Minister Anna Maria Bernini at the Università Mediterranea

In the presence of the Minister of University and Research, Senator Anna Maria Bernini, the Campus del Mediterraneo project was presented at the Quistelli Hall of the Università degli Studi Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria . 

At the same time, the Minister launched two very important institutional activities: the new University portal , designed with a view to deeply renewing communication and digital services, and the Counseling Service that is part of the PROBEN project, funded by the MUR. This is an emotional psychoeducation laboratory for better understanding and management of personal and relational well-being by students.

The University Campus del Mediterraneo - with attached student housing - will be built in the real estate complex of the Monfort Missionaries, one of the large socio-cultural containers and nuclei of the city of Reggio Calabria which enjoys a strategic position with respect to the University Citadel.

The regeneration project foresees that the beating heart of the new campus will be the large internal garden, around which the main collective activities such as theatre, classrooms and general services will be organised.

“The Campus del Mediterraneo project is much more than an infrastructure: it is a shared dream that is taking shape today, thanks to the teamwork between Parliament and the Ministry of University and Research, the determination of the Honorable Cannizzaro and the vision of the Rector Zimbalatti. It is the confirmation that when the University and the territory walk together they are a powerful engine of growth, inclusion and change” stated Minister Bernini , who then continued by highlighting that “Reggio Calabria is not only the tip of Italy, but a natural bridge towards the Mediterranean. With this Campus it is a candidate to become a point of reference for students, teachers and researchers from all over the world. Today we are giving back to the city a space of beauty and culture, such as the Monfort Fathers complex, which will once again be a place of welcome, exchange and knowledge. We are here to build together an Italy that invests in talent, that enhances its territories and that gives young people not only opportunities, but above all confidence in the future.”

The presentation ceremony of the project was opened by the Rector Giuseppe Zimbalatti  who recalled the incisiveness of the political action of the Honorable Francesco Cannizzaro who supported an amendment in the Budget Committee of the Parliament, obtaining a ministerial allocation of four million euros thanks to which the Campus project can be concretely realized and become a place of interdisciplinary and multifunctional exchange between teachers, researchers, citizens and students, with particular attention to those coming from the Mediterranean basin and from particular areas of humanitarian crisis.

The Rector represented the reality of the Università Mediterranea to Minister Bernini and the qualified audience. “We are a young University that embodies the values ​​of a land rich in history, talent and beauty. Culture, identity and future are our key words, to which we associate peace and hope, as the Pope indicated in his message to the planet yesterday. We are suffering from a significant demographic winter, but we do not resign ourselves to the logic of statistics; we claim the role of cultural, scientific and educational garrison in synergy with institutional actors and today more than ever we feel the responsibility to attract and retain young people”.  

On the project of the Campus del Mediterraneo,  the Rector emphasized that "the objective of the University is to strengthen its receptivity in residential, cultural and educational terms. The project opens up new scenarios linked to Reggio Calabria, increasingly a university city, and strengthens its being an inclusive and open community. A Campus of (and in) the Mediterraneo which therefore constitutes one of the most important bets to be able to strengthen the attractiveness both for southern students - who will be able to take advantage of better conditions to remain in their land - and for the many other young people who will be able to cultivate even more opportunities for stimulation and curiosity in the city of the Strait, positioned at the center of the mare nostrum , a crossroads of peoples, art, culture and millenary history".

The meeting continued with the reports of professors Antonio D'Elia “ The Mediterranean, Dante and Calabria ” and Alessandro Villari who presented “ The functional recovery project of the Monfortani Complex of Reggio Calabria ”.

Before the conclusions of Minister Bernini, there were speeches by the Deputy Mayor of Reggio Calabria Paolo Brunetti , by the MEP Honourable Giusi Princi , by the Honourable Francesco Cannizzaro and by Isabella Scarpino , President of the Student Council, who remembered Sara Campanella, the student of the University of Messina who was the victim of femicide.  

The institutional portal, created in collaboration with CINECA, is configured as a complex digital ecosystem consisting of a series of integrated thematic services and is an integral part of a complex and participatory strategic project. "The goal - explained the rector Giuseppe Zimbalatti - is to deeply renew our communication and our digital services, representing a significant evolution both from a technological and communicative point of view. We want to offer an improved user experience, thanks to an intuitive, modern and accessible interface, which enhances the identity of the University and strengthens its capacity for dialogue with the different components of the university community. Particular attention - underlines the rector Zimbalatti - has been reserved for the needs of students who will find in the portal a digital environment that is easier to navigate and more effective in transmitting information. We trust that this new infrastructure can represent a real improvement for the entire academic community, strengthening the quality of university services and projecting the Mediterranean towards an increasingly innovative, accessible and contemporary future. I would like to thank the internal working group of the University, composed of figures with heterogeneous skills, who developed the new service with rigor and professionalism, for the concrete and qualified contribution offered in all phases of the re-engineering process".

The Psychological Counseling Service, Anti-Violence Center and Listening Center is part of the PRO-BENE-COMUNE project (PROmotion of the WELL-BEING of the UNivErsitary COMmunity), an initiative funded by the Ministry of University and Research. Special rooms and listening spaces within the University of Reggio - inaugurated by the Minister - have been set up to give students the opportunity to develop, through discussion with experts and qualified personnel, emotional skills useful in studying, relationships and daily life. There are several objectives: to promote emotional literacy and self-awareness; to recognize the role of emotions in communication, studying and stress management; to develop emotional regulation skills and coping strategies; and finally to stimulate reflection on emotional experiences in the university context.