UP celebrates 60th year in Iloilo
The UPV administration building in Miag-ao, Iloilo
MIAG-AO, ILOILO--The University of the Philippines marks its 60th year in Iloilo with a week-long celebration on July 23-27.
The commemoration will be opened on Monday with lectures, a photo exhibit and a book fair at the UP in the Visayas Iloilo City campus.
On Tuesday, members of the faculty and staff will hold a presentation dubbed "Pasundayag 2007."
The next day, students will hold a street painting contest at the Miag-ao campus which will precede a forum with the UP Student Regent, lectures and service awards for UPV employees. A street party will be held in the evening.
On Thursday, a forum on the impact of climate change on fisheries will be held by the Colleges of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the Iloilo Grand Hotel. Award-winning short films by UPV students will be shown at the Interactive Learning Center at the Miagao campus.
The Faculty Regent will hold a forum with faculty members at the Iloilo campus on the same day. The CFOS will also hold an alumni homecoming at the Iloilo Grand Hotel in the evening.
On Friday, students will hold a float parade in Miag-ao. The Board of Regents will hold its meeting at the CFOS Umali Hall at the Miagao campus.
The commemoration will be capped with an alumni and faculty homecoming at the Amigo Terrace Hotel.
The plan of putting up a UP unit in Iloilo was concretized on December 18, 1945, after the Municipal Board of Iloilo authorized a resolution for the opening of a UP branch in Iloilo City on what was then the site of the Iloilo City Hall. A year and seven months later, on July 1947, the University of the Philippines Iloilo College (UPIC) was established.
The UPIC started with a Lower Division, which offered third and fourth year high school education, and the Upper Division, which accepted first and second year college students.
It started offering baccalaureate and masters degree programs in the 1950s and the 1960s. Seven years after it opened, UPIC earned the status of being a full college and was renamed UP College Iloilo (UPCI) in 1954, offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs including a four-year high school education through its UP High School in Iloilo
In the early 1970s, The UP administration had envisioned an autonomous unit that would become the country's premier institution for fisheries and marine science education and research.
On May 31, 1979, the UP Board of Regents approved the establishment of an autonomous unit that would integrate the UPCI and the College of Fisheries in UP Diliman. But it was four years later, on July 25, 1983, that former UP President and now senator Edgardo Angara issued Executive Order No. 9 establishing the UP in the Visayas with Dr. Dionisia Rola as the first chancellor.
From a college in its first campus in Iloilo City, UPV has now four campuses with five colleges and once school covering the three regions in the Visayas. It offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses in fisheries education, the arts and sciences, environment and technology, and management.
The main campus is located in the scenic 1,000-hectare site in Miag-ao town 42 km south of Iloilo City. The campus, surrounded by lush vegetation and trees overlooking the shoreline of the town, host the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Fisheries and the School of Technology.
UPV has maintained its original site in Iloilo City which is home to the UPV High School and the College of Management. UPV alumni years ago had vehemently opposed the proposal to revert the campus to the city government.
The satellite campuses of UP Cebu College and UP Tacloban were integrated into the UPV administration in 1986 and were renamed UPV Cebu College and UPV Tacloban College.
Established in 1918, UPV Cebu College is the oldest regional unit even if it was closed and reopened several time.
The UPV Tacloban, established in 1973, was set up as a necessary component in the socio-economic growth and progress of the Eastern Visayas.
The unit has now nearly 5,000 students in its four campuses and produces around 1,000 graduates annually coming mostly from the Visayas and Mindanao.
UPV Chancellor Glenn Aguilar, the seventh administrator of the unit, said the main contribution of the UP in the community is the thousands of graduates and professionals who are now occupying top management positions in the various levels of government, business firms, educational institutions and media organizations.
The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) this year gave four National Centers for Excellence/Development awards to UPV for Fisheries, Marine Science, Biology and Information Technology (UPV College Cebu)
The university has also contributed significantly through its research and extension services including regional studies programs on the preservation and enrichment of the cultural heritage.
The Iloilo City campus hosts the Center for West Visayan Studies, Office of Extension Services and Continuing Education, Sentro ng Wikang Filipino, Graduate Program Office, Language Program, School for Distance Education, Visayas, Ugnayan sa Pahinungod/Oblation Corps, and the UPV Women's Desk.
The university played a key role in the response to last year's massive oil spill that struck Guimaras Island and parts of Iloilo. It is also at the forefront in the rehabilitation and monitoring efforts as the designated repository of data and clearing house for all researches related to the oil spill.
Aguilar said the UPV will do its share in coming out with protocols and plans to respond to future oil spills in the country and how to protect and rehabilitate the affected environment and community.