Accents
Julia Carreon-Lagoc
UP Beloved in history
We are back in the homeland and thus can take part in the yearlong centennial celebrations of the beloved alma mater, and sing once more UP Beloved or UP Naming Mahal, the university hymn.
I exhume from the now defunct Examiner, tidbits of UP history I wrote in 1999, snippets of a rich tapestry of 100 years after its establishment on June 18, 1908.
The postscript below gives updates on the university as it is now.
UP blushing, The Examiner, June 7-13, 1999—The University of the Philippines, the country's premier university, was put to a singeing blush when it rated a disappointing No. 32 in the recently publicized survey of Asian universities. UP alumni shook their heads, hardly believing that dear ole' Alma Mater could fall so low in "disgrace."
Hey, what's the faculty to do about it? This was more or less the subject UP President Emil Javier and this writer discussed before the Ugnayan ng Pahinungod program, "Paghahanda at Paghahatid ‘99" at Punta Villa, Arevalo, last May 26. Dr. Javier explained as if he was talking to a long-lost sister. (We were contemporaries—he was in UP Los Baños; I was in Diliman.)
Among other criteria, Dr. Javier said, research output is of great significance, and it is in this area that UP is badly handicapped. Tokyo University, which used to be No. 1 (the "champ" inhibited itself from the survey this year), spends an average of $285,000 per research study and Taiwan which is No. 20 spends $28,000 as against UP's $8,000. Really, no contest when it comes to funding. Again our Third World deprivation rears its ugly head. It was no consolation that UP was above that of the country's three big universities—Ateneo, La Salle, UST—which all rated below 50 in the survey.
UP's poor showing is not to be blushed about or shrugged off by the faculty and the next university president. Rather, a point of great concern. Dr. Javier bows out of office on Aug.5. The new president takes over on the 6th. Barring savvy politics, the Board of Regents will have to elect the best man or woman that could put UP at par with Asia's top universities.
Whoever is chosen will have a tough act to follow in Dr. Javier who enumerated six major accomplishments: the creation of the UP Open University, the UP Mindanao, the National Graduate School of Engineering, the National Institute of Health, the Ugnayan ng Pahinungod volunteer service program, and the UP Provident Fund.
Lunch with the "Presidentiables," The Examiner, June 28-July 4, 1999—It was an intimidating presence. The I.Q. per square inch in that small air-con room adjacent to the UPV cafeteria in its Iloilo City campus could shame Congress and Malacañang — at least on the table occupied by the eight nominees to the UP presidency. Call them the country's intellectual giants and the appellation would fit to a T. In alphabetical order, as seated in the dialogue cum public forum last June 17 at the UPV auditorium, they are: Dr. Manuel Alba, Dr. Ledivina Cariño, Dr. Amador Muriel, Dr. Francisco Nemenzo, Dr. Nestor Nisperos, former Sen. Leticia Ramos-Shahani, Dr. Gerardo Sicat, and Dr. Reynaldo Vea. It was a power lunch for a hefty gathering of doctorate degree holders. The former woman senator called attention to her name, preferring her Ph.D. to be recognized rather than her being a senator of which she was a three-termer.
Time was much too limited in both the forum and the luncheon cum press-con that followed. Some of the nominees had to catch their flights for Manila, and there was no way to gauge who among them has the most substantial answer to a question. Best to leave the thorough grilling to the members of UP's Board of Regents, the ones mandated to elect the UP President. Nevertheless, the dialogue was a good exercise in democratic consultation, the UP being a strong exponent thereof.
Earlier in the open forum, a booming voice questioned the integrity of UPV as to the management of research being undertaken in the Miag-ao campus. It was columnist, Rodolfo "Ompong" Legaspi, who was cut short for being out of order, but not before he had thrown some "brimstones." Fellow alumna, Kagawad Perla Zulueta, couldn't help going to the microphone to stop the avalanche of cutting denunciations from law alumnus Ompong. (Among the audience of faculty, alumni, and students, the Kagawad was a stand-out, as "pearly" looking as she was during the grand reunion ten years ago.)
I found the one-on-one before and after the press-con more fruitful for the questions I had in mind. Does the principle of recall apply to the UP President? No such rule, said Dr. Nemenzo. So what if, in the first year of administration, the President is found to be incompetent? "Then we will have to suffer," the former UPV Chancellor replied. "Not if you're the one chosen?" but there was no chance for this follow-up since many others were vying for his attention.
For a second, to confirm our guess, we approached Dr. Rey Vea who was truly the activist we heard so much about. Dr. Vea had survived the years of living dangerously under the Marcos dictatorship. A Philippine Science High School valedictorian, he is an outstanding engineer and the youngest among the nominees.
Dr. Manuel Alba (the "hometown boy," valedictorian of Iloilo High School, was Manny to us, his classmates in UPIC in some elective subjects) told us to write about the "Presidentiables" and the day's proceedings. That would turn out rather heavy considering the nominees' sterling qualifications and what each envisions for the country's premier university.
Suffice it to say that the Board of Regents is confronted with a brilliant list of candidates. They will elect the UP President on June 30 which is a week from now, and if we have to believe political analyst Amando Doronila, it is an election more difficult than choosing the President of the Philippines — far be it from a predictable changing of the guards. And so as we wait with bated breath, we can only end up with the usual conclusion, "May the best man or woman win!" [Dr. Nemenzo won the UP presidency, serving his term from 1999-2005.]
Postscript
Following is a quote from the Wikipedia free encyclopedia: "U.P. was the highest ranked Philippine university in THES-QS [The Times Higher Education Supplement-Quacquarelli Symonds] World University Rankings in 2006 and 2007 and in the final edition of Asiaweek's Best Universities in Asia list in 2000. U.P. has the most number of National Centers of Excellence and Development among all higher education institutions in the country, and one of only three schools in Asia that have received institutional recognition in the Ramon Magsaysay Awards. U.P. graduates frequently top the professional board examinations in nearly all professional fields, and its College of Law has produced 49 out of 107 of all topnotchers in the Bar examinations.
"[It] has educated some of the country's most popular political and social leaders, economists, lawyers, medical doctors, creative artists and entrepreneurs. Several Philippine Presidents have attended courses in the University either as undergraduates or as postgraduate students, while 12 Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, 36 out of the 57 National Artists, and 30 out of the 31 National Scientists are affiliated with the University.
"Ranking weights: Peer Review Score (40%), Recruiter Review (10%), International Faculty Score (5%), International Student Score (5%), Faculty/Student Score (20%), Citations/Faculty Score (20%)."
The current U.P. President is Dr. Emerlinda R. Roman, the first woman to hold the position.
(Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)