A remarkable woman educator

Three days ago was celebrated in simple ceremonies the 101st birth anniversary of the late Mrs. Josefina Rivera Gullas (Inday Pining), co-founder of the University of the Visayas and mother of Congressman Eduardo R. Gullas, former Congressman Jose R. Gullas and UV comptroller Gliceria Gullas-Lucero. Celebrated shortly after Women's Day, the birthday of UV's late First Lady becomes significant because it brings to mind a landmark achievement which every Filipina can be proud of.

The founding of the Visayan Institute (now the University of the Visayas) in 1919 was such achievement. Working closely with her late better-half, Atty. Vicente Gullas, she provided the inspiration and the guiding spirit in the initiation and operation of the school during its incipient days. The original structure housing the 37 pioneering students was a rented building on D. Jakosalem Street near the Cebu Cathedral. Later with more students coming in, the school relocated itself in its present site where one-floor structures of light materials provided spaces for classrooms and offices. Those where difficult days, to be sure for the school had to subsist from its own meager income. Indeed, the thought of giving up the project must have taunted the couple, but their determination to serve the educational needs of poor and deserving students prevailed.

For two decades up to 1940 the Gullas couple shepherded the growth and development of the Visayan Institute starting from a secondary program then expanding to college offerings such as the liberal arts, education and commerce. One salient feature of the school was its pioneering night classes for both high school and tertiary students, an educational strategy designed to widen access to education for working young men and women from middle class and lower middle class families. Thus the V.I. became something of an opportunity school for young people in search of social mobility.

This, coupled with the school's generous scholarship slots for working students, made the school even today a well acclaimed institution serving economically hard-up yet intellectually competent clientele.

This pro-poor stanch of the school did not come about by chance. It was actually an outgrowth of the Gullas couple's character whose hearts had always been soft towards the underprivileged, especially the young. This explains why even at present the university has always been extra sensitive in its tuition policy, always careful to balance its financial needs with the capacity of the students to pay. This explains also why at any curricular term the school provides no less than 500 scholarships grants of various kinds for qualified students. And why there are such schooling arrangements as study-now-pay later, congressional study grant, achievers scholarship, and in tandem with the CHED the PESFA program.

With the passing away of university president Vicente Gullas in 1970, Mrs. Gullas assumed the presidency. Following the trail blazed by the former president, she immediately embarked on a multi-pronged expansion program involving the curriculum, physical plant and instructional facilities. Her watch was therefore characterized by the construction of new high rise buildings, opening of new collegiate courses (computer, engineering, criminology, nursing) and acquisition of state-of-the-art laboratory equipment and instructional gadgetries, thereby making the UV come up with an academic standard higher than regulatory requirements. These initiatives sustained under the presidency of Eduardo R. Gullas gained for the school a PACUCOA accreditation for five of its programs.

As a university president, Mrs. Gullas' strength lay in her focus on personal discipline. Character, she believed, was the greatest asset a person could have; hence, for both faculty and students she encouraged sincerity and seriousness in work and study. Faith in God was her guiding management style and this she tried to develop among her school personnel. Humility too characterized her leadership, expressing it in her own lifestyle of simple get-up, simple meals, and avoidance of the limelight.

Twenty-three years have gone by since the passing away of Inday Pining in 1983. But her legacy of a humanized educational program still governs the purpose and objectives of the university. "Love, service, leadership" proclaims its logo. This has been inscribed in the metal seal of the school, but it was first etched in the hearts of its founder and co-founder, Atty. Vicente Gullas and Mrs. Josefina R. Gullas.