It’s been 63 years since Dr. Vicente Guzman-Sinco, former president of the University of the Philippines established Foundation University or simply FU. The year was 1949, and the country was new republic. Dr. Sinco saw the institution’s mission as contributing to national development.
Today, that mission remains valid since national development is a continuing process. What has changed is the process of developing learners who will contribute to development in the context of the present and with an eye for the emerging future.
How is the University doing this? That was my objective the day I entered FU for the first time to interview Victor Vicente “Dean” Sinco, grandson of the founder and currently President of the Board of Trustees and Vice-President for Finance and administration of the University. I was also to interview Dr. Aparicio Mequi, Dean of the Graduate School and concurrent Director of IYS (Institute for Youth Sports).
I realized after talking with “Dean” Sinco and Dr. Mequi that their vision of change is one that comes from several directions, infusing those within with energy to improve and move forward. “We have a broken education system, but instead of cursing it, our policy is to accept what is handed out as requirements from the authorities and then work to improve their substance”, states Dean. Improving substance spilled out to the areas of technology, arts, environment and community improvement programs and a mind shift in recognizing what learners need and do.
Only at FU are students, from the elementary to college levels, provided with iPads. It was an eyebrow raising statement and I asked how students could afford what to most would be considered a luxury item. “We believe it is an investment that makes sense,” explained Dean.
The students are given three years to pay back in full the cost. In return, what do they get aside from feeling good about owning an iPad? The University has an agreement with book publishers, CNE and Vibal, that FU can download on the iPods their electronic books. Now, if you were a parent, wouldn’t you like that? No more back-bending effort at carrying books, and then there is the access to the Internet on-demand while in school.
What’s the benefit to the school? Doing away computer labs and gaining additional space to locate other activities. No more excuse for not doing readings, research, projects, and assignments. Facilities student-student and teacher-student interactions. The speed of accessing the internet can be a problem but that will soon be solved once the University accomplishes its plan to change their network from copper wiring to fiber optics,. A University that’s been around for 63 years can possibly have all technology savvy teachers? Dean Sinco sighs and agrees that it could be a problem but it is part of the learning culture they want established.
Dean recognizes the importance of the arts in everyone’s life. Arts is not just for the elite. It is valuable to all for self-expression and appreciation for aesthetics. But Dean believes that the arts have to be integrated with values of safety. Also the needs and concerns of clients should be considered. Students of architecture, for instance, must learn to design beautiful structures but even as they do so, they must ensure that their designs can stand up to standards of safety as well as respond to the needs and concerns of the clients and the impact of their work on the environment.
Dean spoke enthusiastically about current and planned projects for students of Architecture and Fine Arts. Third and Fourth Year students have recently presented their plans to FU officials and a panel of outside reviewers to enhance Rizal Boulevard and make it sustainable. For four hours, the students presented their plans which encompassed building an amphitheater, public memorials, water treatment facilities, and converting the boulevard into a walkable community.
An architect himself, Dean is taken by the idea of designing homes for the poor but using creative designs that digress from the usual box design of homes. He wants to experiment on rammed earth, a revival of pre historic method of building residences, made from earth, clay and cement. Properly constructed buildings from rammed earth can withstand the test of time. Dean has challenged students of architecture to combine aesthetics and function in building rammed earth houses.
The College of Architecture has a program called Damgo (Dream) Studio, where students will design aesthetics houses for indigents at a cost of no more than the usual cost of a Gawad Kalinga house with an area of about 20-30 square meters.
The University supports artists in residency and this program has been on-going in the last decade. These are in the areas of film and broadcasting, sculpture, and jazz music. The purpose is not to conduct formal classes but to encourage age spontaneous and instinctive creativity with the help of the artists.
The University is very much into the use of recycled materials. Decorative motils made from scrap metals adorn the grills of the library. Cleaning up of the Banica River started in 2008 and recently the cleaning up of the Manjuyod River was adopted. Dr. Mequi recalls that when they first started with the cleaning of Banica River, every Saturday, they would ask all students to gather trash thrown by residents. By Monday, trash was back floating in the river. But FU persisted. The flood of 2009 revealed the damage done by throwing garbage into the river and that traumatic experience helped alter the behavior of the residents.
Another projects that has been realized and disseminated is the bio mechanical goat. “Is that a robotics project?” I asked. Far from it. The bio-mechanical goat is made from used drums and mechanized to convert paper and wastes into organic fertilizer.
When twigs and leaves are fed into the bio mechanical goat, charcoal briquette is produced. The principle is quite simple. Leaves and twigs are dehydrated, compressed and then extruded as charcoal used for household cooking. They are a renewable source of energy and avoid adding fossil carbon to the atmosphere.
Dr. Aparicio Mequi is no stranger to health and wellness although he admits he got into Physical Education program in UP, not by choice but by accident. He was an engineering student but by some fluke of fate, his adviser enrolled him in several PE subjects. He went through them, learned to love the science of PE; became a star runner and despite his being Hat-footed, won a bronze medal in running at the Asian Games. “It’s God’s will”, he says.
Maybe it really was his destiny. At UP he forged a friendship with Mira Sinco. Both got a Fulbright scholarship but attended different universities. He returned to the Philippines with the distinction of being the only Filipino with a PhD in P.E. Back to UP, he founded, the Institute of Sports, P.E. & Recreation (SPEAR).
In 2005, when he retired from government service, Mira invited him to join them at FU as its Dean of the Graduate School. From sports to academics seemed like a big jump, but Dr. Mequi embraced the change. His first act was to look at the reason why the enrollment of the Graduate School was low. He realized it was due to the fact that the faculty was making it hard for students to graduate. “Failure to graduate was an economic loss to students which could be helped if the University adopted a helpful attitude.” He allowed professors and students to communicate by email so that without spending time and money on face to face interaction, students received the support that would see them through until graduation. The enrollment of the Graduate School has since increased.
With the support of Mira’s late husband, Andy, Dr. Mequi turned his attention to health and wellness. He organized Youth Sports for Peace. PE became the vehicle for youth formation; consisting of 7 values, among them fair play, no cheating, no violence, no substance abuse, and respect/friendship for one another, caring for the environment and volunteerism.
In the 2007 Buglasan Festival, Dr. Mequi learned that a motorcycle parade was being organized. Dr. Mequi wondered, “What is the social good of riding a motorcycle? It increases pollution and promotes osteoporoses of the legs”. He decided to start a running club in the University.
One day while walking he saw a poster announcing an essay contest titled, Rice is Life. A light bulb switched on in Dr. Mequi’s mind. He was going to organize a Rice is Life marathon not to focus on rice production but on rice conservation. And the price for winning would be rice.
Rice conservation means conservation of land, water, fertilizer, seeds, air distribution, and consumption. With 7 billion pesos spent on rice production annually, every family must be taught the culture of conservation. He wrote to the Department of Agriculture, which bought the idea and adopted the slogan, Save Rice, Save Life.
Dr. Mequi organized a marathon participated in the BIMP EAGA (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines East Asia Growth Area). It was a marathon for rice conservation. On November 18, 2011, farmers from the four countries came. A rice Festival was organized and each country shared cooking practices in making rice dishes for antipasto, main course, and dessert.
The University has made it a point that every Monday of the month is observed, as Rice is Life; Give Rice — Share a Cup of Rice. Every student in enjoined to bring a cup of rice, which will be shared with others, either prizes or for a social cause. Typhoon Sendong caused a lot of people to evacuate their homes. By then, FU students have accumulated 5 sacks of rice out of their 1cup rice contribution. The 5 sacks were donated to the refugees.
With the risk of obesity also growing, Dr. Mequi started a program, Walk for Wellness. It required that in the 4 years of student’s stay at FU, each student must walk 10.5 kilometers (the distance from Dumaguete to Valencia). It was to be done 4 times a year. At first the parents expressed concern that walking that distance would be too much for their children. Dr. Mequi solved the problem by bringing the students to Valencia so that the 10.5 kilometers would be a downhill walk.
Dr. Mequi conceived of the program, Youth for Water and got the German Development Agency to support a rap-making contest on water conservation.
What’s next? Creating walkable communities. The idea is to pedestrianize main streets that have easy access to 7 key places from the community’s residence. Walkable Communities is a worldwide program and FU is advocating to start with Perdices Street.
By the programs created by Foundation University, it is clear that its direction is towards the integration of an academic life with skills that will empower students to behave intelligently, responsibly and socially in a changing environment characterized by rapid generation of new knowledge and expectations. (Reprinted with permission from Dayon Magazine)
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