On Taking Responsibility

In three more months we’ll see hundreds of thousands graduating from the universities around the country.  As usual, we’ll also see hundreds of thousands pounding the pavements looking for jobs.  For many, it’ll also be time to blame their parents for “forcing” them to take a course not of their personal choice, especially if they’re going to have difficulty finding jobs they like.

Well, going to the university is not a simple process of pre-selecting the job you’ll love.  It’s more of a process of training to enable you to do something well, not necessarily in an area you’d love to work in.  Loving the job you land after you graduate from the university is a different matter altogether.  Still, you really have no business blaming your parents if you fail to land a well-paying job, or something you enjoy doing.  Too, a well-paying job for the mal-trained is not always enjoyable, and an enjoyable job rarely requires the training and expertise you may have learned from the university.

JK Rowling, the famed author of the Harry Potter series, reminded her audience when she was graduation speaker at Harvard University in June 2008, as follows: “There’s an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you to the wrong direction.”  What she wanted the graduating class at Harvard to understand was that those graduating would proceed to join the world in making decisions for others, and that they should take responsibility for those decisions.

Indeed, it’s not completely incorrect to say that young graduates joining the work force in this country, no matter how idealistic they might be, will not contribute to wrong decisions made by our policy- and decision-makers perhaps making the lives of most Filipinos that much more difficult to bear.  In time those who’ll help make wrong decisions will eventually become the corrupt officials we love to hate.

What am I saying?  Well, for the young graduates, the moment you make your own choices, such as in the case of choosing a job, you make your own decisions, and the moment you make your own decisions you must take responsibility for the ultimate effect of those decisions.  It’s not only decisions you make after graduation that you should take responsibility for but all decisions you made on your own earlier on.  More importantly, what becomes of you when you’ve turned professional is something you can’t blame on your parents, either.  Your life is your full responsibility.  No one can live your life for you.   You must live it yourself.

All of us have and are making significant decisions for ourselves, but many, if not all these decisions, invariably affect others in many ways as well.  So make decisions and accept the responsibility for those decisions like men and women of honor.

***

Increasingly, it’s becoming difficult for many, including myself, to practice the value many of us were raised  in times past – trust and belief in others as you trust and believe in yourself, we were always reminded by our parents before.  Today, we observe that such standard has eroded significantly.  The other day, Jegs called me while I was in the office.  She happened to hasve stayed home to study her courses this semester instead of going to the library.

When I left home for office earlier that day, I happened to have just left our gate open.  I thought that was all right since Jegs was home and King, my son, was still home, too.  Then about mid-morning, Jegs called me up and asked me if I had arranged to buy bananas from someone who just entered our gate and introduced himself to her as the cousin of the person whom we have been contracting to do some gardening during weekends.  The man, Jegs said, claimed that I have always ordered bananas from him.  The man sounded like he was sincere, Jegs said, when he informed her that, “lagi kasi bumibili sa akin si sir, e.”  Jegs excused herself and called me through our landline.  Good thing she had the presence of mind to check with me.

I told Jegs I have ordered bananas from no one, and I didn’t know that Danny, our gardener, had a cousin.  When Jegs informed the guy that I didn’t like to buy bananas, the guy simply responded, “Oh, so you asked him?” and left.  The man was a total stranger, but he was trying to talk himself into the trust framework of Jegs.

Thing is, this man may just be casing our house.  Who knows, he might be a member of those notorious “akyat-bahay” gangs who rob houses when owners are not home.  In the past, I never thought ill of people, but these days one can’t be too suspicious.

###

Advocacy Worth My Time

Today, all the LGU executives of Laguna came out with an ad in the Philippine Star titled “Let’s Save Laguna Lake – Rebuild a Productive and Healthy Community.”  This ad was signed by the Governor and all the mayors of the 30 municipalities and cities in Laguna.  If there’s an advocacy that I’m willingly going to join, it’s saving Laguna de Bay.

In 1973, I wrote a feature article titled “Lost Paradise in the Making – Laguna de Bay.”  It was published in the Philippine Farms and Gardens.  The article pointed out that the waters of Laguna de Bay 25 years earlier (circa late 40s) were very placid and clean, even potable (according to old residents in coastal towns of Laguna) direct from the lake itself.  The article predicted that 25 years into the future (that would be about 1998) the waters of Laguna Lake would be severely polluted.  That’s what happened.

I’ve continuously advocated for the cleaning up of the lake since I first wrote about it 38 years ago.  Now come the LGU executives of Laguna under the leadership of Laguna Governor “ER” Ejercito, publicly enjoining P-Noy to help in saving Laguna Lake.

The theme of this advocacy is “Let’s Save Laguna Lake – Rebuild a Productive and Healthy Community.”  The one-page ad that appeared in the Philippine Star today (January 25^th), I think says it all. 

Laguna lake is a 90,000-hectare inland body of water, the largest in the Philippines, and has a total basin of about 382,000 hectares.  Some say that this area is larger than the entire city-state of Singapore.  Based on the census of 2008, it is said that 13M people consider the coastal towns of Laguna and Rizal as their home.

Former Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) General Manager Edgardo Manda referred to it as the “biggest septic tank of human and industrial waste” from Metro-Manila.  According to a number of studies conducted by UPLB and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005, the water quality of Laguna Lake has deteriorated to below the quality of Class C water (irrigation water), a far cry from its quality even in 1973.  Researchers of UPLB and other agencies have found toxic metals in the lake (lead, zinc, copper, chromium, to name a few).  In fact, until today, you would still get DDT in the silt of the lake deposited there by irrigation waters from the agricultural lands in Laguna and Rizal in the 50s and the 60s when DDT was the main ingredient of farm chemicals.  No wonder, fish kill is a common occurrence these days.

In the decade of the 60s, the average depth of Laguna Lake was 8 meters.  Today, the average water depth is 2.5 meters (even less in some areas) and the remaining 5.5 meters is all silt – a far cry from what it was in the decade of the 60s.  Friends used to bathe in the Malakoko Beach in Mayondon, Los Baños, Laguna in the 60s and they recall standing on sand at neck-deep water, just about 10 meters from the shoreline.   That’s all gone now.

Saving Laguna Lake, indeed, is an important advocacy.  We must all join this effort.

###

Anders Ynnerman: Visualizing the medical data explosion | Video on TED.com

Anders Ynnerman: Visualizing the medical data explosion | Video on TED.com

This is the future. Let's try to understand it. We're moving on to it.

Greetings, Faculty Regent Ida

Our congratulations to new UP Faculty Regent, Dr. Ida F. Dalmacio, professor at the UPLB Institute of Biological Sciences.  She starts work with the BOR this month, and will be Faculty Regent for two years (2011-2012).  Under the UP Charter of 2008, the FR has a term of two years and represents solely the faculty in the BOR.

I know Regent Ida knows what she’s going to do so I have no intention of telling her what to do.  All I want to do is recall what I proposed to the BOR, when I was FR in 2008.  I had two major proposals then.

First, I proposed a reformulation of the policy framework for faculty promotion and tenure.  Faculty members of UP, who want to be promoted or tenured, must apply for promotion or tenure.  By applying, one must, therefore, be ready to provide the supporting documents, such as sample copies of academic publications and the like, needed in the evaluation of one’s promotability or tenurability.  In other words, one who thinks he/she should be promoted or tenured must apply for promotion or tenure and be ready to prove himself/herself.  It is not appropriate for just a committee to determine whether or not one should be promoted or tenured, if the faculty member concerned is not ready or interested to get promoted or tenured.

Second, I proposed the establishment in the university of a career path for REPS (research, extension, and professional staff) personnel.  As late as 2008, there were REPS at UPLB who have earned their PhDs and remained at the level of SG12 or SG15.  Until today, the highest a REPS could be promoted to is SG22, which is rare.

A faculty member starting out as Assistant Professor 1, for example, can hope to be promoted to Professor 12, or perhaps University Professor.  There’s no such flexibility for REPS.  Besides, there’s really no legal basis for the University to set aside money for promotion of REPS because there’s no career path for them.  Hence, when REPS are considered for promotion, they have to compete with faculty  members.  They can’t be considered competing with the Administrative Staff for promotion purposes.

When I submitted my concept papers to the BOR in 2008, I suggested a specific protocol.  I submitted my proposals directly to the BOR, which turned it over to the UP President, who, in turn, passed on the proposals to the Chancellors, who were expected to turn the proposals over to the sectors concerned (REPS and faculty) for appropriate discussions.  The intention was for the respective sectors to formulate their own proposals to deal with the problems.  These proposals, it was suggested then, were to be submitted by the campuses to the UP System for consolidation and formulation of a final proposal which was to be presented to the BOR for action.

I believe that the concept papers I submitted in 2008 are still in the campuses and discussions have not been finished, if they had started at all.  I didn’t expect that my proposals would be carried by the various sectors concerned, but at the very least I had expected that the sectors concerned would come up with a proposal of their own to solve the problems I had envisioned my proposals would help resolve.

But then again, are the faculty members interested in streamlining the faculty promotion and tenure system; and are the REPS interested in having career paths in the university?  I had thought then that they would, but I could have been completely wrong.

***

Still,  I wonder if one who joined the university as a URA knew he/she would be able to grow professionally and even get promoted to the position of, say, Scientist VI or perhaps Director of Research.  What would be his/her level of motivation compared to one who knew he/she would only get promoted to just the position of University Researcher?  I would hope that one would be more interested to get promoted to a higher position.  Such is what a career path could offer the professional staff.  At this point, I believe that more open discussions among the personnel concerned are needed.  What do the people who’ll likely be affected think about this idea?

***

The current university policy requires that a new faculty member must be tenured within three years.  One important requirement for tenure is academic publication.  Without such publication, one can’t be reappointed as faculty member.  So, instead of becoming tenured, one would not get reappointed.

Under this condition, I’ve seen groups of Assistant Professors not getting reappointed.  It can be bad for the instruction program of the university because the institution could lose its best teachers, but that’s the current policy.

###

E-Biking, Anyone?

Last week Jegs got her e-bike.  She looks well on it, but I haven’t tried it yet as I have visualized myself a bit heavy on top of this little thing.  There’s a bigger version, though, but I haven’t decided if I could afford it.   How does this e-bike work?

Simple.  Just switch it on, turn the handle bar just like you do with a motorcycle, then off you go.  Well, do that slowly at the start.  If your battery is about 50% discharged and you’re still on the road, just turn the handle bar to the minimum level and whenever you think it necessary proceed to push the pedals and the e-bike’s dynamo would continue the work.  While operating the e-bike in this manner, your battery pack won’t continue to discharge.  Then, when you get home, recharge your battery … about four hours recharging time is needed.

The e-bike doesn’t run as fast as the motorcycle does, but it certainly runs like a bicycle with practically no sound.  It is as if you’re just free-wheeling.  We’re told that the e-bike runs a maximum of about 40kph and about 40km per charge.  That also depends on how much battery power you’re expending while running.  For example, heavy load and running uphill would invariably require higher battery consumption.  However, when your battery has been discharge about 50%, just leave the key at “on” position so that electrical circuitry is complete, then proceed to push the pedals as if to start a dynamo running.  Three pushes would be enough to run the e-bike for about 50 meters.  You need to push another three times for another 50 meters.  If you decide to push the pedals continuously, it would be like you’re on a stationary bike at the minimum stress level possible, i.e., free-wheeling point.

If your intention is just to move around the UPLB Campus as freely as you wish, especially if you have a number of errands to do, then the e-bike would work just fine.  If you prefer the bicycle, that works perfectly, too.

Advantage?  You won’t expend fossil fuel while running the e-bike, but, of course, you use electricity to recharge your battery pack.  Compared to the standard, good-looking bicycle, the e-bike is cheaper.  Well, you may think of other advantages.  These are actually personal matters.

***

I wish to congratulate Danyelle here.  I understand in the latest grading period at Don Bosco (where she’s Grade II) she got grades not lower than 90 in all her subjects.  Meaning, she’s part of that elite group, the honor students.  I know she’s been working hard on this.  In the past two grading periods, her average grades were higher than 90 but she had one (each time) in the upper 80s.  I understand that even if a child has a very high average grade if she/he has at least one grade that is less than 90 she/he wouldn’t be included in the honor rankings.  Well, Danyelle has made it.  I know she’ll hold onto that level until she’s promoted to Grade III.

OK, Nyelle, you got a “budget” from me.  But, remember our agreement?  Whenever I give you a “budget,” you gotta save it.

###

Plagiarism as Graduate Education Issue

Yesterday I served as resource person in the 11^th Monthly Forum of the UPLB Environmental Science Society and the School of Environmental Science and Management (SESAM).  There were many in attendance, in spite of the small lecture hall of SESAM.  This indicated to me that there seem to be a lot more students at UPLB who are interested to know more about plagiarism than I thought.

The discussions tried to address three issues: why plagiarism was important to students, why  students plagiarize, and how might we be able to avoid plagiarism.

I started out by saying, “to level the playing field, I can say without batting an eye lash that we all have intentionally or unintentionally committed some form of plagiarism in the past.”  Everybody smiled, and I suppose that was a truthful statement.

From my own personal viewpoint, I equated plagiarism with leprosy.  I said, “like it or not, plagiarism is an intellectual leprosy.”  That sounded rather strong, but plagiarism is such an important issue in the academe that it must be dealt with in the strongest possible terms.  Why did I equate plagiarism with leprosy?  Well, to me, it’s a chronic intellectual disease; it’s stigmatizing; and I believe it can be cured.

I don’t believe that you become a plagiarist over night.  However, when you do it for the first time and see some benefit from it if it solves your problems of having to meet deadlines in the midst of all the work overload that you have to contend with, you tend to do it again, and again, and again.  Ultimate effect: the action becomes habitual and you become a plagiarist.  This can happen quickly, though.

Being known as a plagiarist is an intellectual stigma, which can stick with you in your entire professional life.   Once your professional life is tainted with simple accusation of having copied somebody else’s ideas and included them in your work as your own without any attribution, then you’ll find it extremely difficult to shake off that stigma of being a social and intellectual cheat.  The stigma stays with you way past the actual time the offense was committed.

Plagiarism can be avoided through proper citation.  When you borrow someone else’s idea to arrive at your own idea, you need to cite where you got the original idea. 

It is said that when you simply copy one work and pass it off as your own it’s plagiarism, but when you generate an entirely new idea based on numerous sources of information the process is called research.  That may be true, but slow down a bit on that one.  The moment you use someone else’s ideas, works, etc. to arrive at your own, which we just said is a research process, you need to cited where you got the idea.  You have to cite your sources.  That is giving credit where it is due.  If you don’t cite your sources, you’re passing those ideas off as your own and that’s plagiarism.

If any thing, the good attendance in yesterday’s Forum indicated to me that it’s not all automatic “cut-and-paste” rush with UPLB students.  This shows that they want to be able to produce work that has some level of originality and creativity, and they want to know how they could do that with some degree of confidence.  I appreciate that kind of an attitude.  But, then again, these are UP students.  Must we expect differently?

***

The undergraduates who were in attendance in the Forum were devcom students taking a course with Prof. Lynnette Carpio.  I was pleased to see these students in the Forum.  If there should be UPLB students who should have an excellent grasp of the plagiarism issue, it would be the devcom students.  Plagiarism is an ethical and moral offense at the intellectual level that all devcom students are expected to be completely familiar with.  They’re in the field of communication (oral and written) and plagiarism, in this field, is not taken lightly.

For all those who attended the Forum, and others who were not able to make it but are interested in the issue, I left a hard copy of my talk with Rico Ancog, President of the UPLB Environmental Science Society, at SESAM.

***

Yesterday, UPOU gave outgoing UP President Emer Roman a simple testimonial at the UPOU Headquarters.  I was unable to stay until lunch time since I was preparing for the Forum at SESAM, but I did show myself to President Emer and UPOU Chancellor Gigi Alfonso.  President Emer did give UPOU good support in her presidency.  When she took over as UP President, I was in the last two years of my second term as UPOU Chancellor, so I was able to work with her.  Then, of course, Chancellor Gigi took over the administration of UPOU and the partnership continued very well with Gigi.

There were all the System officials, many of them having taken on various jobs at the System level when I was no longer Chancellor of Faculty Regent.  I saw, however, those who had continued to serve UP toward the second half of Pres. Emer’s term, which shall end in February 2011.  Pres. Emer had the distinct honor of having been the first woman President of UP, the first Centennial President of UP (it will take another 100 years for another president to come around).  I think she did well as president.  Congratulations.

Those in attendance yesterday included VPAA Amy Guevarra, AVPAA Celia Adriano, VPA Samaniego, and, of course, Dr. Lou Abadingo, the indefatigable Secretary to the UP Board of Regents and the University.  Dr. Carlene Arceo, Secretary to the Presidential Advisory Council, as also present.  I had the honor of having worked with this group.  It was such a fruitful  experience.

To Pres. Emer, thank you for the very significant assistance you have provided the U.P. Open University. 

###