The call went out to hold local forums in preparation for the University Congress, and as a result, a series of lectures on major topics was given. On the 30th of January, the general call for participation in the Congress was published.

The local forums touched on topics to be discussed at the Congress. On the 16th of March the elections for Congress delegates took place. The Congress itself was in session from the fourteenth of May until the fifteenth of June and all sessions were broadcast on Radio UNAM.

There were both plenary sessions and roundtables on specific or specialized issues arriving at accords to be approved in the general assembly of the Congress. Granted that not every topic was covered, nor every expectation met, final accords were taken and ratified by the University Council in its October 18th session.

This year, the Program of Inducements for Academic Productivity and Achieve­ment was set in motion as well as the Program for the Recognition and Support of Emeritus Staff. The University Space Research and Development Program was also created.

The University Council approved amendments to the General Regulations and instated the corresponding Advisory Councils for Graduate Studies and for the System of Libraries. The 30th Anniversary of the University Arts and Science Museum was commemorated with a retrospective exhibition.

This year there were 271,358 students, 28,389 faculty, and 25,664 support staff members.

Dr. Salvador Malo Álvarez was named Secretary General and the Central Authority was reorganized. The Academic Services Authority and the Collegiate Associations Support Unit were created.

In May, research professors were elected to the University Council and assumed their seats in this body. The Governing Council of the High School Level of the College of Sciences and Humanities was established. The Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Research Center became the Biotechnology Institute.

On the 11th of July, there was a total eclipse of the sun visible in all parts of Mexico as well as in other latitudes, and it served as the inspiration for numerous University research projects. In October, the University community gained access to the CRAY Y-MP-432, one of the most advanced supercomputers available to the academic world.

The Program for the Integration of Teaching and Research and the Program for Academic Excellence were created.  On the 15th of November, the University Program for the Environment began operations. The Pumas won their third professional Soccer championship, defeating the Eagles of America in a close match.

The University Council approved the founding and operation of the Academic Council by Areas and the Academic Council for the University High Schools. The University Program for Gender Studies was founded. The Advisory Council for Computing was restructured.

The Administrative Council for the UNAM Supermarkets System was established. The UNAM Foundation was chartered as an independent private organization to support the University. In December, The Universum Science Museum was inaugurated in the buildings formerly occupied by the National Council for Science and Technology.

Construction began on a new wing to house the Primary Sources and Special Reserve Collections of the National Library, which had been located in the former San Agustin Church building.

Dr. Josè Sarukhan took office for a second term as Director of the UNAM and Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro was sworn in as General Secretary. The representatives of the Academic Councils by Areas, were instated after the elections and their respective Coordinators named.

The Councils include the areas of Physics and Mathematics; Chemistry, Biology and Health Sciences; Social Sciences and Economics; and Arts and Humanities.  The Academic Council for the University High Schools, representing the National Preparatory Schools and the College of Science and Humanities, was also instated.

The name of the Office of Planning, Assessment, and Projects was changed to the Office of Institutional Statistics and Data Systems. The National School of Undergraduate Studies at Zaragoza became a College of Higher Learning and the Center for Research on the United States changed its name to the Center for Research on North America, subsequently extending its scope. 

The PREPAC incentives were extended to non-tenure track professors. The General Program forFostering Teaching for Professors and Researchers was instituted as well as the General Program for Promoting Job Stability in the Academic Staff. The Commission for Ecological Control of  the University Campus was established.

The Special Reserve Collection of The National Library opened its doors on the 8th of October. After several years of negotiations, the University was granted an important loan by the Interamerican Development Bank for additions, improvements and equipment for it physical plant.

The Mexican presidential candidates, Luis Donaldo Colosio Murieta, Social Development Secretary of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI); Diego Fernández de Cevallos, head delegate of the Congress for National Action of the National Action Party (PAN); Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD); and six other minority party candidates launched their campaigns.

The Committee and the Authority for Norms, Standards and Oversight Systems was established. The position of University Chronicler was created and Dr. Clementina Diaz y de Ovando was named to the post. 

The Council for the Promotion of Culture was instated, as well as the University Program for Studies on the City of Mexico. The calendar of activities was, after many years, brought into alignment with the national public school calendar.

On the first of January, an armed rebellion, lead by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), broke out in the state of Chiapas resulting in the resignation of the Secretary of the Interior, Patrocinio González Garrido and other officials. The government named Manuel Camacho Solís as commissioner in order to establish peace talks with the insurgents. 

The Zapatistas had sub-commander Marcos as their principal spokesperson while Monsignor Samuel Ruiz, the Bishop of the Dioceses of San Cristobal, served as mediator.  The uprising caused shortages of food and clothing in the local population. Members of the University community organized relief efforts and marches to assure that items collected reached the communities in need.

Election activity reached the University community. The PRI Candidate, Luis Donaldo Colosio, was assassinated in Tijuana, Baja California. To replace him the party named Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, who had served as Secretary of Planning and Budget and of Education. Several candidates came to University City: Cecilia Soto of the Workers Party (PT), Pablo Emilio Madero, from the PMD-UNO, Ernesto Zedillo, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, and Diego Fernandez de Cevallos.

Some University community members were named Community Representatives to the Federal Election Committee to ensure that the election process was properly handled. Elections for both the President and the legislative branch were held on August 21st.  Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León won the Presidency and the PRI maintained its majority in the Congress.

In February, the famous Afro-American writer and Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison, participated in various literary sessions with students and Mexican writers at the invitation of the UNAM College of Philosophy and Letters. 

The morning of the 28th of March saw the launch of UNAM-SAT I, the satellite of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, from the launch pad at the Russian base at Plesetzk aboard a Start rocket.

The mission failed due to problems in the Russian rocket, but days later it was announced that the UNAM-SAT I twin satellite, UNAM-SAT B, would be launched by the UNAM in conjunction with the AT&T consortium.

In June, Felipe de Bourbon, Prince of Asturias, third child of King Carlos and Queen Sophia, visited University City, home to exiled intellectuals, where he talked with Director José Sarukhán Kermez. The Prince donated the Luis Recasens Fiches Library to the Institute for Legal Research (IIJ). At this ceremony, Dr. Sarukhán gave him a book published by the UNAM commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Spanish Exile.

The former Casa de Mascarones mansion, which houses the Extension Classes of the Office of Academic Computing Services (DGSCA) and the continuing Education Division of the College of Philosophy and Literature (FFyL), was fully restored. 

The College of Sciences and Humanities (CCH) celebrated its 25th anniversary with the founder of this system of High School education, the former Director Pablo Gonzalez Casanova, in attendance. The University Art Fair had an unprecedented reception which lead the organizers of the affair, the Academic Council for the Arts and Humanities, to propose making the Art Fair an annual event.

As soon s the results of the admission exams for the University High Schools and Undergraduate programs were announced, the conflict over those who were rejected began.

While those who were accepted into the National University were registering, a group of students belonging to the Student University Council (CEU) entered the University campus and in an impromptu meeting invited other students “discriminated against by the Educational System” to organize and claim their place in the UNAM, and to demand a revision of the exams as stipulated under the terms of the internal regulations.

In response, the University sent the results of their exams to 110,000 applicants who had failed. On the 10th of August the Movement of Students Excluded form Secondary and Higher Education, (MEEMS)was formedat the Che Guevara Auditorium of the College of Philosophy and Letters.

The group’s first demand was admittance of the 180.000 students who had been rejected. The group also called for the opening of five additional High Schools within the College of Science and Humanities System and for the University to operate at full capacity in order to accommodate an additional 45,000 students.

Fifteen students and parents went on a hunger strike in front of the Central Administration building alleging that at various schools exams had been sold. Hundreds of rejected students attended outdoor classes in the esplanades or attended other classes as auditors at different campuses of the National University,

On Friday the 22nd of September a group of students supporting the rejected students’ movement took over the Central Administration building. The buildings of the Office of the Coordinator of the College of Science and Humanities and the southern campus of this systems high school were also occupied.

In reaction, Director Josè Sarukhan called for the University community to close ranks in defense of the UNAM against the unyielding and repeated violent and illegal acts of the movement, all of which had “been met with restraint, concrete proposals and legal arguments.”

On September 26th, students, workers and administrators protesting the occupation of the Central Administration Building and demanding its return set off from the Law building along the Esplanade towards the occupied building in what would later be called the “Silent March.”

At the same time, the student movement formed a “Circle of Peace” around the Administration Building, which after nine day’s occupation was returned by the MEEMS. Soon after, the College of Science and Humanities building was also returned.

University Administrators and the MEEMS student movement agreed to talks on one of the principal issues: that the rejected students be allowed to take the places of students who despite having been admitted had not registered.

At the same time, in October, a proposed change in the CCH High School curriculum incited the University Students Council to close down indefinitely all five of the system’s High Schools. Eight days after the shut down teachers and students began off campus classes in an effort not to lose the semester. As a result of talks between administrators and students there was a call for an election of student representatives to the Special Commission of the Governing Council, whose mission was to improve communications and promote community involvement in the updating of the curriculum.

On October 11th the Royal Academy of Sweden awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Jose Mario Molina Pasquel jointly with Frank Sherwood Rowland and Paul Crutzen.

In May, the UNAM-EU online distance education and services program opened at the General Office of Academic Computing Services with the videoconference, “Perspectives and Alternatives on the Mexican Economic Crisis,” during which students from the Antonio Caso National Preparatory School spoke with students at the Permanent Extension School in San Antonio, Texas.

January saw the opening of a new expansion of popular science with the construction of the Museum of Light in the Historic City Center. The objective of the project was to illustrate the physiology of human sight and the place of light in Art, Architecture and our Planet’s Environment. The former Church of San Pedro and San Pablo was designated as the space to house the hands-on exhibit which would be an extension of Universum Museum.

In February, the College of Medicine was recognized by the World Health Organization for its medical training owing to the University community’s dedication and sustained efforts in reaching the highest standards, and for its scientific vocation. Only twenty other institutions in the world had been so honored.

In March, the application of the General Exam for University Graduation was announ­ced, a device by which the participating institutions of higher learning in Mexico hoped to perform a systematic analysis of education at the undergraduate level.

The month also saw the National Autonomous University of Mexico, together with ten other educational institutions, give its support to a National Center for the Evaluation of Higher Education project to create a single exam for high school admissions in the metropolitan area. It was stipulated that the project for the creation of a single exam did not imply any modification to the UNAM admission regulations nor the approval of the University Council.

On the 5th of September, The UNAM became the third institution of higher learning in the world to have its own satellite. UNAMSAT-B was launched by the Russian Aerospace Force from the Plestsk Cosmodrome.

The satellite was designed to measure the speed of meteorites entering the Earth’s atmosphere which would indicate whether they had originated from within the Solar System or in outer space. With the launching of UNAMSAT-B Mexico became a world power in the Space race.

On the 7th of September, the Spanish head of state, José Maria Aznar, visited UNAM and took part in the Seminar for University Presidents. He stated that for bilateral cooperation it was necessary to concentrate on selective high quality programs and not on quantity.

He reiterated his intention to maintain the existing objectives and programs between Mexico and Spain for research and cooperation in Science, Culture and Education.

The General Office of the Registrar, Dirección General de Administración Escolar (DGAE), in support of the federalization and academic formalization of the UNAM, began operating tramitel, a computer program which offers a strict control while saving time on each step at registration and graduation.

In October, the University of Colima named Director José Sarukhan Doctor honoris causa in recognition of his long career in science and his dedication to higher education in the country, and especially for his support to that institution.

At the ground breaking inauguration ceremony for the building to house the Center for Ecology’s Morelia Unit, the UNAM’s campus in Morelia, Michoacán came into being. This first phase also included the Astronomy and Mathematics Institutes.

In December, the National Autonomous University of Mexico and leading French cultural institutions forged closer ties and amplified agreements with the idea of opening an UNAM center in Paris. This month the Board of Governors of the UNAM unanimously named Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro as Director for the term 1997-2001.

OIn ordinary session the University Council swore in Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro as Director of the National Autonomous University of Mexico for 1997 to 2001.

Also in January, the UniversumScience Museum celebrated its fourth anniversary with the inauguration of the Optics Room. In compliance with a contract signed on the 27th of November, the Oracle Corporation donated a finished database to the Office of the Coordinator for the Promotion of Culture who had developed it to integrate information on the various entities it coordinates, such as, the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso cultural center and the UniversumScience Museum.

In an executive decree, that came into effect on the 6th of February, 1997, Director Francisco Barnés de Castro ordered that, The Administrative Structure of the National Autonomous University of Mexico; The Central Administration for the National University of Mexico; The Executive Authority; and the Student Affairs Authority be reorganized; and that the Planning Authority be established.

 In March, The Research and Document Center for Spanish Archives completed microfilming the José Gaos (1900- 1969) Archive and donated a copy to the Institute for Research in Philosophy, which has housed the collection since the philosopher’s death.

The microfilmed collection includes: manuscripts, translations, work notes, lectures, and lesson plans and it forms part of the larger project, which is the Recuperation of Primary Sources of Philosophers of the Spanish Exile. This project was accepted by the General Council of Spanish Universities in mid 1994 to make up for the loss of many thinkers and intellectuals to Spain during the Civil War.

On the 4th of March the Spanish Ambassador, Juan Lopéz de Chicheri, visited the National University accompanied by the Rector, Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro. On the 8th of April, in the Equipment Hall at the General Office for Academic Computing, the Director set in operation the most compete supercomputer in Latin America, the Origin 2000 Silicon-Graphics, which has one of the largest capacities in the world.

In April, the Australian Ambassador to Mexico, Richard Broinowsky, met with Director Francisco Barnés de Castro in his office on the sixth floor of the Central Administration Building to learn more about the UNAM, to cement relations and to exchange points of view. The meeting made clear the intent of both parties to establish, at some future date, an academic exchange program that would allow Mexican students to study in Austrailia.

At its second ordinary session in May, the University Council the Council awarded Director Francisco Barnés de Castro a unanimous vote of confidence to find, within the guidelines of the Special Commissions for Security and Academic Accreditation, a definitive solution to the free access Peoples Preparatory Schools problem. 

The Akishino Prince Fumihito and Princess Kiko of Japan visited the UNAM on the 15th of May. They were received by Jorge Hernandez, Coordinator for Academic Programs in the Central Administration, acting on behalf of Director Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro. The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens unanimously awarded University philosopher Leopoldo Zea an honorary doctorate, a historic event in that it was the first time that a Spanish speaker had received such an honor and that Spanish had been recognized as a language of Philosophy.

Through an agreement signed with the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), the July 6th election results were immediately available on the Internet.

At its ordinary session on June 9th , the University Council, by simple majority, gave its general approval to the criteria established for admission to the University, along with the maintaining of  the active status proposed by the Commission on Academic Accreditation, and it was sent for review and comment to the Governing Councils of the UNAM Schools and Colleges, the National Preparatory School and the Academic Unit of the College of Science and Humanities as well as to the Governing Council of  Research in the Sciences, Governing Council of Research in the Humanities, the Academic Councils by Area, and  to the Academic Council for University High Schools. 

Director Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro decreed the creation of the Office of the UNAM Coordinator for Community Relations, the purpose of which is to advance an integrated strategy to form closer ties between the University and society at large by giving attention to issues which affect National development. The decree took effect on the 16th of June, 1997.

At its ordinary session on July 1st, the University Council approved the amendments to the General Regulations for Registration and the General Regulations for Exams. These amendments were in accordance with the general principles relating to the admission and maintenance of regular status in the University and the University High Schools.

They had been accepted in its June 9th session after ample consultation with 26 governing Councils, the four Academic Councils by Area, and the Academic Council for UNAM High Schools.

The accord that founded the Administrative Council and the Office of the Coordinator of Administrative Services was published and became effective on the 7th of August, 1997. This accord established the objectives, functions and integration of the Council as well as the attributes and obligations of the President of the Council and of the Coordinator of Administrative Services.

Director Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro inaugurated a new computer lab financed by the UNAM Foundation at the Central Red Cross Hospital, raising the number to 35 of such labs set up in health care facilities.  The inaugural ceremony took place after the signing of the respective agreement in which the necessary operating procedures and the mechanisms for collaboration between the Hospital and the UNAM.

They were established so the lab which will benefit not only UNAM students but also students from other institutions, doctors, nurses, and interns, all of whom will have access to the UNAM Network, the Internet, and data bases.

On the 13th of August, the chief representatives of the UNAM, Director Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro and the Foundation for Access to Culture, Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE), former president Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, signed an agreement to establish the basis for collaboration in the fields of academics, science and culture as well as in the fields of publishing, printing, marketing and advertising produced by either institution.

The agreement also called for performing such services necessary to carry out the social mission of both institutions. The five year agreement contemplated the signing of specific publishing, promotional, marketing, and service agreements or contracts both here and abroad.

The second phase of the UNAM Center for Neurobiology at Juriquilla, Querétaro was set in motion. Director Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro announced the timely incorporation of an Applied Physics and an Advanced Technology Unit as well as a Center for Earth Sciences and a Graduate Division in Accounting and Administration and a Graduate Division in Architecture to this Campus.

In October, Director Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro created the College of University Administration to advise the Central Administrative Authority of the National University. The University Center for Scientific News changed its name and functions to the General Office for Scientific Information effective this same month.

Director Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro presented his Development Plan to the student body, a plan which offers a common vision of the future, in order to face the major challenges at the University that must be met in the coming years, and at the same time set the guidelines for change.

The accord canceling the University Space Research and Development Program was signed and the academic work in the areas of scientific research and technological development that had been carried out up to this moment, were integrated into the Center for Instrumentation.

An accord was also signed that created the The University Program for Space and Planetary Studies. The National Preparatory Schools celebrated one hundred and thirty years of operation. The University Council approved the raising of status of the College of Science and Humanities to that of a National School.

The distinguished University philosopher, Leopoldo Zea, was awarded a docorate honoris causa by the University of Havana in recognition of his long career. On the 26th of January, Director Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro gave a welcome message to the University community upon the returning to classes.

In the Rotunda of Illustrious Men and at the National Department of Education, Justo Sierra, the distinguished thinker who had dedicated thirty years of his life to the creation of the National University, was honored on the 150th anniversary of his birth.

The Vidal Castañeda y Nájera campus of the National Preparatory Schools celebrated forty five years of operation. The University witnessed the last solar eclipse of the millennium visible in the Americas.

Recently recovered music from the Seventeenth Century was played once again at the anniversary celebration of the Bibliographic Research Institute and the National Library. The UNAM strengthened ties with the El Universal newspaper.