MERGED: Silliman University

[Miguel]

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Silliman University
NATIONAL HISTORICAL LANDMARK


A Walk Down Memory Lane


Silliman University was declared as a National Historical Landmark by the National Historical Institute in 2001 during its Centennial celebration. So far, it is the only university whose campus has been declared as a historical landmark and not only for a single building.


Silliman Hall
Built in 1903

Silliman Hall is the first and oldest building on campus. It was built in 1903 and is treasured as a historical landmark in Dumaguete City. It is a bridge to remember the beginnings of the University. It stood the test of time with its four-storey structure whose walls were made of local coral blocks and solid iron posts. The metal sheets used as ceiling were taken from a theater in New York City. Imported timber from the United States West Coast made the rest of the upper floors. It was inaugurated on November 30, 1903. It was a muti-purpose building at its time when it houses classrooms, intern dormitory, dining rooms, study room, chapel, church and teacher's living quarters. It is now a museum.


Katipunan Hall
Built in 1915


Katipunan Hall interior


At night


Katipunan Hall is used to be a Mission Hospital and was built in 1915 by Dr. Langheim, an American missionary doctor, and his wife. The Langheims were the pioneers of Missionary Medical Work of the province. During the second World War, the Mission Hospital was used by the Japanese soldiers as garrison and prison cells. Currently, it houses the Languages department. Many haunting tales fascinate this building – ghost sightings, eerie sounds and happenings. It is even sometimes used as the Horror Booth venue during the university Founder’s Day celebration.



Guy Hall
Built in 1918

The Guy Hall was completed in March 1918 from the donation of William Guy of St. Louis, Missouri. The building was offered in memory of Guy's wife, Kathm Lemoine. Guy Hall was first used as a dormitory for boys. It became an enemy garrison of the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. Stories said that there is an underground that served as a torture chamber but has now been closed from the public. Another building known for its eerie tales. The building now houses the University Registrar, Admissions Office, and the University Press.



Oriental Hall
Built in 1920

In 1920, the cornerstone of the new girls' dormitory, the Oriental Hall, was laid down by Mrs. Pura Blanco, the first woman graduate of Silliman Institute. In June 1921, the Oriental Hall, the oldest regular dormitory on campus, opened as a permanent residential hall for women with 55 occupants. In 1972, Oriental Hall became a classroom-and-office-building of the College of Business Administration. Although it is currently not occupied, the University plans to convert it back to a dormitory.




Hibbard Hall
Built in 1932

Construction of the Hibbard Hall began in 1932. This building was constructed in honor of Silliman’s founder and first president, Dr. David Sutherland Hibbard and his wife, Mrs. Laura Crooks Hibbard. It then serves as a library and currently it houses the student activity center. It is a favorite hangout for students where they can play pingpong, darts, board games (chess, game of generals, monopoly, etc), read magazines, watch movies, or simply relax at the balcony.


Silliman Church
Built in 1941

War came at the time when building operations for the construction of the new Church in 1941. Aside from this problem, the university had no cash to meet the payroll. There was the problem of materials and equipment, too. Despite this, they did finish it. The cross on the main structure was placed in position during a threatened air raid, and a final picture of the complete work was taken on April 2, 1942, the time when the enemy landings were being made on neighboring islands.

In 1972, when martial law was declared, Silliman was one of the first two universities closed as being the center of student activism in the south. It was also one of the last universities allowed to resume operations after the closure. The school was barricaded by the military while the school paper and campus radio was ordered closed because of being very vocal against the Marcos regime. Despite the threat to life and democracy, martial law did not, however, stop students from gathering and keeping their patriotism aflame. At the basement of the Silliman Church, in a room named the Catacombs, the “secret” campus rendezvous of students continued away from the prying eyes of the military. Catacombs is now the meeting place for the youth for poetry reading, music jamming, or bible worship and other religious activities.




Catacombs: Silliman Church's underground where students secretly gather during Martial Law

photos from flickr



originally posted at Philippine College and University Campuses Thread VI - Page 23 - SkyscraperCity

[tackielarla]

Nice pics!

[Onins]

baling chadaa gyud nuon!

[severusph]

hay..some of the best years in my life were spent in the campus by the sea!

[Miguel]

CONGRATULATIONS
TO OUR NEW
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS!!!

SU Passing Average: 90% (9/10)
National Passing Average: 37.08% (1317/3552)

SU Batch 2008 Passing Average: 100% (9/9)

Silliman University is the 3rd Best Performing School in the Country for the 10-25 Examinees Category

[Miguel]

from Ian Casocot's Blog "The Spy in the Sandwich"

BOREDOM IS FOR BIRDS

I live comfortably with the truism of my own invention that to be in Dumaguete—and to be in Silliman more particularly—is to be right at the center of the Philippine cultural world. (Here, you can cough and clear your throat.) Trust me, believing this makes my often very sloooooow Dumaguete days a little bit more bearable, and in many ways it provides me with the perfect illustration that reality is what you make of it.

When I was in college a little more than a decade ago, my barkada—we called ourselves The Midnight Society (and yes, we have an ongoing photography exhibit in the Luce Auditorium Foyer)—subscribed to one notion that defined how we went about our daily lives in campus: boredom was for birds or for the truly unimaginative, and that if you had half a mind, you could always find things that would occupy whatever sense of fascination you have.

It just so happened that even back then, boredom was something you could choose not to have, if you would just decide to do a little bit of something: but the Silliman community back then had a tremendous capacity for cultural appreciation. That capacity ebbs and flows, but there are years when the campus totally goes cuckoo over things cultural. Every single week back in the late 1990s, there always was an exhibit opening, or a film festival, or a poetry reading. Société de Cinéphiles, the film club (now defunct), had monthly screenings that drew in crowds. The Order of the Golden Palette, the artists’ club (now defunct), had bi-annual exhibits that pushed the edge of local art. The Sands & Coral was an annual certainty. And every year, there was a musical or play that showcased local talents. We dared to have nude sketching sessions at the rooftop of Bethel, and staged risqué performance art at the Boulevard that confounded the hoi polloi. We staged one-act plays in the basement of Silliman Church or the rickety ambience of Woodward Little Theater. One time, we had an ambitious all-musical version of Miss Silliman, with tunes from Broadway filling the rafters of the school gym. There used to be a tradition called Renaissance Month held every February, sponsored by the SUSG, that filled our calendars with assorted tributes to all the arts. You simply could not get bored. But the long hangover after Silliman’s all-consuming Centennial celebration in 2001, and then September 11 right after that, kind of gave pause to all that.

Seven years later, one can truly say that culture has made a comeback—big time—in campus, and Dumaguete has certainly regained its old title of, ehem, “Cultural Center of the South.” True, Manila is where most things start their buzz, where mainstream cultural fare gets the most mileage and recognition. Everything is headquartered in the capital after all. But there is already an “industry of culture” in the metropolis, and it is a fact that the appreciation of things like the ballet or the opera requires patronage capable of letting go of disposable income. The provinces—that hated word that has become an umbrella term for the rest of us—do not usually have that kind of audiences who take in cultural education as de facto requirement for the sociable. Even in Dumaguete, a skewed sense of “practicality” demands that one looks at a P150 ticket for a Ballet Manila show as something exorbitant than, say, spending the same amount on a round of beer in some barong-barong in town. How does one then explain to a typical Dumagueteño the wonderful fact that in Silliman we get subsidized prices for the most sought-after (and expensive) cultural acts in the country, where a show that goes for P500 to P1,000 in Manila can be had for only as much as P300 in Dumaguete? And you don’t even have to pay for a roundtrip plane fare?

The truth of the matter is, being in Silliman means that you have the choice most students from other schools don’t have: the chance to see Lisa Macuja dance, or Cecille Licad play the piano, or Bart Guingona act up a storm, or Lea Salonga sing, for something close to a bargain. I always tell my students that their time in college is their rare chance to soak in all these, because after graduation they will be too busy running the rat race to be able to have the time to appreciate things like these.

When I became part of the Cultural Affairs Committee, I learned that part of the challenge of local cultural advocacy is audience development. Which not only means teaching people about the proper appreciation of assorted art forms, but to educate them that art has a profound ability to make us better human beings—and even studies have shown that children exposed to the fine arts show a higher affinity for academic accomplishments. Imagine then, to our surprise, when a local principal recently dismissed our invitation (for his pupils to see one particular show in Luce) by telling us, “Ayaw ra, kay makit-an ra ma nà nila sa TV.” (And parents wonder why their kids are doing badly in school….)

The first half of the current cultural season is now drawing to a close, and it amazes me still that Dumaguete, small town that it is, never lacks for an astonishing capacity to be right there where all things happen. It is a kind of miracle—but what other small city in the whole country could bring in the Cinemalaya Film Festival, Bayanihan Folk Dance Company, the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Repertory Philippines, PETA, Actors’ Actors, New Voice Company, the Loboc Children’s Choir, Douglas Nierras Powerdance, the Manila Symphony Orchestra, the Philippine Philharmonic, and assorted musicians, singers, artists, dancers, writers, and what-not, all in the span of a single year? Only Dumaguete can, it seems.

Now, if only we can all learn to appreciate that.

I just read Ian Casocot's blog and which that same post was also featured in "the Weekly Sillimanian". What Casocot had failed to mention is that also at that time the Campus Choristers were designated as the country's singing ambassadors were they had concerts in the US. I could relate on what the author had written as I was also part of the late 90's cultural scene. It was truly an eye opening experience as it made me appreciate the world of performing arts. I never thought I could appreciate the intricacies of opera, operatta, and tribal music, thanks to my Fine Arts subject and season pass tickets and amplified by the acoustics of the Luce Auditorium that each resonating note could send shivers down to your spine. During that era of not too long ago there were so many shows and exhibits that could really overwhelm your aesthetic sense. There were also out-of-the-box ideas and daring activities that you could never thought be possibly allowed for an educational institution.

Société de Cinéphiles, the film club (now defunct), had monthly screenings that drew in crowds.

There was a time when this group featured movies from different countries that you would not normally see in cinemas or cable tv. The entire Multimedia Center was filled to capacity when the internationally awarded movie from the Philippines "Segurista" was shown and starring was the beautiful Michelle Aldana and Gary Estrada. The movie was about a woman who is an insurance agent by day and GRO by night. There were lots of *** scenes but no one object from having the movie be publicly shown inside the school, not even from the school administration.

Another movie that filled up the Audio Visual Theater was "Ang Lalaki sa Buhay ni Selya" starring Rossana Roces. As expected from Osang movies, there were lots of pumping scenes but the story is really good. I am very particular with Tagalog movies as I find most as baduy and with recycled scripts but not on this movie. Up to this date, for me it is still the best Filipino movie I've seen with unique movie plot and cinematography that featured shots with symbolic meanings. It was even shown in Cinemax although toned down with cuts.

The Order of the Golden Palette, the artists’ club (now defunct), had bi-annual exhibits that pushed the edge of local art.

I was once a member of this group, although only for a year during my senior but I had lots great experiences with the group as we had exhibits and other art sessions. I wish I could have spend more years with the group to polish my skill but some members are really that good. We had exhibits in the Main Library and Scheide Chapel. The group by the way was originally founded by the late Dr. Albert Faurot, Silliman's patriarch for the visual and performing arts (he also founded the Men's Glee Club). Too bad to know that it is already defunct but hopefully someone could revive it.

We dared to have nude sketching sessions at the rooftop of Bethel,

I was able to join this session once. Our original model was supposed to be a young and beautiful English teacher but later backed out when she learned that there were lots of us and one of the participants was her former student (probably me ). She is no longer teaching by the way if you're wondering and I think she is now a Smart regional manager. After the regretful exit, she was later replaced by a prostitute. She was at first a bit hesitant to be a nude model but she later concede. With the cool breeze from the boulevard and melodic sound of Enya as background, it was a perfect setting. Although most of us were students, we had respect and were never rowdy. We behave with dignity towards the model. After that the next model came, he(?) was the Student Government president. The sketches were exhibited at the Scheide Chapel.

I always tell my students that their time in college is their rare chance to soak in all these, because after graduation they will be too busy running the rat race to be able to have the time to appreciate things like these.

True. After college the concerts you mostly see and hear are from show bands and rock bands. Either you shake your booty or bang your head. So make the most out of it as you would rarely see these type of performances again. Silliman University is really a cultural hub.

[the Messenger]

Loyal will we be to Silliman
Here's a cheer, boys three times three
Silliman, our alma mater
Silliman beside the sea

Up for this thread! Great pics! Fresh updates!

[Onins]

Congrats sa mga EEs, adto nya ko Nov.25 dha.

[romantic_guy08]

Wrong post...sowee...eheheh...

See you SU sa 25...heheh

[shaxyra]

i miss this school.. my school for one sem.. hehe