COMPETENCE, moral integrity, simplicity.
Newly-installed UST Rector Fr. Ernesto Arceo, O.P. made it clear in his Nov. 9 installation address that his rectorship and in turn, the University, will be guided by these essential principles for the next four years.
Affordable quality Catholic education, says Arceo, is what the University has been giving to its students coming from mostly middle-income families, a tradition and trademark that needs to be continued. The general competence of Thomasian graduates is reflected in the University’s outstanding performance in government licensure examinations, with its consistent high-percentage passing rates and topnotchers in several areas. Meanwhile, UST has also reaped renown in culture, the arts, and sports, here and abroad.
The new Rector cited the staging of the Russian opera Eugene Onegin by the Conservatory of Music, the numerous international concerts and awards of the UST Singers, the unprecedented “five-peat” victory of the Salinggawi Dance Troupe, and the inspiring Cinderalla-triumph of the UST Growling Tigers Men’s Basketball Team.
But as Arceo would put it, “It is not only competence but moral integrity that completely defines true quality Catholic education.”
Father Rector needs to address the pressing challenge for all institutions of higher learning, especially for UST as the Catholic University of the Philippines, to produce graduates who are not only professionally competent but also morally upright. He said that if the number of students who graduate with professional competence from Catholic schools would live their lives with moral integrity, then the country’s political, economic, and social situations would be much better than today.
By simplicity, the rector means refraining from unnecessary expenses which make the cost of quality education prohibitive. The absence of the impressive Christmas lights adorning almost every single tree and plant on campus compared with the previous year can be considered his first austerity measure. Thomasians should not also expect a long fireworks display come Paskuhan, as Arceo intends to shorten it to cut costs.
These are welcome developments, since the University will be able to save more for the more essential needs of its administrators, faculty members, and non-academic employees in terms of salaries and benefits. The savings will also translate to more rationalized tuition increases.
“Simplicty remains a positive value despite rising consumeristic ideology. It empowers us to enjoy life even without having more than what we truly need,” Father Arceo said.
Needless to say, the “Quadricentennial Rector” will be facing a tough road ahead. UST’s worrisome 500th ranking in the recent Times Higher Education Supplement Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, is a major challenge for the new rector. As there is no other way but up, the survey’s indicators should be given attention: academic and research performance, academic and recruiter-peer reviews, student-faculty ratio, faculty members citations, and proportion of foreign teachers and students.
Arceo also needs to address the problematic security conditions inside and outside the University, the rather lukewarm alumni relations in time for the fourth centenary celebration, the expansion programs in Sta. Rosa, General Santos, and Sri Lanka, and UST’s vision to be the center of contextualized theology in Asia, among others.
In turn, the rector would need the support of the Thomasian community to realize the “2011 Dream.” Let this be our Christmas gift to him and our resolution for the years to come.
