Towards a University Cultural Policy at Universidad José Cecilio del Valle: The Experience of the Sports, Arts, and Culture Unit as a Model of Innovative Management (2022–2024)

Abstract

This article systematizes the experience developed by the Sports, Arts, and Culture Unit (UDAC) of the Universidad José Cecilio del Valle (UJCV) between 2022 and 2024, as a basis for reflecting on the construction of a sustainable university cultural policy. In a context where the arts, culture, and sports have historically occupied a marginal position within private higher education in Central America, UDAC has promoted an emerging model that integrates these areas as structural pillars of institutional development. Grounded in a theoretical framework centered on cultural rights, cultural democracy, and critical interculturality, and employing a qualitative methodology based on autoethnography, systematization of experiences, and documentary analysis, the study organizes its
findings around three dimensions: cultural governance, formative practices, and socio-educational projection. The results reveal achievements, tensions, and lessons learned that help outline proposals for a participatory, critical, and contextualized cultural policy, with the potential to be replicated in other universities in the region.