Closing remarks, 1997 Faculty Conference at Subic
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The challenge confronting the University and the nation has been described in many ways. Succinctly put. this challenge is how to achieve our national objective of accel- erated. broad-based. equitable. and sustainable develop- ment. Almost everything that we have in mind would be encompassed by this broad national objective.
The University must respond to this national challenge in terms of its areas of comparative advantage. namely, instruction, research and extension. But ourinitiatives in these areas must to be informed by our status and claim of being the national university. We are not just another uni- versity. Neither are we just a modernizing university. We are the national university. Therefore our responses. and the way we organize and do things, will have to be in- formed by the values. history, and traditions we have built up as an institution over the last 89 years.
Over the last few days we have been articulating our responsesto the national challenge. In sum. these responses are in four general directions:
" We must provide broader access to quality education.
• We must promote progress over a wide front of economic. social and cultural development. We must describe our development not only in economic terms but also in social and cultural terms.
" We must establish a critical mass of world class expertise in priority fields. This is really our direct response to the challenge of globalization.
" We must strengthen our internal structure and system of governance as the university expands and as our programs become more complex.
Let me flesh out these four broad areas of response, with emphasis on the highest levels of aggregation. I will leave it to you to flesh out these responses beyond the System to the campuses, colleges, departments, units and even individuals.
First, providing broader access to quality education means allowing more Filipinos to have access to quality education. In the past. our attention was focused mainly on tertiary education. which is our natural mandate. We, however. have to go beyond this because the problems of tertiary education derive from the limitations and weaknesses in the other sectors of education. There are in fact several tiers of education. starting from early childhood education.
that we must respond to. The UP Education Research Pro- gram (UPERPJ has been doing its part in articulating our responses to the other tiers of education. One proposal is the establishment of centers for basic education in all the campuses of the university. Thus, we will have the Col- lege of Education and the College of Home Economics in Dillman, as well as Centers for basic education for research and training in each of the autonomous campuses.
In addition. through the UP Open University which we established two years ago, we are training teachers from other institutions in science, mathematics, social studies, and other fields. We have also organized systemwide com- mittees for upgrading mathematics education and English instruction, and the modernization of Filipino to address our own problems in the UP system.
The second broad response of UP has to do with pro- moting progress through a wide front of economic. social and cultural development across the country. If our coun- try is to grow faster and more equitably, we must harness the productive capacity of those in the regions and in ar- eas other than Metro Manila. Each of those regions will need outstanding universities to lead and support their re- spective development agenda. For this reason, we have been strengthening UP Visayas and its campuses in Tacloban, Cebu and Iloilo; we established UP Mindanao two years ago; and we are upgrading UP Baguio into UP Northern Luzon. There is now pending legislation upgrad- ing UP Baguio into an autonomous university. We also have the regional studies centers under the Center for In- tegrative and Development Studies: Samar-Leyte Heritage.
Program, Cordillera Studies. Bicol Studies. Southern Taga- log Studies. Manila Studies and Mindanao Studies.
Our third major response is made in view of the rapid pace of development in science and technology in other parts of the world. and the need to hold our own in com- petition with other countries by making more effective use of what we have. The recent Asieweek" survey shows that we rank 25th among the top 50 universities in the region. The survey further shows that our competitors are not Ateneo and La Salle (they are our allies) but the Seoul National University. National Taiwan University. Univer- sity of Tokyo and other national universities. To become competitive with these universities and to make our coun- try competitive with other countries, we must establish a critical mass of world-class expertise in priority fields.
The first field is food. agriculture, and environment. As early as the 1960s and 70s. we invested in this area in UP Los Banos. Now, we must sustain the modernization mo- mentum at UP Los Banos. highlighting the need for more upstream research in sustainable agriculture.
The second critical mass of, word-class expertise that we need to develop is in the area of engineering and indus- try. Indeed our median ranking in the Asieweek survey can probably be explained by our lack of a critical mass of expertise in this area. I am sorry to say this because this may be interpreted in a negative way. I have said this before and I will say this again: Our faculty members, individually. can hold their own against others in the re- gion. Our problem is with the lack of a critical mass of experts - a substantial concentration of academics in vari- ous areas of engineering and industry - as well as the ob- vious want for modern laboratories and equipment and information support.
If you consider tropical agriculture, the investments by UP Los Banos in this field are comparable to the invest- ments in modern agriculture by the other universities around the region. So. had it been tropical agriculture. forestry and veterinary science that the Asiaweek survey had con- sidered. we could not have been ranked 25; we would have to be among the top five or top to.
However, in engineering, we really are in this category relative to the National University of Singapore, the Tech- nology University in Indonesia, the National Taiwan Univer- sity or Seoul National University, precisely because of the absence of this critical mass of expertise and support facili- ties.
To address this situation, we have proposed the estab- lishment of the National Graduate School of Engineering INGSE) at UP Diliman. Fortunately, our proposal has been approved by President Fidel V. Ramos. He has given in- structions to the Cabinet, and in his recent book, Leader- ship for the 2 t st Century, there are orders to accelerate the completion of the engineering complex in UP Diliman. This is in recognition of the fact that the NGSE is a national investment, a national resource. We are creating the NGSE not just for Diliman but for the whole System and for the entire country. The 1'5 billion budget for the NGSE will also allow us to modernize or strengthen the College of Engi- neering and Agricultural Technology in UP Los Banos, ac- celerate the progress of the School of Technology in UP Visayas, and contemplate the establishment of engineering colleges in UP Mindanao and UP Baguio in the future. This means increasing the share of engineering in the student population of the UP System to 25%.
The third critical mass of world-class expertise that we ant to develop is in the health and medical industry sec- tor. Again, if it were just a matter of comparing clinical doctors or expertise, UP can hold its own vis-a-vis the na- tional universities in the region. Our practising doctors are as good as or even better than those they can put up against us. Unfortunately, we are not as strong in medical and health research. There are few PhOs in biochemistry, immunology and all those areas that count for basic science and basic research. Fortunately, however, we have the base for rapid progress in the health and medical industry because we have the Philippine General Hospital and the academic units of UP Manila.
Thus, we have put forward the concept of the National Institutes of Health which has also received a high level political support. This has been approved by the Board of Regents, and legislation creating and supporting the Na- tional Institutes of Health (NIH) is in the pipeline. To comple- ment this we have put up the Graduate School for Health Sciences in UP Manila. This would be the graduate school for health sciences for the whole country as well. This is why we can easily justify 3 to 4 billion pesos for the NIH.
Even now we have public health and nutrition programs being planned in UP Visayas, in addition to the existing nutrition program in UP Los Banos. We will probably have similar public health and nutrition programs in UP Mindanao.
The NIH is expected to help those public health and nutri- tion programs in our own campuses in addition to the sup- port that UP Manila is expected to provide to all the medical colleges, nursing colleges, colleges of pharmacy and col- leges of physical therapy in the country.
The fourth area' where we need to develop a critical mass of world-class expertise was the subject of a minor debate the other day, because after almost four years of planning, we have not done much in this area. In terms of the national territory, we have more water than land and there has been huge progress in the world in oceanography, in the ocean sciences, not to mention fisheries and other aspects of the marine sciences. We have made some in- vestments here in the UP College of Fisheries based now in Miag-ao, and of course in the College of Science in Diliman,
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mainly in the Marine Science Institute and in the National Institute of Geological Sciences. I hope that soon, before I face Congress, I will be fully armed with the arguments for the fisheries, oceanography, and marine resources com- plex. This is the fourth area of world-class expertise that we must develop.
Another area which we need to strengthen is culture and the arts. I propose that we convene a sectoral faculty conference as soon as possible just to decide on what we should do in culture and the arts as a system, as a whole university. One possible handle would be: UP Diliman as the National Arts Center. This can be our rallying cry. As for the other campuses, they should be the regional cen- ters for culture and the arts. We already have some ele- ments of what could be the system program for culture and the arts. We have the regional studies programs, six of them funded by C1DS. The Creative Writing Center is now conducting annual writing workshops not only in Baguio but also in UP Visayas and UP Mindanao. The Sentro ng Wikang Filipino has its own network of pro- grams in all the campuses. We have the System and cam- pus committees on culture and the arts. We also have a small committee on campus planning and development making our campuses models of academic landscapes.
Asfor the social sciences, I think our colleagues in the social sciences have to sit down together and think about how we should highlight and integrate our efforts in this area. In fact we already have centers of excellence in the basic social sciences, mainly the departments in the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy in UP Diliman: Sociology, Psychology, History, Anthropology, Political Science. We also have the School of Economics. These are really incipient, if they are not yet national, centers of excellence in the basic social sciences. In the applied social sciences, we have the Population Institute, the College of Public Administration, the School of Urban and Regional Planning, and the School of Labor and Industrial Relations. We also have the College of Law, which its alumni claim to be in a class all its own.
What we need is a handle, similar to the very convenient handles that we have for the natural sciences and the applied professional groups. Perhaps we should have a small group in the social sciences to articulate what we should be doing together. In the applied social sciences we already have well established units with a long history and tradition of productivity and performance. Perhaps we can reconfigure these in some way, such as the public affairs concept of President 0.0. Corpuz, in UP Diliman particularly. In UP Los Banos, there is already a proposal for a College of Public Affairs the concern of which will be agrarianreform, cooperatives, education, and rural planning, among others.
Finally, the University's fourth major response to globalization is the strengthening of our internal structures and systems of governance. Our charter has been reviewed and we have submitted a revised version after a lot of consultation. Among others, there are some changes pro- posed in the composition of the Board of Regents. We are proposing a new regent for the research, extension and professional staff, as well as the administrative staff.
Moreover, we are trying to enlarge campus autonomy in the ways that are allowed under our Charter. For example, the Chancellors can now sign as much as P1 0 million worth of vouchers. Early on in my administration, I had the Vice- President for Administration review all the vouchers and make sure that the President does not sign any vouchers,
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anymore, except those for the big construction projects.
By increasing the signing authority of the Chancellors from 1'2 million to 1" 0 million, practically no voucher will reach the Office of the President now because almost all transactions are worth less than 1'10 million. So, to expand financial autonomy, we simply adjusted the signing authority.
We also have the Faculty Code of Ethics which has been adopted by most of the university councils with the excep- tion of UP Diliman. There is also a Student Code of Ethics.
We need to work this out as soon as possible, following a mandate expressed at the 1996 Faculty Conference in Baguio City.
In the strategic planning exercise, targets and resource requirements must be made very clear. However, in UP Plar. 2008, we are very strong in inputs - as usual - and very silent on outputs. It is easier to say "I need 400 more faculty members" than "but what do you produce with those 400 faculty members." Thus, may I ask the chancel- lors and the deans to include their targets and resource requirements in the plans they are submitting to us.
At the System level, we need a system information and communication network. Vice President De la Pefia and Pro- fessor Luis Alarilla gave me a bill for 1'90 million for the inter-campus networking and communication project which I have approved. (Of course it is not clear where the money for this will be sourced but if Dean Rey Vea gets 1'400 million for the NGSE from the Commission on Higher Edu- cation and Chancellor Perla Santos-Ocampo gets 1'300 or 1'400 million for the National Institutes of Health, we al- ready have a source for the 1'90 million). The AUs must likewise submit their requirements for additional classrooms, laboratories, dormitories and other student services. We also need proposals for faculty and staff development, as well as for faculty and staff welfare and benefits. Of course we are already funding the Provident Fund and we have just installed the Health Maintenance Organization. All these have to be fleshed out to justify the UP modernization plan for which we are requesting 20 billion pesos.
A huge gap, again, in our planning is our resource gen- eration strategy. Where will the rnoney for all of our pro- posals come from? We have to flesh out in our develop- ment plans how we are going to generate more resources from research and development projects, locally and abroad.
We must also look into how we are going to manage our intellectual property rights. We have been sending our law- yers abroad to study intellectual property organizations in the universities and we now have a proposal for the estab- lishment of the University Intellectual Property Rights Of- fice.
As for our land grants, these will be our source of salva- tion in the future. Indeed, the Commonwealth Property development discussions are very crucial to all our plans for modernization but this is just one of the potential re- sources in our control. The Sierra Madre property consists of 10,000 hectares. A group from the College of Forestry and Agriculture has already submitted to the Regents Com- mittee on Land Use and Resource Generation a first draft on what to do with the Sierra Madre property. My own projection is that soon a capital city willrise along Infanta on the eastern seaboard of the Pacific. Our 10,000-hectare property is only 1 kilometer away from the main national highway connecting Manila to Infanta. So thirty years from now we will have a new university city, similar to the Tsukuba Science City where the advanced science insti- tutes are located. But our first priority is to dam and redi-
rect the water that drains into the Pacific back to Manila.
For now we must reforest and establish our ownership of the land as soon as possible.
We also have properties in Miag-ao, Iloilo, including La Granja, Negros Occidental. The 10-hectare property in the center of Iloilo is worth a few hundred million pesos.
Dean Roger Cuyno is negotiating for 5,000 hectares in Marilog, Bukidnon and another 3.000 hectares in Laac, Agusan. Our colleagues from the Department of Environ- ment and Natural Resources have already plotted some possible new sites of fifty (50) to a hundred 1100) hect- ares for UP Baguio.
Basically. however, financial autonomy from our real estate will depend on our skill in translating these potential resources into actual cash to subsidize our academic op- erations.
The real challenge of globalization is modernization.
What we have been trying to put together is the plan for the modernization of UP. We must modernize agriculture.
industry, social institutions, and education, even as we modernize our armed forces and the Philippine National Police. The UP Modernization Bill was conceived on the basis of this realization. When Dean Evelina Pangalangan invited Senator Orly Mercado to place the cornerstone of the proposed new building for the College of Social Work and Community Development, he asked me, "Emil, anong sasabihin ko dito?" My response was ·Well, you know, Mr. Senator, noong araw binilanggo ka pa nga, e. Ngayon mayroon kang bill for the modernization of the armed forces and the PNP. Ay bakit naman na/imutan natin ang modernization ng UP?" Happily, Senator Mercado said, "00 nga ana. We better do something about it ." So, that is how this rnodernization plan bill came about. He announced before the College of Social Work and Community Devel- opment that he would file a UP Modernization Bill. Speaker Jose De Venecia also saw the merit of our proposal and together with the Chair of the House Committee on Edu- cation, Congressman/Regent t.acson, and the Chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, Congressrnan Andaya who has been very generous to us all these years, and of course our own Congressman, Sonny Belmonte, he agreed to sponsor the bill in the Lower House.
Indeed, our discussions, our planning in the last few days has revolved around the modernization of the coun- try, the modernization of education and the modernization of the University of the Philippines. We should keep in mind that all that we have been doing, land all our Re- gents have been working very hard). is really towards that direction of trying to establish a modern UP that can hold its own against the universities of the world, a university that can articulate the national purpose in the light of glo- bal competition and the threat from outside.
In many ways our strategy is in place. We have our mission, and we know our objectives. our directions, and priorities in the context of globalization and nationalism.
We have thought about how to reorganize our internal structure and system of governance. Now we are mobiliz- ing resources for the implementation of our modernization plan. However, in addition to funding, we need political support. We are building a modern university the way a bricklayer builds a cathedral. This construction will have to be thought through by us, and together we will have to place its components brick by brick. But we also need people from outside, from our national leadership, from the voting populace, from the general public, to support usIn this grand enterprise.