University of the Philippines Discussion

[sirius]

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kinsa naka try na enroll sa inyo ani? pls pm me beh

[rAnzter]

lingaw ang senti-nyal gabe-e.... hehe murag valentines ug dating... hehe

[bytebandit02]

i've heard naa daw ms. UP aside sa bb. UP? unsay ayo ani..? 1st time lagi ni..

[yokam]

i've heard naa daw ms. UP aside sa bb. UP? unsay ayo ani..? 1st time lagi ni..

Basin ang Miss UP kay english and Q & A dayun ang Bb. UP kay tagalog.hehe

Ligaya ang mga contestants?

[aitel]

Bb.UP kay straight guys magpa-girl sa pageant then and Miss UP kay usual na pageant2x

[nitro_boy]

pass by UP today
oble was dressed in undies! colorful bya kau.. hahaha :mrgreen:

[aitel]

pass by UP today
oble was dressed in undies! colorful bya kau.. hahaha :mrgreen:

ligaya week

[bytebandit02]

ligaya week

ngek.. naa nsad ligaya week?.. daghana na mga bag-o na events gud.. sa una ky freshies night rman to ang bag-o sa among time..

[yokam]

Got this somewhere in the net and it's a good read. It's entitled informally as "The Arrogance of UP" by some

UP at 100 by Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III
Monday, 21 January 2008 Sta. Ana
coordinates Action for Economic
Reforms. This article was published in
the Opinion Section, Yellow Pad Column
of BusinessWorld, January 21,2008
edition, pages S1/4 and S1/5.


The day after the University of the
Philippines or UP kicked off its
celebration of its 100th year, we
organized a get-together for a
balikbayan pair—my cousin Lynn and her
husband Greg. The guest list was made
up mostly of UP alumni, young
activists of more than a generation
ago. And so, I kind of expected that a
conversation piece for the dinner
would be about the UP of today and
yesterday.

In that gathering was Soliman Santos,
Jr., or Sol, someone who perhaps
represents the UP ideal.

A text message that has been
circulating among UP alumni says that
UP makes the best students. On the
contrary, the truth is that the
students who enter UP are already the
best and the brightest. Take Sol who
entered UP in 1970. He comes from a
family of geniuses, although his
sister Rayla thinks that the middle
child Ricky is the most brilliant
among the three siblings who all went
to UP.

Sol graduated from the academically
elite Philippine Science School—but as
an aside, this school likewise
educated awful people like Sol's
classmate, Hermogenes Esperon. Upon
entering UP, Sol obtained the
prestigious National Science
Development Board (NSDB) scholarship
and took up a tough course, electrical
engineering. Later, he deliberately
dropped his NSDB scholarship not
because his well-to-do parents could
easily afford his UP education but
because maintaining the much-coveted
scholarship stood in the way of his
desire to give more time and energy to
student activism. He would thus shift
to a "lightweight course" (Sol's term,
which could infuriate the history
professors and majors). Despite
activism—propaganda work, in
particular—being his priority, Sol
still excelled in his academics. He
was a college or university scholar
and he graduated cum laude.

But Sol's life in UP was not limited
to being an activist and scholar. He
was a romantic, falling in love with a
bohemian, Doods, who would later
become his wife. And he was a non-
barbarian, also known as a frat-man—
being a dedicated member of the "great
and glorious" Alpha Sigma.

I must confess that I'm paying tribute
to Sol because I'd rather praise him
now than follow his black-humor
request that I give him a eulogy when
that moment comes.

But really, without Sol inspiring me,
I couldn't have started writing this
piece about UP. So here is Sol who
personifies the best of UP—a bright
and all-round person, not simply a
scholar but truly a scholar of the
people. And this guy loves UP; he
cares for UP.

This long intro about Sol sets the
stage for what he was to say on that
occasion we had a get-together, the
night after the formal opening of the
UP centennial. When Sol together with
Doods arrived for the dinner—and their
entrance caught my attention because
they came late, I sensed that Sol was
prepared for a surprise statement. At
first, I thought it was a fashion
statement. Sol wore a green De La
Salle University T-shirt.

This is strange, we thought. Sol is
the type who buys souvenir items from
the University of the Philippines. So
why not wear the UP shirt? After all,
2008 is UP's centennial.

Sol said he precisely wore the La
Salle shirt as a statement of his
protest against UP's arrogance. He,
like many of us, was revolted with
UP's slogan for its 100th
anniversary: "UP, ang galing mo!"

Sol and Doods opined that the UP
authorities had apparently forgotten
to use the symbol of the UP Oblation
for the centenary. The Oblation
represents an offering, the
University's offering to the Filipino
people. Reaffirming the Oblation's
message is arguably the most fitting
message for the UP centennial.

The slogan "UP, ang galing mo!" sounds
arrogant. But there's a bigger problem
than that: proclaiming "UP, ang galing
mo!" betrays the brittle confidence
that we have about UP.

It remains indisputable that UP is the
best university in the Philippines.
But this has always been the case for
many decades and generations. Should
UP compare itself to mediocre schools
(relative to the rest of the world)?
Is UP content being the big fish in a
small pond? Or if UP were playing in a
basketball or football tournament,
would it prefer playing in the midget
league, not in the first league, just
so it would be ranked the best in that
league?

Arrogance is acceptable if we were a
Muhammad Ali or a Michael Jordan or a
Bobby Fischer. In the same manner, the
UP's arrogance is tolerable if it
could at least approximate the
standards of the best in the world.

Which brings us to the THES-QS World
university rankings 2007 (see
www.topuniversities .com). The THES-QS
ranking is measured in terms of five
indicators with corresponding weights,
namely peer review (40 percent),
citations per faculty (20 percent),
employer or recruiter review (20
percent), staff/student ratio (10
percent), international staff (5
percent), and international students
(5 percent).

In 2007, UP was ranked number 398. As
expected, the top 10 universities came
from the United States and the United
Kingdom—Harvard, Yale, Oxford,
Cambridge, Imperial College,
Princeton, Chicago, California
Institute of Technology, University
College, and Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. Among the top 50 in
2007 were Asian universities:
University of Tokyo (17) University of
Hong Kong (1, Kyoto University (25),
National University of Singapore (33)
Peking University (36), The Chinese
University of Hong Kong (3, and
Tsinghua University (40). Seoul
National University missed the top 50
by a whisker.

The consolation is that UP is the only
Philippine university ranked in the
world's top 400 universities. The
ranking for the next 401-500
universities is also available, with
Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU)
ranked number 451.

To be nearly at the bottom of the heap
is bad enough. It is more embarrassing
that universities in India, Thailand,
Malaysia and even Indonesia have
outclassed UP, which was once upon a
time one of the best universities in
Asia. Allow me to enumerate the
universities in Asian developing
countries that were ahead of UP in the
2007 THES-QS rankings: Chulalongkorn
(223), Universiti Malaya (246),
University of Delhi (254), Mahidol
University (284), Universiti Sains
Malaysia (307), Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia (307), Universitas Gadjah
Mada (360), Universiti Putra Malaysia
(364), Bandung Institute of Technology
(369), and University of Indonesia
(395). This does not even include the
higher ranking of the universities in
Singapore, China, Taiwan (province of
China), and South Korea.

The people from UP or the UP alumni
make fun of the other universities in
the Philippines. DLSU (De La Salle
University), so goes a UP joke, stands
for "Di Lumusot sa UPCAT." I do hope
we UP alumni don't get offended when a
student from Yogjakarta's Universitas
Gadjah Mada—say, a dark-skinned Muslim
whose English is unintelligible— makes
a joke that UP stands
for "Underachieving People."

That can be jolting. But we do need a
jolt. And UP's centenary is the
auspicious moment not only to
celebrate UP's offering to the country
and the people but to sound the wake
up call for UP to reclaim its
reputation as one of Asia's leading
universities.

The UP is fully aware of what has to
be done. It is, for example, necessary
to legislate a new UP Charter that
will make UP the national university.
The Charter should reinforce UP's
fiscal autonomy and augment its
resources, insulate UP from political
arbitrariness and patronage, safeguard
academic freedom, strengthen academic
excellence, and facilitate UP's role
in serving the people and fostering
national development.

The UP constituency cannot afford to
be divided on key reforms. The reforms
have long been delayed, partly because
of the lack of consensus within the UP
community. The administration must put
in place an inclusive process that
draws in the most vociferous voices in
the University. And the UP activists
must recognize, given the existence of
a failed state and the severe national
budget constraint, that it is to the
UP's and nation's interests to make UP
less financially dependent on the
national government.

UP's internal reforms may not be
enough though. The problem of meeting
excellent academic standards is not
endemic to UP. ADMU, DLSU, and the
University of Sto. Tomas did not rank
among the top 400 universities. So
there lies a deeper problem for
Philippine universities in general.

A cursory examination of the THES-QS
World university rankings shows that
the ranking is highly correlated with
a country's level of development and
prosperity.

So what should we do? We can learn
from Sol, the epitome of what a UP
alumnus should be. As a UP alumnus, he
goes out of his way to support UP in
whatever form. He can even appeal to
his fraternity brods in Malacañang or
the Senate to secure the passage of
the new UP Charter. At the same time,
as a true scholar of the people, he
has consistently participated in the
struggle to rebuild severely damaged
Philippine institutions. Only when we
make the institutions work can we see
the country prosper, which in turn
will enable the UP as well as the
other schools to become world class
and indisputably excellent.

[ehrgeiz]

lingaw ni nga post da. karon lng ko nakabasa ani... labi na tong part na producer of NPAs... :P