VOWING to be at par with the flagship Sampaloc campus, Fr. Edwin Lao, O.P. began his term as the ninth rector and president of UST Legazpi on Tuesday, Aug. 22.
Lao, who was rector and president of Dominican-run Colegio de San Juan de Letran-Manila from 1999 to 2007, envisions a “systematic, sustainable and transformative education” for Legazpi Thomasians.
“I will anchor the thrust of transformative education on culture – the culture of excellence, the culture of innovation, the culture of continuous improvement, the culture of integrity, good character, and right conduct, especially the last one,” he said in a news conference. “Dito sa eskwelahan na ito, hindi puwede ang puwede na.”
(In this school, mediocrity is shunned.)
The new rector explained that UST Legazpi changed its name from Aquinas University in 2017 to aspire for the excellence of the Sampaloc campus.
“One of the reasons we moved […] to have the name changed from Aquinas University to UST is we want to be at par with UST Manila, to get the kind of education as UST Manila, so that our Bicolano people will no longer go to Manila to get the same kind of education in courses especially where UST is known, such as sciences and medicine,” he said.
Lao succeeded Fr. Ernesto Arceo, O.P., who had headed UST Legazpi since 2011. Under Arceo, a former UST Manila rector, Lao served as vice president for administration and finance.
Lao had also served as rector of Letran Bataan.
He became a diffinitor of the General Chapter, the highest assembly in the Dominican order.
Lao pursued theology in 1982 and earned a master’s in management at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati in 1996.
The new rector obtained a doctorate in business administration at UST Legazpi this year. Ammiel B. Maestrado
