Viewing Silliman

On Thursday and Friday, September 16 and 17, parents and high school seniors looking for colleges and universities for next schoolyear’s opening, will do well to visit the Philippine Trade and Training Center on Roxas Blvd. and look at the booths displaying the curricular offerings, facilities and other attractions of most educational institutions in the country. The 16th Career Counseling and Guidance Fair, which is free for public viewing, is sponsored by International Education Specialist.

One of the booths will be my favorite, and if I could influence two or three viewers to consider going to Silliman with this piece, my four years of education there shall have not been in vain. I know alumni of other institutions will be rooting for their alma mater, so let me do my bit.

This fair comes in the heels of Silliman’s 103rd foundation day celebration which I attended three weeks ago. Characteristically, alumni from many parts of the globe were there to reminisce the good old days and meet classmates who are now well off in their separate successful journeys. Among my classmates are two of Silliman’s outstanding alumnus awardees for 2004 – Priscilla Lasmarias-Kelso – for her outstanding work in education, and Bishop Hilario Gomez, for peace advocacy. (The outstanding awards ceremonies are gaily marked with a pass-in-review and impressive ceremonies at Luce Auditorium, which has one of the country’s best acoustics system.)

Silliman was founded in 1901 in Dumaguete City as the oldest educational institution run by Presbyterian missionaries, although more than 50 per cent of the students belong to many faiths. It’s the close ties between faculty and students that bound us together even as we "roam(ed) the world o’er near and far" – as the Silliman song goes.

I had a chat with president, Dr. Agustin Pulido, the white-haired, soft-spoken 11th president of Silliman, who is finishing his third term with a budget deficit that’s clearly manageable, with thanks to the efforts of board of trustees chair Leonor Briones (Former National Treasurer), Finance Secretary Juanita Amatong, businessman July Sy, former Ambassador Tony Villamor, and other board members.

Pulido mentioned the possible opening of a medical school, to add to the university’s claim to fame – Silliman nursing, physical therapy and business administration graduates topping national board examinations.

At the no-smoking, dainty Bethel Hotel by the city boulevard (within walking distance from the campus), Leonor Briones told me the Commission of Higher Education has granted Silliman autonomy for having established Centers of Excellence in teacher education and nursing education, and Centers of Development in physics, biology marine science, mechanical engineering, and business and management education. Silliman has also been designated as an Academic Center of Excellence (ACE) in biodiversity conservation.

The world-renowned marine laboratory recently marked its 30 years of research, management, conservation of marine resources by giving out financial assistance and scholarships to the residents of Apo Island, an island community off Dauin town. The university director for research and development, former Environment Secretary Angel C. Alcala, and Dr. Hilconida P. Calumpong, marine lab director, handed the awards.

I will be remiss if I don’t say that the education at Silliman is deeply religious-rooted; that is to say, the spiritual life (although not evangelism from Catholicism to Protestantism) permeates the teaching instruction of the faculty many of them with PH.D.s from abroad. (For a long while, parents from Manila sent their sons to Silliman to be "reformed," and that happened, and is still happening today. Not too many distractions are found in the city, for one thing.) The beautiful Silliman church is an architectural landmark; inside it are heard moving sermons by preachers and music from the country’s best church choir.

The church edifice is seen from the sea, where ships from many shores dock; the pastoral scene was nearly gobbled up by grandiose schemes to convert the boulevard into a port; thankfully, that plan was nipped in the bud, what with Sillimanians raising fire and fury to have it disapproved. What a waste it would have been to obliterate the view of an acacia-lined campus and some quaint buildings as old as the university, as the refurbished Assembly Hall, now Alumni Hall, and Guy Hall, from where the sounds of voice and the piano and saxophone could be heard.

This year’s Miss Silliman pageant produced a 15-year-old winner – Stacy Danika Sia Alcantara, who is the author of 13 books already, who writes a column for a local paper, and dances the ballet. For us feminists, it’s good the Silliman pageant does not encourage the wearing of bold bikinis, but talent, personality, and, well, good looks.

What hit the front page of a newspaper was alumnus Alex Rey V. Pal’s story on the donation of Silliman High School of 1962, of pieces of jewelry to the national – not Silliman, mind you, which could have used this act of generosity – coffers in the late 1970s. The jewelry was turned over to Regional Trial Court Judge Candelario Gonzalez, national president of the university alumni association, who will put up a public auction. Reading the story, Gen. Raymundo Jarque pledged a gold ring which was given to him by a Tausug friend in Jolo. Class ’62 president Hector "Tata" Villaneua, who is also the mayor of Bais City, said, "These will probably add up to just a small amount, but it comes from our hearts. But if every Filipino did something like this, it would translate to a very big sum." President Macapagal-Arroyo promptly called Tata to congratulate his big-hearted class.

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