The Ateneo De Davao University Twenty-Five Years From Now

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Before all else, allow me to call you all,"friends."For friendship in based on trust and good will, and a commonality of ideas and aspirations. And you are here his morning because of your goodwill and trust in the Ateneo and what is stand for, and this happy occasion provides and opportunity for all of us envision our common ideals and aspiration for the future. And so, I think you for your friendship that has brought your presence here this morning.

This year we entered into the new Millennium. Only recently, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Ateneo de Davao University. And now, we are gathered here for the ceremonies of breaking ground for what will become the main building of the Ateneo de Davao University.

What is the significance of what we are About to do?

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My dear friends of the Ateneo de Davao:

What is the significance of what we are About to do?

Suspend your disbelief for a few moment , and allow me to take you with me on a bit of time travel into the not-too-distant future, to the year 2015,twenty-five years from now. Imagine Davao City as it be then:a prosperous cosmopolitan city, at peace like the rest of the Mindanao, an island that begun to live up its promise as the future of the Philippines. The whole country itself, thanks God, after so many fumbles, has begun to live up to its name as the Pearl of the Orient, taking its place with pride as na equal among its ASEAN neighbors and taking a lead role in the BIMO-EAGA region . The point city of the country in its regional prominence in Davao City.

In this setting , let us leave the Jacinto campus that now, in the year 2025, is the center of the University's part-time Graduate Studies, Professional Programs, Outreach, and Extension Programs. Centrally located as it is in the heart of downtown Davao, the Professional School in the Jacinto campus have contributed greatly to the training of businessmen and professional in Davao City and region.

The Campus and Physical Facilities of the University

Join me and let us take a drive 18 kilometers from where we are now,down towards Toril and up the foothills of the Catigan area. We drive up a cemented road four kilometers from the main highway and enter a campus of dramatic setting , the campus of the Ateneo de Davao University, a first-class university,nestled on a 65-hectare campus, forming with the rest of the surrounding housing and commercial built-up areas, an honest-to-goodness University town. From the front , the campus overlooks the whole of Davao Golf;at the back, Mount Apo stands as a majestic sentinel; and from the higher founds drifts a cool refreshing breeze. It is practically one of its kind in the Philippines because there hardly remains in the country a leading University within a major setting with such a generous campus.

The student,numbering over twenty thousand, come from all over the Philippines and from the neighboring countries of the BIMP-EAGA region . In the early stages of the University's growth as a major University and once peace had been firmly established in Mindanao, the direction of flow of student migration had reversed:Mindanao students no longer flocked to Manila , but rather Luzun and Visayas student , not to mention Indonesians, Malaysians, and Chinese, were strongly attracted to Davao City and , in particular,to the Ateneo de Davao University. A significant number of these student line on-campus , whose buildings and physical facilities have become a regular tourist attraction.

The Value of the University

But the physical setting and the facilities are not the only unique features of this University. To the critical visitor with some knowledge of education ,even more remarkable are the qualities that makes an school truly great in the Jesuit tradition of excellence in education . Despite the limited number of Jesuits, the Ateneo de Davao has managed to create a vibrant culture where the core and centuries ' old value of Jesuit educational tradition thrive and prosper.

Focus on the Student and Relevant Research

First among the values is the clear and almost obsessive focus on the welfare of the student, on their total integral formation as human person and children of God. Despite the size of its student body, the Ateneo ,by its successful use of information technologies and the intensive formation of its faculty and staff, has succeeded in giving its many student a high degree of individual attention and guidance.

MOreover, despite its early aspiration to become a UNibersity of world-class standards , the Ateneo did not take the direction of competing the First-World Universities on the basis of fundamental cutting-edge research. Early on it realized that such expensive groundbreaking research was, for the most part, a function of the overall economic and cultural condition of a nation-Which were beyond the power of any university to dictate. Instead, the Ateneo focused on research that was relevant to the development of its student and faculty, the kind of research that responded directly to social, cultural, scientific, and religious needs of its larger community and business. At the same time,Whenever it found support from business or government,it was happy to undertake as functional a research as could be supported.

The welfare of the Faculty ans Staff and their Ignatian Formation

A second value is the concern for the quality and welfare of its faculty and staff. Early on, the Ateneo had determined the package of would offer to anyone attracted to and gifted for the academic life. It would offer a career that was satisfying and meaningful, a standing in society of enviable repute, a financial package that offered security,a a professional and personal development program that was life-long an overall standard of living that, while modest, would answer a contemporary person's basic needs for food, clothing ,shelter for himself and his family , and education up to University's level for his children. To this end , the major portion of the University annual budget had always been allocated for the salaries and benefits of its faculty and staff. The salaries-and-benefits item in its annual budget gives an example of the university's creative use of financial resources to achieve its objectives. The innocuous budgetary item funded and expensive standard faculty development program. Once the candidate for faculty had been carefully screened and recruited, the new recruit was subjected to a systematic, intensive, and life-long process of continuing professional upgrading, as well a personal and spiritual formation. The purpose of this single-minded and expensive process was to prepare the faculty to assume the role of being a lay co-worker with the Jesuit in their work of the University apostate. It is a system that has allowed the school,despite the shortage of Jesuits, to preserve and even enhance the Jesuit character of the institution. A firm conviction underpinned this zeal: the gospels, as specified in the Ignatian ideals of education, far from undermining man's efforts and aspirations, are in fact the fulfillment of his deepest longing and potentials.

Just as the school proclaimed its objective as the total and integral development of the student , so also it mirrored back that objective vis-a-vis its faculty and pursued the total and integral human and professional development of its faculty as a corollary was effectively transformed into a learning organization.

The Mission of Service

A third value is the mission of service that drives the development of the university and is a core objective in the formative process of the student , an effort that is sustained both inside and outside the classroom. The expansion of the University itself into a large university with thousand of student was a response of the Ateneo to serve the community and the region. In the beginning of the new millennium , it was clear that if the country and,particularly, southern Philippines were to develop,quality education of world-class standard was an imperative. Surveying the region at that time, it was equally clear that if any school in southern Philippines was favorably positioned to respond to such a need, the Ateneo de Davao was it. Finally, if the Ateneo were to perform such a service and have an impact on the wider community,it could not follow the route of becoming an exclusive school,whereby only the very rich, and a sprinkling of the poor but very talented could study. This key insight determined the goals and policies of the school as fas as student population growth was concerned:

Accept whatever constraints may exist,but within those constraints,aim for excellence: in the faculty, in the textbooks, and in the facilities.
Determine the student that can hurdle such standards of excellence.
Accept all student who fit that profile
Monitor and support these student as they go through the program
Recruit and develop faculty, create responsive management structures, and institutionalize innovative processes in order to respond to the growing population.
Given these policies, it was anticipated that a limit in student population would eventually be reached . That point would also be the point of financial and organizational stability where the goal of world-class academic be maintained. And this is where the Ateneo de Davao is now,in the year 2025.

The Key Decisions: Historical Imperatives

It is interesting to took back now from the perspective of 25 years and discover how so many of these fundamental and seemingly"big" decision were in fact dictated--"compelled," if you will--by the exigencies of the situation at that time.

The Increase in Student Population(1): The Exigency of the Ateneo's Mission

The Ateneo at that time could have remained the way it was. It had a population of 6,000 student. There was a high demand for its services. It could have maintained the status quo and sustained itself in comfort. It could have raised its tuition as needed to maintain a respectable but, admittedly, by global standards, a mediocre academic institution.

But if it had done so, it could not have remained faithful to its mission. Its Ignatian ideals were proclaimed by the slogan,"Man for others," and the call applied as strongly to the institution as it did to the individual graduate. Its mission mandated the school to serve the needs of the nation, the Filipino people. The population figures of the country were large, and the population growth was relentless Poverty was endemic. Quality education was the key to national development and the ticket for the individuals to a better life. However there was a severe shortage of schools that offered quality education.

Could such a school that proclaimed "Service of the Nation," and "Promotion of Justice" have any choice but to try to address this fundamental problem? Who else was to address it? The government? Not really, since private initiative is the agent of change in a democracy. Other schools? But what other school has better chance of addressing the issue successfully? Any serious analysis of the situation pointed only to one direction. The school had to grow.

If it had maintained the status quo the school would have been serving an increasing insignificant number of student . These fortunate graduate would have been so well-educated that they would have fitted in comfortably in the culture of the First World. But their numbers would have been so insignificant and their exclusive training so sanitized from the harsh realities of a developing nation that , in the end , one could pose this question with all seriousness : "What is the school there for:" And in fact, such a question did not remain unasked.

Moreover, the demographics, and therefore Philippines society itself, was rapidly changing. Philippines society was opening up--one welcome effect of globalization . Leadership was no longer the prerogative of the landed rich. Leader were springing up from all levels of society. In fact at the time these decision were made to expand the school, it almost seemed like the fad to elect movie actors and actresses to political leadership! Looking back, but this time farther back to the end of the 19th century, the pattern was now obvious.

The Ateneo de Manila , the premier school of the Jesuits throughout the 20th century, was started by accident . The Jesuits, upon their return to the Philippines in1859, had one explicit written mission:they were to evangelize Mindanao. But they were to evangelize Mindanao. But they were waylaid in Manila, and string were pulled in the Royal Court, so that they ended up running a school for the children of the elite of the city. It was to their credit, however, that they opened up the school sufficiently enough to allow some native Filipino student to study. And one of them turned out to be the most illustrious graduate of Philippine Jesuit education: Dr. Jose Rizal. And so even in Rizal's time the change was already apparent:leadership was no longer inherited. By the end of the 20th century,with its decision to expand , the Ateneo de Davao was merely responding to the obvious.

The Increase in Student Population (2): The Financial Exigency

Finally, the small exclusive school model would have been hoisted , so to speak, by its own petard. Significant financial resources were needed to strive for world-class excellence. For a private school in the small exclusive school model , the only reliable source of increased funding was tuition increase. But there was a limit to the annually compounding tuition and fees. One could increase that tuition, but only to that point where parents would not feel that it was just a well to send their children to a patented world-class university abroad.And so,even before the school reached the goal of world-class excellence, its student would already have gone abroad, as in fact it was already happening as segments of the population became richer. It was therefor clear that if one ambitioned to become a world-class university, the small school model was a dead-end.

But could not fund-raising and donation have been the answer? it was often pointed out that world-class universities in the United State survived because of donations of benefactors.

In the Philippines, in the year 2000, this alternative did not seem all that promising ;and this for three reasons.

First, the top universities in the First World themselves had relatively large student population; and moreover, they had centuries during which they been able to build up their fabled endowment funds.

Secondly, because of historic, cultural,legal,economic, and other reasons, the spirit of generous philanthropy, on a scale that supported a Stanford or a Harvard, had not yet become the norm in educational philanthropy of the Philippines. Properly motivated and in the right set of circumstances, Philippine benefactors were generous. But there were the economic realities of the Philippines situation. So great and sustained were the needs, and so limited were the resources, that anyone with means was likely to develop "donor fatigue." (And that is why, as I will have occasion to mention later on,the donation connected with the Ellen Francisco-Fajardo Building is so significant.) To plan for a future on the basis of projected but uncertain fund-raising campaigns would have been naive at best. In time,perhaps,such a culture of philanthropy would become more establishment. And in fast, shortly after the groundbreaking of the Ellen Francisco Fajardo Building, the Ateneo embarked on its highly successful ,Millennial Fund Campagn; and ever since,systematic fund -raising has been a regular concern of the Ateneo Administration

But any realistic plan must entail financing. The Ateneo at that time recognized that a realistic source of funding did exist: increase the tuition base by expanding student population.

A second reality concerning fund-raising was this: donors normally support ongoing successful operation , but avoid souring ones. And with good reason. As social investors, as benefactors who have had to work for their money,donors were not inclined to pour good money after bad. If an education institution had shown itself to be non-viable in the conduct of its code business, donations could hardly keep that school viable for long.

And so, decision to increase student population, even from financial consideration, became compelling.

Information Technology: The Exigencies of Student Population Growth and Limited Resources

The Ateneo now, in this year 2025, has an established reputation of being the most wired and the most computer-literate university in the country. But again, it is interesting to note that the decision to pursue this direction, taken 25 years ago, was dictated by the combined exigencies of big number of student, limited financial resources and at that time, still developing . At that time, imported books were costing thousands of pesos each, the prospect of graduate studies abroad for faculty, financed by the school ,was rare. In the meantime, there were the growing thousand of students that had to be provided with a quality education that aspired to world-class standards without sacrificing the core Ignatian value of cura peronalis , the care for the individual student. How was the school to do it.

To run in the same place would have gotten the school nowhere. If the school had stuck to the traditional modes of instruction and simply worked harder at them, the large numbers of student, the limited resources, and the still developing faculty, would have combined to reduce the school into a diploma mill. Instead, very early on, the school marshaled its financial resources , concentrated and channeled them towards a very specific goal: the rapid adoption of information technology by the whole school--from the earliest levels of the preschool to the graduate and professional programs. The cost of this concerted effort in information technology was enormous, but it was worth it. For the expectations were fulfilled: the information technologies become the cornerstone of the present success of the school . Despite large numbers of student, despite still limited resources in comparison to first-world universities, the Ateneo de Davao, through the information technologies, became and active participant, in real time, to the drama of global knowledge explosion. And that was linchpin of its claim to world-class quality education.

Upgrading of Basic Education: The Exigency for Quality Students

Finally, there is this historical fact is not by many. The move of the Ateneo towards world-class university status began, not in its graduate programs, as might have been expected, but in its basic education. This curious decision was also dictated by historical circumstances.

At that time, 25 years ago, the state of general basic education in the Philippines was a truly discouraging fact. High school graduates (even college graduates) could not write or speak straight English;reading for many was an unknown habit; mathematics sowed fears, of the primal sort, in the hearts of student; and overall science education was so dismal that even among those who had gone to school, superstitious beliefs lingered, and arbularios ran a thriving business. Clearly, if the Ateneo was to aspire to world-class excellence, it had better do something more constructive than lament the sad state of basic education at that time. And it did.

Its earliest moves towards becoming a major university therefore, started with its concerted effort to upgrade its basic education. The task was inherently important , for intellectual and personal deficiencies in later life often had their roots in the early years of the child. Clearly, no serious effort to upgrade tertiary education could have been successful without upgrading basic education. This logic was clearly recognize even then, 25 years ago. The problem was: how were you going to tackle the problem?

Rather than merely become the fact, Ateneo struck out on a pragmatic route. It had to secure for itself a feeder school that could reliably supply student who were well-prepared to cope with the ever upgrading quality of its university education. What more natural feeder school than its university education. What more natural feeder school than its own grade school and high school? The first loans and construction undertaken by the Ateneo were for the purpose of upgrading its whole grade and high school facilities and operation.

The same successful pattern then was applied in the grade school and high school, and in the college. The student population were significantly increase, but at the same time, management structures were innovatively adapted to the changing situation , and more important, the faculty were carefully screened ,systematically trained, and subjected to a life-long formation process. Visitors to the Matina campus at that time admired and marveled that such impressive building could lavished on basic education in such a "provincial"city as Davao. What was missed was the significance of these developments for the term. For the building were merely the outer shell for the other things that were happening and that were even more important, such as: the serious effort at upgrading its faculty and curricula , the changes in its structures to manage an increasing complex operation, and the systematic development of its skills to guide and counsel individual students-all intimately linked to the adoption and sophisticated development of information technologies.

The Achievement of the Ateneo de Davao: A Successful Apostolic Instrument

Such,. then is the Ateneo de Davao University in 2025, as years from now. It is a thriving university with three campuses: the Matina campus for basic education, the 65-hectares Catigan camous for the Undergraduate and full-time graduate Programs , and the old Jacinto Campus for the part-time Graduate, Professional, Extension, and Outreach programs. Its facilities in all campuses are first-class. But its highest achievement is something less visible, but nonetheless profoundly significant. And this is the unique culture that is variously described as"Ignatian" or "Jesuit," and whose main indicators are the following:

its focus on the welfare of the student; its success in developing qualified faculty with ideals of Jesuit education: the wide economic range and number of its large student population;
the agility of its management structures;
the enviable sophistication in its use of information technologies that link it to the rest of the world and enable it to strive for academic excellence;
the mission of service that it successfully instills in its graduates and lives out in its institutional priorities , decisions and directions.

All these element that now define the Ateneo de Davao University as a world-class university, at the same time define it as a successful apostolic instrument of the society of Jesus. From the perspective of history, that is a truly satisfying and fitting achievement . For the mandate given to the Jesuits in the 1800s to evangelize the island of MIndanao finds a fitting fulfillment in the achievement of the Ateneo de Davao University in the 21th century. Frs. Barua ans Bove were the first Jesuits to land on the island of Samal in 1868.Little could they have imagined that across the channel, on the foothills of Mt. Apo clearly visible from the island , their work would have fruit in a world-class university.

Conclusion: Realizing The Dream

Let us now undo our suspension of disbelief, return to present realities, and ask this important question: Is this vision of the Ateneo 25 years from now an empty dream with no prospect of realization?

The vision is a dream because it is not yet a reality. But it is a dream that, in fact, is already beginning to be achieved. The visible proof of this claim is the groundbreaking ceremonies for the main building of the Jacinto campus for which we are now gathered this morning.

The Ateneo, in the past five years, has already constructed four major building. And yet , for none of these constructions was a ceremony of a groundbreaking conducted. Why? Because concrete structure do not make a educational Institution. It is the faculty and the student, the overall culture of the people in the institution,, embracing and living a common vision and mission, that make a truly great education institution. And we are having this groundbreaking today because these critical elements that will define the Ateneo as a great school in the future are now falling into place and are beginning to be realized. The groundbreaking for this building then is a appropriate occasion to recognize that fact, and for the Ateneo community to rally together and hasten the fulfillment of its dream.

What has been achieved?

Without diluting admission requirements, the student population on all levels growing faster projected.
The policies, processes, and structures for faculty recruitment, orientation, and ongoing formation from the basic education level to the doctoral levels have begun to be defined and institutionalized.
The curricula for all courses, on all levels, are being upgraded, and the most modern textbooks being adopted. Hundreds of computers each year, for the past three years, have been purchased, and the acquisitions will grow even more before it abates when a comfortable proportion of computer-to-student has been reached.
Already, now, the preschool classrooms boast of computers as standard tools for the children's everyday use. All the buildings of both the Jacinto and the Matina campus are wired with fiber-optic backbones.The Matina campus is linked by a wireless connection to this campus, which itself is linked to an Internet Service Provider bu a similar wireless connection.All downloads from the Internet and drawn from satellites, and upload are through a dedicated leased line direct to Manila.
This year, five classrooms each in the grade school, the high school, and the college are being equipped with multimedia facilities so that the faculty can develop their lectures in Power Point presentations. The long-term objective is to equip all the classrooms with such effective instructional multimedia tools.
The libraries of all units have been upgraded; Internet connection in all of them have been established.
The University Web Page Project is well under way. The completion of the project will see all the syllabi of all the courses taught on all levels digitally published, made available to all student and faculty alike. And this objective of publishing the syllabi in only the start.
On the formation front, the campus minister, the guidance counselor, and the faculty formators of the First Yea r Christian Formation Program in the College have undergone or are undergoing professional training in formation work.
The many formation activities on all levels are being coordinated and systematized on a university-wide basis.
The two formation facilities-at the Shrine and in Talomo Beach-have been renovated; and negotiations are in process for the university to acquire a sufficiently large formation facilities that will answer its accelerating needs for seminars,workshops,retreats, and formation facility that will answer its accelerating needs for seminars, workshop, retreats, and formation activities, both for faculty and student.
The financial structure has been so stabilized and improved that, in a very recent study made by the college faculty in preparation for the PAASCU accreditation, they were happily surprised to discover that in the last 5 years the financial package for faculty has doubled for a significant number.Moreover, not only have salaries increased across the board, so that the whole salary scale is now on a higher level; the graph also showed that the salaries of the majority of the faculty have dramatically shifted from the lower half to the higher half of the higher level salary spectrum.
Finally , the 65-hectare Catigan campus that I invited you to visit with me in imagination, is not a dream. The Ateneo already owns that property, acquired sir years ago.

The momentum has been created, the beginning of the realization of the dream are palpable . I pray that this building and this groundbreaking will symbolize, and actualize, our common commitment to pursue to its fullest the realization of the dream.

I thank you.

Info

Source Journal	Tambara
Journal Volume	Tambara Vol.17
Authors	Rev. Edmundo M. Martinez S.J.
Page Count	16
Place of Publication	Davao City
Original Publication Date	December 1, 2000
Tags	AdDU Twenty-Five Years From Now

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The Ateneo De Davao University Twenty-Five Years From Now

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