LAST WISHES OF NOVAIS BARBOSA

The title is intentionally ambiguous, but it is not about coming up with tragedies or anticipating disasters: our rector is not dead and we are not the trustees of his will.

However, elections for the Rectory of the University of Porto are expected and the current Rector has made clear that he would not stand for election again. And, in case we had a short memory, he let us know it himself, by saying goodbye to the rest of the INESC Porto’s associates in such a plain way, in the last meeting of INESC Porto’s General Council. He said: this is the last council I’m presiding.

It is our duty to declare our feelings: Professor Novais Barbosa was an unshakable and steady support assuring INESC Porto’s stability - a friend who was, nevertheless, thorough. Besides, he knew, above all, how to interpret the essence of the institution in an integrating way, realizing how much its success values the University itself.

He could have nominated other equally respectable people to represent the University in the General Council but he always made sure he was present, conferring dignity and meaning to the regular act of appreciating the institution’s life and defining its general course. His action in the last decade’s most distraught periods had already been crucial, when there was the need to define a new model for INESC, from which the emancipation of INESC Porto would result. Let his example be determining in the future relation between us and the University.

In Novais Barbosa’s last council, the associates expressed their wish to open INESC Porto to other institutions, assigning the Board to convey such invitation and find the practical ways to make it happen. Wise sign: never cease to renew, never stop to contemplate the work done but only enough to propel us into further action. Abusively, we want to interpret that Novais Barbosa’s last wish was, indeed, this one.