESS).
