Universidad Autónoma Nuevo León

Foundation

The immediate forerunner of this public university dates back to 1859, when the Civil Academy (Colegio Civil) started its courses. This institution had been envisioned by Governor Santiago Vidaurri but was erected by his successor, José Silvestre Aramberri, after the former was removed from office. The academy began to sponsor the Pharmacy and Medicine courses José Eleuterio González had been teaching at the local Hospital of the Rosary for several decades. The academic offerings included courses in Law and Medicine, as well as a preparatory school. Its first director was José de Jesús Dávila y Prieto.

On 29 October 1932, the delegations of the state schools of Law, Medicine and Pharmacy; the Civil Academy and the normal school, submitted a project to the Congress of Nuevo León to organize a state university for the Monterrey Metropolitan area. On 7 November 1932, the state congress ordered to proceed with the request and on 25 September 1933 the University of Nuevo León was born. Héctor González González was elected as the first rector of the university.

In its first year, 1,864 students were schooled by 218 professors from the faculties of Medicine, Law, Engineering, and Chemistry, the Normal School, a preparatory school, the School of Nurses and Obstetricians and the Álvaro Obregón and Pablo Livas Industrial Schools. The institution became plagued with political disputes and almost two years later, on 25 September 1935, it was closed by state decree, only to reopen almost eight years later, on 13 September 1943.

Expansion

The number of faculty and personnel began to grow and this prompted the construction of its own campus in 1958, the University City (Ciudad Universitaria), an academic complex located in San Nicolás de los Garza, a suburb to the state capital. In 1967, its open-air stadium was finished. From 1968 to 1972, the university was hit once again by student protests and political disputes, and by 1971 the protests had forced the government to stop from interfering in its internal affairs and recognize a statute of autonomy that became part of its current name: Autonomous University of Nuevo León (Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León).

In the late 1990s the institution saw the necessity to rent its professional football (soccer) team, which has maintained in the Mexican professional league (Tigres de la UANL), and was later affected by a corruption scandal that involved its own rector but ended with no legal consequences for those accused.