UP in the Roman era

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

UP in the Roman era
Sunday, 11 28, 2004

Sen. Edgardo Angara knows a good executive when he sees one, and goes on to develop and polish those managerial skills as only he, like the master, can impart. Thus, he had no second thought in latching on to a prized find when he was UP president in the 80s: a young lady professor in the College of Business Administration going by a kilometric first name and a last name that harks back to the enlightened ages. Angara appointed Dr. Emerlinda R. Roman, Ph.D. as Vice-Chancellor for Administration of UP Diliman, and that started the steady rise of his protégé to Quezon Hall, the seat of power in the University of the Philippines.

Last Monday, in what has turned out as the most politically-charged race ever for the UP presidency, Roman became the first lady president of UP for a term of six years. Roman bucked the intervention of members of Congress and a Malacañang factotum. To the credit of 7 (most significantly, regent de la Rosa) of the 12-member UP Board of Regents, who did not succumb to pressure, they saw the merits of a Roman presidency: an enlightened leadership for a university going into its second century, under a president who can ably secure for UP its place as the premier national institution of higher learning in the country, and at the same time assert its position in the international academic community.

Roman scored big in the democratic consultations – very much like the primaries that presidential candidates in the US go through – that were conducted in the seven campuses of UP. Her paper, described by UP academic Erlinda Echanis as the most excellent blueprint at bringing UP as The Distinguished Filipino University in a highly complex, technologically-advanced and globally competitive world, made the rounds of the University, and made far more effective inroads into all sectors of the university than those praise releases churned out by the other candidates for president all claiming to have the blessings of Malacañang. Roman’s sincerity and capability to pursue her blueprint shone through, and convinced a big number of those in the UP community to support her candidacy. The thousands of students, administrative and research personnel, and faculty who trooped to Quezon Hall following the announcement of her election last Monday is a testimony to their faith in her leadership. Outgoing UP president Francisco Nemenzo was most pleased: he would see a university he steered so well the past six years in the big capable hands of Roman.

As regent and three-term Chancellor of the UP flagship autonomous campus of UP Diliman, Roman exhibited her capability to distribute and use scarce and limited resources in the most efficient manner without compromising the University’s intellectual standards. The resources of UP Diliman were used in accordance with academic priorities, and were not spread too thinly across programs that are inconsequential to the University’s purposes. Cost reduction measures were pursued, wastage avoided and quality assurance mechanisms were instituted to increase internal efficiency. This Roman vows to replicate in the entire UP System across 7 campuses.

Roman knows whereof she speaks when it comes to the governance of a university that has limited resources, a burgeoning student population, a diminishing faculty being lost to private enterprise or to other higher-paying universities. She did it in UP Diliman, and she can do it for the UP System as well. Roman promises to mobilize and diversify sources of funding through creative ways without undermining UP’s academic standards and values. UP under Roman shall work closely with its various stakeholders in exploring non-traditional sources of funding to improve the University’s long-term financial position.

Roman, who started her love-affair with UP in 1972 as Research Assistant soon after her graduation with a course in Agricultural Economics, intends to organize a pool of faculty and staff and promote it as a national resource for public service. She realizes all too well that UP’s service to the nation should be primarily through what it does best – teaching and research. She foresees extension programs along the lines of training and continuing education and sharing of knowledge and know-how generated by UP with various sectors of society. To deflect the oft-repeated charge that UP has become elitist and is not contributing at all to national development; ergo, it should suffer massive cuts in its budget and left to fend on its own, a Roman presidency will see the encouragement of “faculty on government assignment” to provide expert assistance in policy formulation and implementation, a sustained assistance in the strengthening of faculty developments programs of other schools, and in increasing public awareness and interest in science and technology, health and nutrition, food and agriculture, biotechnology, entrepreneurship, gender issues, etcetera, through mass media.

Nemenzo started a crusade that he could finish well before he steps down early next year, or one which Roman would most certainly welcome as a gift during her incumbency: a New UP Charter, that will allow the university to develop a system of governance that mirrors its mission, emphasizes the role of the faculty, provides flexibility to generate resources but with adequate safeguards to ensure fidelity to the basic values or ideals of a university, remove barriers to the provision of fair and decent wages to the faculty and staff, and provide administrative and fiscal autonomy to capable units to enable them to develop at their own pace. Nemenzo and Roman worked hard for this charter, and share the optimism that this piece of legislation will arm the UP administrators with the tools to grapple with the present and future bend of the university.

In 1976, Roman was Faculty Business Manager and Adviser of the Philippine Collegian, when this writer was its Managing Editor. The Collegian needed to keep afloat despite the restrictions of the dictatorship. Roman ably steered that premier students’ newspaper. All articles contributed by the nascent oppositors to the dictatorship were published, and not one issue of the newspaper failed to print or circulate. Roman was the able, guiding hand for those of us in our youth who were on the edge of living dangerously. Now, Roman the UP president should be able to reprise that role for the entire university, guiding it to the advent of its next 100 years amid the fiscal crisis, the moral decadence, the crisis in governance, and other crises that not a few UP alumni should accept as their own making.


For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph

The Daily Tribune © 2004