OpinionsNot the Norm10 things I didn’t know about Silliman University

10 things I didn’t know about Silliman University

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The past days I’ve been experiencing Silliman University’s spirited and colorful Founders Week celebration. This is my first, but for those of you who have lived here in Dumaguete for a while have come to know of Silliman U well, like the fact that it was started in 1901 by American Presbyterian missionaries, making it the oldest American-founded university in Asia.

So in honor of Founders Week, here are 10 things I didn’t know about Silliman University until recently:

1. The University is the namesake of Dr. Horace Brinsmade Silliman but perhaps it could have been named Hibbard University. Silliman was the principal donor (giving $10,000) but it was fellow American Dr. David Sutherland Hibbard who came to the Philippines to scout for locations for a school, chose this part of the country “because of the beauty of Dumaguete and the friendliness of the people;” he served as the school’s first president.

2. Silliman U is often recognized for academic excellence. Throughout its history, the University’s Accountancy, Physical Therapy and Nursing programs have been ranked #1 in the Philippines. Silliman University was ranked 4th best in the country (following three University of Philippines schools), and in the top 150 universities in all of Asia.

3. Silliman’s acacia-lined campus by the sea is a national historical landmark, and is listed as one of the 50 Most Beautiful College & University Campuses in the World.

The University actually has multiple campuses, including a 29-hectare campus north of downtown, along Silliman Beach; Camp Lookout in Valencia overlooking Dumaguete, where they host the Silliman National Writers Workshop; and a 465-hectare ranch and farm on Ticao Island in the province of Masbate in the Bicol region that was donated by the family of an alumnus.

4. Silliman University takes up almost one-third of the total land area of downtown Dumaguete. With nearly 9,000 students from all over the Philippines and 30 countries abroad, Silliman makes up approximately eight percent of the University Town’s total population.

5. The University was forced to shut down twice during its history. On May 26, 1942, the campus was occupied by Japanese forces, turning Channon Hall into the headquarters of their dreaded military police where they tortured and killed many Filipinos. It wasn’t until 1945 that American and Filipino forces liberated the country from the Japanese, allowing the University to reopen and for classes to resume.

Then in 1972, it wasn’t foreign invaders but Martial Law that padlocked the University, with the Philippine Constabulary raiding offices, and rounding up and detaining student-activists and campus journalists.

6. The scenic campus, which boasts of a view of the mountain and the sea, is home to about 300 acacia trees, but there is particularly one near the Gymnasium that is most notable. The tree is perfectly symmetrical because it was on this tree that the Japanese hanged their prisoners during World War II; the weight of the dangling bodies posthumously shaped the branches of the acacia.

7. By 2010, Silliman became the first school in the Philippines to offer co-ed boxing in its Physical Education program. Taught by world famous coaches, Fred and Hedi Block and Joe Clough, the two-credit P.E.21 was called Introduction to World Boxing. http://dumaguetemetropost.com/boxing-course-at-silliman-university-p839-196.htm

8. Built in 1978, the Robert & Metta Silliman Library started with only two small bookcases. Today, it houses over 250,000 books, and is considered one of the biggest collections in all of Southeast Asia.

9. Katipunan Hall was originally the Silliman Mission Hospital in the 1960s (now called the SU Medical Center in a compound of its own across the Silliman Ballfied) where many Dumagueteños now in their 50s were born. KH is now home to some departments of the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Education, and the School of Public Affairs & Governance.

So is KH really haunted? Thanks to accounts of blood dripping from the walls where the operating room used to be, or blue-eyed and blonde nurses walking along the corridors, and other spooky ghost stories, Psychology students annually convert it into a Horror Chamber, one of the most-awaited go-to events on Founders Week.

10. Various interesting Silliman-firsts:

The maiden issue of the campus newspaper Silliman Truth (now known as the Weekly Sillimanian) was in 1903.

The first Filipina student was Pura Blanco, admitted in 1912.

Its campus radio station opened in 1950. Known by the call letters DYSR, this 1000-watt station first broadcast out of Guy Hall for three hours every night.

Its first Filipino president, Dr. Leopoldo Ruiz, was voted into office only in 1952.

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Author’s email: [email protected]

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