The foundation of a public university had been an old dream of the population of Campos dos Goytacazes, State of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), when the mobilization of an organized section of the town's society managed to include a popular amendment to the State's Constitution of 1989, which stipulated the creation of State University of Northern of Rio de Janeiro, UENF. According to the Article 49 of Transitory Statements of the State's Constitution, the university that was a dream of several generations of citizens of Campos should also be present in the cities of Itaocara, Itaperuna and Santo Antônio de Pádua. In the beginning of the 1990's, the great challenge of the popular movement that desired the creation of UENF was to meet the legal deadlines, under the penalty of seeing the constitution amendment losing validity.