Dear UPEACE Leadership,

We write to you as a collective of key UPEACE stakeholders-- including alumni, students, staff, and community members-- who are deeply concerned by the current trajectory of our beloved institution.  This letter summarizes our core concerns and outlines specific demands for the future. We have also launched a petition, which includes signatures from supporters and further testimony regarding their experiences at UPEACE. 

UPEACE is “the only institution in the UN system mandated exclusively for peace education” (UPEACE Website). Yet, for years, we have watched leadership divest from peace education—not only as a program, but as a practice. We have seen an institution built on values of democracy, collaboration, and community devolve into an environment characterized by authoritarianism, hostility, and opacity. As the world cries out for peacemakers, we believe UPEACE retains the potential to fulfill its mission; however, this is impossible under its current form of governance. 

Current leadership appears more focused on using global instability as an excuse for stagnation than seizing the opportunity to attract passionate changemakers. We love UPEACE and believe in its potential, which is why we refuse to stand by while leadership maneuvers the institution away from its stated mission.

1. Leadership Conduct and Fitness for Role
Dr. Francisco Rojas Aravena operates without adequate checks on his power and is not fit to serve as Rector. Our concerns are fivefold:

• Violation of Term Limits: Institutional records indicate that Dr. Rojas’s second term was concluded in 2023. His continued service beyond this period without a formal re-election or extension represents a fundamental breach of UPEACE’s governance protocols and underscores the absence of accountability mechanisms within the university.
• Professional Demeanor: There are significant concerns regarding Dr. Rojas’s physical and mental fitness for duty. Multiple cohorts have witnessed him falling asleep during official ceremonies and meetings, as well as exhibiting erratic behavior. If a Rector cannot maintain basic professional composure during a graduation ceremony, he cannot represent the highest office of the university.
• Strategic Failure: Dr. Rojas has failed to demonstrate the ability to fundraise or recruit students at a sustainable rate. Despite high interest in UPEACE, he has lost funding opportunities, alienated current and past students, and blamed external factors for internal failures. The resulting decline in enrollment is directly attributable to his strategic mismanagement and lack of proactive recruitment efforts, rather than any inherent lack of demand for peace education. 
• Bypassing of Academic Governance: UPEACE maintains established curriculum oversight procedures, yet the curriculum changes imposed on the current cohort appear to be enacted unilaterally by the Rector and Vice Rector without following the standard curricular change process. Last-minute changes were announced after students had arrived and paid for programs they had not agreed to, and instructors were introduced into courses without the vetting these procedures exist to require. This demonstrates a pattern of deliberately circumventing the university's own governance structures rather than merely operating in their absence.
• Hostility and Retaliation: Dr. Rojas has acted with hostility toward community members who attempt to set professional boundaries or ask reasonable questions. He appears to have fired key staff based on personal animus rather than performance. Furthermore, he has publicly humiliated staff, including in front of accreditation bodies, undermining the institution’s integrity. The Vice Rector and other leadership figures, including the Council, have been complicit in allowing this concentration of unchecked power.

2. Systemic Lack of Accountability
The absence of accountability mechanisms at UPEACE is a critical failure. The Rector holds excessive control over staffing, budgets, infrastructure, and academic programs. Recently, the termination of the Human Resources department further consolidated this unilateral power.

Underlying every failure described in this letter is the dysfunction of the Council, the body charged with the governance and oversight of the university. It is the Council's inaction—its failure to enforce term limits, to intervene in unilateral decision-making, and to hold the Rector to the standards of his office—that has enabled this concentration of power to persist. Oversight that is invisible to the community it serves, and unresponsive to it, is not oversight at all. 

Historically, ombudspersons have breached confidentiality by sharing reports against the Rector directly with him, enabling retaliatory action against complainants. On other occasions, no support mechanism existed at all, leaving students, faculty, and staff unsupported through cases of harassment and workplace hostility. It is appalling that an institution dedicated to peace education lacks basic democratic safeguards and due process.

3. Mismanagement of the Current Master’s Cohort
This lack of transparency is most acute in the treatment of the current Master’s cohort, particularly those in the M.A. of Peace Education and M.A. of Gender and Development. Despite increased enrollment—largely due to the efforts of former resident professors—the Rector terminated their contracts one month before students arrived.

UPEACE did not disclose to incoming students that they would arrive without a program advisor or a replacement plan. Worse, the university waited until students were on campus and had made initial tuition payments to announce drastic changes to their course schedule, causing panic and distress. When this cohort attempted to meet with the Rector to seek clarity, he refused to answer their questions and subsequently skipped follow-up meetings. It is unacceptable for a United Nations-affiliated institution to operate with such opacity and disregard for the contractual expectations of its students.

4. Impact on the Wider Community
UPEACE’s impact extends beyond its walls to local business owners, landlords, and educators who rely on the student population. The Rector’s negligence threatens this ecosystem. We possess the resources, connections, and drive to support UPEACE’s growth, but we cannot support an institution that operates with such a lack of integrity. We are prepared to defend UPEACE’s future, but only if it is safeguarded by structural changes that return it to its founding values.

Demands for Resolution
As stakeholders in the UPEACE community, to restore trust and ensure the viability of UPEACE, we demand the following:

Immediate Leadership Transition

1. Dr. Francisco Rojas Aravena must step down as Rector effective immediately.

2. Vice Rector Dr. Juan Carlos Sainz-Borgo should serve as interim Rector only until the end of the 2026–2027 master’s cohort, after which he must also resign to allow for a fresh start.

Structural Reform & Governance 
3. Establish a Rector and Vice Rector search committee composed of key stakeholders with equal voting weight. The committee must include a minimum of: 2 current students, 2 alumni, 2 current faculty, 2 current staff members 

4. Ensure the gender breakdown of UPEACE staff, faculty, and leadership reflects that of the student body. 

5. Reinstate the Human Resources department, beginning with an offer of reinstatement to the previously terminated HR lead. 

6. Hire a full-time Ombudsperson and establish a clear, publicized safeguarding policy that protects all stakeholders from retaliation and breaches of confidentiality. This policy must guarantee the anonymity of complainants, explicitly prohibit retaliation against any staff member or student who reports misconduct, and route complaints concerning the Rector or Vice Rector directly to the University Council rather than through university leadership.

7. Collaborate with the new Ombudsperson and outside experts to create a restorative justice process as an option for conflict resolution. 

8. Develop a Code of Ethics signed by all stakeholders, emphasizing transparency, balanced power structures, and democratic principles.

9. Make the Council accountable to the community it governs: publish a current roster of Council members with a public channel for contacting them, and institute regular opportunities—such as scheduled listening sessions or an annual open forum—for students, faculty, staff, and alumni to present concerns directly to the Council. 

Financial & Operational Accountability 

10. Commission an independent forensic audit of UPEACE’s finances for the last five years to investigate allegations of embezzlement and mismanagement. The results must be shared transparently with the Council and the wider community. In parallel, UPEACE must publish quarterly public reports on enrollment figures, fundraising outcomes, and budget allocations, so that institutional sustainability is demonstrated through transparent data rather than asserted against external circumstances.  

11. Offer reinstatement to recently terminated staff and faculty whose departures appear to be driven by personal animus rather than reasons given. 

12. Hire a full-time Admissions Officer to recruit globally, vet applicants rigorously, and maintain enrollment standards. This role should prioritize DEI and build partnerships in Costa Rica and abroad to serve as both fundraising and recruitment bridges. 

Mission Alignment

13. Commission an independent audit of UPEACE's internal governance and administrative practices against its pedagogical mission. A university mandated to teach peace, democracy, and collaboration must model those values in how it is governed, how its people are treated, and how its decisions are made.

We expect acknowledgment of this letter within seven days. If we do not receive an initial response outlining active steps toward these demands by November 2, 2026, we will escalate our grievances to all appropriate channels. Responses and questions can be sent to voices4upeace@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Concerned Members of the UPEACE Community