Foundation

The Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo was founded in 1946, from the union of the Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de São Bento (School of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of São Bento, founded in 1908) and the Paulista School of Law. Together, four other institutions of the Church were connected.^[6]

Founded by the archbishop of São Paulo, Cardinal Carlos Carmelo Vasconcellos Motta as the "Catholic University of São Paulo", the university received the title of "Pontifical Catholic University" in 1947, by the Pope Pius XII.^[6]

In 1969s, PUC-SP was the first university in Brazil to have a post-graduation course.^[6]

During the Military Dictatorship

During the Military Dictatorship in Brazil, many students and professors at PUC-SP were present in manifestations against the Government, and the archbishop at that time, Paulo Evaristo Arns, admitted teachers from the public universities who were dismissed by the militaries. Some of the persons who started working at PUC are Florestan Fernandes, Octavio Ianni, Bento Prado Jr., José Arthur Gianotti.^[6]

In 1977, PUC hosted the 29th meeting of the Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência (SBPC, Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science), which had been forbidden by the government in public universities. In September, some students celebrated the third National Meeting of the Students, also forbidden by the dictatorship. As a response, troops of the Military Police broke into the campus and arrested some students, professors and other workers.^[6]

In the early 1980s, PUC-SP was the first Brazilian university to elect the rector and other administrative functions by direct vote from the students and teachers.^[6] In 1984, two fires (one in September, the other in December, the latter believe to be criminal)^[6] damaged the theater of the university.

Financial crisis

In the early 2000s, two new campuses, one in Santana and one in Barueri, were created.

In 2001, the university had a deficit of 4 million reais, and that deficit increased in the following years, forcing PUC-SP to make a loan with banks, which generated a debt of 82 million reais by the end of 2005.^[7] and the results could be observed for most of the year 2006. Some courses were closed for the low demand^[8] and the several professors were fired^[9] (although some of them had accepted to have their salaries decreased to avoid being dismissed),^[10] generating protests from professors and students.^[11] By the end of 2006, the university had its first non-deficitary months.^[12]

In 2012, for the first time since the students, professors and staff have been given the right to directly elect the university's rector, the most voted candidate (Dirceu de Mello, which had already been elected for the 2008–2012 mandate and was on campaign for reelection) was not appointed for the position by Odilo Scherer, bishop-cardinal and responsible for appointing the rector. Instead, he opted for Anna Cintra, the least voted of all three candidates.^[13] She accepted the position, even though she signed a document (a gesture imitated by the other two candidates) promising not to take over unless she was the most voted candidate.^[14] The cardinal's decision was received with dissatisfaction by students and professors, who started a strike for indefinite time and did other demonstrations as an answer to Anna Cintra's indication.^[15][16][17] On 30 November, she tried to gain access to the rector's room, but was barred by the students, who surrounded her and her bodyguards and caused her to flee by taxi.^[18]

Unities and courses

Professors

Economy school

• Plínio de Arruda Sampaio (1930–2014), Federal Deputy for São Paulo
• Celso Daniel (1951–2002), Mayor of Santo André
• Celso Furtado (1920–2004), Minister of Development and Minister of Culture
• Guido Mantega (1949–), Finance Minister
• Aloizio Mercadante (1954–), Senator for São Paulo

Education school

• Paulo Freire (1921–1997), critical pedagogy theorist

Law school

• Osvaldo Aranha Bandeira de Melo (1908–1980), Director of São Paulo city legal department, first lay rector of PUC-SP between 1963 and 1972, desembargador of the Court of São Paulo
• Tércio Sampaio Ferraz Júnior (1941–), philosopher of law and jurist.
• Michel Temer (1940-), President of Brazil.

Philosophy school

• Zeljko Loparić (1939–), History of Philosophy scholar
• Bento Prado Júnior (1937–2007), literary critic, writer, poet and translator
• Jeanne Marie Gagnebin (1952 – ), philosopher, History of Philosophy scholar and writer

Sociology school

• Octavio Ianni (1926–2004), populism and imperialism scholar
• Florestan Fernandes (1920–1995), Federal Deputy for São Paulo
• Maurício Tragtenberg (1929–1998), Libertarian Education exponent

Arts and Letters school

• Haroldo de Campos (1929–2003), literary critic, writer, translator and one of the most important poet of twentieth-century Brazilian poetry.

Alumni

• Nicandro Durante, Chief executive of British American Tobacco
• Maria Rita Kehl, psychoanalyst and writer
• Gabriel Chalita, Secretary of education of the State of São Paulo
• Antonio Claudio Mariz de Oliveira, criminalist lawyer
• José Dirceu, Chief of Staff
• Luiz Fernando Furlan, Finance Minister and entrepreneur
• Reynaldo Gianecchini, actor
• Amir Slama, stylist and entrepreneur
• Marta Suplicy, psychologist, and mayor of São Paulo city
• Monalisa Perrone, journalist of TV Globo
• Shigeaki Ueki, President of Petrobrás
• Rui Ricardo Dias, actor
• Rafael Cortez, journalist, actor and comedian
• Suzane von Richthofen, convicted murderer
• Ulisses Soares, Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints