USP Professors Vote to Join Student Strike

Overview

• Professors at the University of São Paulo voted to suspend activities and join the student strike, a decision taken in an assembly held on Monday, May 25, to press the administration to resume negotiations.
• The strike adds a second front to a pay dispute in which the Council of State University Rectors (Cruesp) offered a 3.47% rise while the faculty association Adusp rejected that and demanded 7.3% calculated as the IPCA plus 3 percentage points.
• Students have been on strike since April 14 led by the DCE, demanding the PAPFE student aid be raised from about R$880–R$885 to roughly R$1,804 and improvements to university dining and housing, and they occupied a reitoria building in early May after talks stalled.
• The university says its 2026 scholarship budget will be R$461 million, an 8.25% increase, and that it has notified contracted food providers while investigating reports of food contamination, as technical staff who had struck earlier returned after securing a raise.
• A new faculty assembly is scheduled for June 1 and a campus vigil was planned for May 26, developments that will shape whether talks restart and how long teaching, hospital services and campus operations remain disrupted.