Unsolicited Advice to New UPLB Chancellor

Yesterday the UP Board of Regents elected the new Chancellor of UPLB in the person of CFNR Dean Rex Victor Cruz.  Dean Rex will be Chancellor starting November 1, 2011 until October 31, 2014.  This is the first time since 1973, when UPLB became the first autonomous campus of the UP System, that the Chancellor came from the College of Forestry.  Past UPLB Chancellors came from UP Diliman (Samonte and De Guzman), College of Agriculture (Javier and Villareal), College of Arts and Sciences (Aspiras), and the College of Engineering (David).  The late Dr. Domingo Lantican, former Dean of the College of Forestry,  was an OIC of the Office of the Chancellor for sometime (when he was Vice Chancellor for Administration), but he was never elected and installed as Chancellor.  Now, for the first time, the UPLB Chancellor comes from the College of Forestry.

Chancellor Rex Victor Cruz (right), in a huddle with Dean Domeng Angeles (left) of the UPLBCA, during their presentation of vision for UPLB during the search for chancellor.

I’m sure Incoming Chancellor Rex Victor Cruz has his plans for UPLB ready for implementation now, but I wish to make some unsolicited advice.  Of course, there really is not much that one could do in a very short three-year term, but here are five things that could conceivably be done well within three years.  Let me list my first five suggestions, according to priority.  Please indulge me …

First,   prepare and submit to the UP System Administration the first substantial proposal for a system-wide restructuring of the policies on faculty tenure and promotion as well as a career system for REPS under the UP Charter of 2008.  When I was Faculty Regent in 2008, I submitted to the BOR two major initiatives, namely: a) restructuring the current system of faculty promotion and tenure [as in those who want to be tenured or promoted must apply for tenure or promotion, not just depend on what a small committee says they can or cannot do], including a new system of salary scale for the entire UP System to make it competitive with private industry; and b) put in place a career system for REPS [as in URAs should have the opportunity to someday become a Director of Extension, or perhaps Director of Health Services, etc.] to solve the perennial problem of what to do with the REPS.  UP cannot exist without the REPS, so the University might  as well put in place a system to provide them a sensible career path.  It is rather unfortunate that there have been REPS who have retired still as URAs even after three decades of service to the university.  The details are all in my proposed policy shift in 2008, the discussion of which apparently has been stalled in the various campuses.  I have, however, given the current Faculty Regent, Hon. Ida Dalmacio, and Incoming Chancellor Rex Victor Cruz copies of this proposal so they can do what they wish to do with it.  Under this proposal, I suggested that the campuses (UPLB, for example) need to come up with their proposals for consideration by the System, which shall collate the proposals and come up with an integrated proposal that could be submitted to the BOR for final action.  The campuses need not adopt my proposal.  That was meant to start the ball rolling, as it were.  All it takes now is inquire from the BOR what has happened to that proposal that was officially submitted to it in 2008.  That should re-start system-wide discussion of the issue until concrete proposals from the campuses are formulated and collated for BOR approval.

Second, pay particular attention to the upgrading and improvement of all laboratory classrooms and facilities.  These are fundamental needs in tertiary instruction.  UPLB’s laboratory classrooms are now dilapidated.  This is unacceptable if UPLB intends to remain a top caliber university in this country.

Third, improve and update the UPLB Library holdings in all disciplines, particularly those that UPLB maintains curricular offerings in.  No university can ever brag about its curricular programs when it doesn’t have enough library holdings to support such curricula.  The updating part comprises provisions for subscription to electronic sources as well as installation of enough computers and Internet terminals in the Main UPLB Library as well as in the college-based reading rooms/libraries to provide students access to intellectual holdings worldwide at the click of a button.

Fourth, construct a centralized digital data base that contains all data in the UPLB, or at least interconnect all data bases that are now scattered all over the campus.  Operations research designed for organizational efficiency and effectiveness can not be done when data cannot be accessed.  For example, if you look at the research history of UPLB, you’ll find that similar research topics would appear, say, every decade, because one cannot do a complete review of the research already done at UPLB since reports are scattered all over the place and many are not even available in the Main Library.  A complete data base of all the research ever done at UPLB would easily provide the information that would prevent researchers from doing research that simply duplicates what may have been done before.

Fifth, undertake a UPLB-wide curricular review with the end-in-view of refocusing the entire UPLB curricular landscape.  This could mean, as well, a refocusing of the vision and mission of the university.  As an HEI, UPLB needs to refine its vision and mission in order to fit into the needs of higher education in the country.  Are all curricular programs still relevant to our social needs?  What new curricular areas may need to be introduced?

These five general areas could serve as the cornerstones for UPLB growth and development for the next three years.  That goes without saying that all other important concerns must also be attended to, but those ones, I believe, can be subsumed under these five major concerns.  How may these be done?  I’m sure the new Chancellor’s cabinet is already beginning to work and I hope they’ll look into these concerns.

Congratulations to Chancellor Rex Victor Cruz.  And to his cabinet, Godspeed.  Don’t fail to seek assistance from your colleagues.  I’m sure they’re all willing and able to lend a hand for the sake of our university.

Let me keep this entry open-ended.  We’ll continue to comment on what we see happening at UPLB in the next three years.  Hey, it’s my Alma Mater, too.

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Series of Encounters

 

Thesis Students at UPLB

On September 12^th I was invited by members of a Graduate Seminar class, CED 299, under Dr. Carol Santillana, professor of community education at the College of Public Affairs, as resource speaker on the topic, how to write a thesis proposal.  Total number of students in the two-section class was 16, but I was informed by someone at the end of the seminar that there were about 80 who attended.  That’s surprising as seminars usually don’t get attended, even at UPLB.  It must be the topic.

Well, I enjoyed discussing the topic with the students, and I’m personally encouraged that more and more students are becoming much more interested in trying to understand why they have to do a thesis before they graduate from college. 

How did the students arrive at the idea of inviting me as resource person in their class to discuss the topic in writing thesis proposals?  I understand that many of the graduate students of UPLB today have a copy of my book, How To Write A Thesis Proposal.  They must have believed that they’ll get more from a seminar than from reading the book.  The book was essentially my lecture notes in a course, Introduction to Development Communication Research, which I put together and reproduced in mimeo form in 1984.  However, in early 1985, the UPLB-CA Publications Program selected it as one of the little books that it would publish in 1985.  When the book ran out of copies, I volunteered to do a revised edition, which came out in 1996, then a third edition in 2003.  The third edition went on three printings.

A few months ago, I thought I should update the book into a Fourth Edition.  While working on a possible 4^th edition, however, I realized that the greater bulk of what I intended to add was not a logical part of the thesis proposal.  So I decided to do an entirely new book, a sequel to the book, How To Write A Thesis Proposal.  The tile of the new book is Writing Your Thesis, comprised of four parts.  The first part is substantially similar to the current book, but with substantial editing and additional material.  Part II of the proposed book deals with writing the thesis manuscript, which includes data analysis and interpretation, as well as data presentation using communication techniques such as use of visuals.  Part III is actually an expanded bibliography.  Part IV is simply titled Appendices, but it is very meaty, if I might say.  Five significant topics are expounded in full-blown articles included in the appendices as they could not be discussed logically in the main body of the book.  Part IV contains, for example, a sample review of the related literature, an outline of how to review a scientific report, full discussion of a systems theory-based methodology called problematique analysis, full-blown discussion of the issue of plagiarism, which has become endemic problem worldwide among students, and a discussion of how to get published in an academic journal.

The U.P. Open University shall publish the book.  It should come off the press by the first quarter of 2012, perhaps in time to be launched during the UPOU anniversary celebrations in February 2012.

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 Honesty Coffee Shop at Panyesanan

There’s something going up at Panyesanan, that farm-garden in Bgy. Rizal in Lipa city, owned by retired UPLB-CHE Dean Flor Librero.  Last week Kuya Flor and Ate Aida dropped by LB so we had breakfast at our place.  This doesn’t happen frequently, so we took advantage of their visit to UPLB to have breakfast together. 

Kuya Flor says he’s renovating the “bar” at Panyesanan into an Honesty Coffee Shop, patterned after the popular Honesty Coffee Shop in Ivana, Batanes.  He says, “let’s teach the younger generation about the value of honesty by giving them opportunity to be honest first to themselves.”  At the new Honesty Coffee shop shall be a hot and cold water dispenser, an old Chinese porcelain bowl that shall contain coffee sachets (brewed coffee shall come later), and a jar where you can put your payment and get your change, if you wish to get your change.

No one is going to guard the coffee shop.  So, honesty is the best policy, still.  By the way, in the Honesty Coffee Shop in Batanes, there’s a note at the side of the entrance that says, “Our Guard is the Lord.”  Now, try to fool around with that kind of guard.  That signage will also appear in the Panyesanan Honesty Coffee Shop.  It will open for business on October 16^th, Kuya Flor’s birthday.

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 Ang Mapagsamantalang Ticycle Driver ng Los Banos

A few days ago, I tried to take a tricycle in front of the South Super Market to Bong’s Auto Supply in Maahas.  I had my car fixed there.  When I asked the tricycle driver how much it costs to Bong’s Auto Supply, he told me without blinking an eye, “Thirty-five po ang isang sakay dito.”  That means everytime you take a tricycle from there, it would cost P35, without regard for distance.  From the South Super Market, in front of the UPOU, to Bong’s is only about 600 meters.  That costs P35.  It takes only three minutes.  Earlier in the day, I took a tricycle from Bong’s to the gate of UPOU in front of the Soputh Super Market and I was asked to pay P20.

UPOU drivers told me, “masyadong magugulang ang mga tricycle driver dyan, sir.”  Of course, I didn’t take a tricycle ride to Bong’s because I just hitched on a UPOU vehicle that happened to be going the direction of Bong’s that time.  What I don’t understand is, these tricycle drivers are actually making it extremely expensive for those who have less budget to ride tricycles, especially if they have some things to bring home like groceries and the like.  I would have thought that the tricycle drivers would actually help their neighbors economize a little bit.  But no, they’ll get all they can from anyone, mostly the poor since those who can better afford don’t ride in tricycles; they have cars.

So, you’re willing to pay P35 for only 600 meters of the national highway that should take even less than three minutes?  I’d say, sumubasob sana kayong mga mapagsamantalang mga tricycle drivers!

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 What's Your Choice for a Profession?

Have you heard this message from the media lately?  “Magtrain na lang kayo maging Pinoy hilot sa halip na mag-aral ng nursing.  Mas malaki ang sweldo ngayon ng hilot.”  Now this has very serious implications that the government officials who have been mouthing this line could ever imagine.  Why this line of thinking? 

What’s appalling is that this message originated from government officials.  I’m taking this as a demonstration of their inability to provide jobs for the citizens of this country.  Very pathetic, indeed.  The more serious point that I’m concerned about is degradation of Filipino human values.  Being a Nurse is being a professional recognized the world over, and being manghihilot is essentially having a sideline. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I have nothing against the manghihilot.  I engage the services of a manghihilot regularly because I prefer the hilot to the synthetic-sounding “therapeutic massage” that’s provided by a “therapist.”  However, we should not tell our people to become manghihilot simply because today they might be getting a little more pay compared to the nurses.  Those who wish to become hilots, by all means go ahead.  TESDA provides good training in Pinoy Hilot.  Those who wish to pursue nursing as profession must, however, be encouraged and supported by the government.  Today, more than ever, we need nurses to provide better professional health services to our people.  Let’s provide our population some dignity in their chosen professions, not mere sideline.

By telling the larger Filipino public, particularly the younger generation, “mag-aral ka na lang ng Pinoy hilot kaysa nursing.  Mas malaki naman ngayon ang kita ng hilot,” we are telling them not to dream beyond being a hilot.  Is this what P-Noy wants us to dream when he said, “ngayon, pwede nang mangarap?” 

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Certain Times, Certain Issues

 

Just the other day, Jegs and I attended the wake of her Auntie Gloria in Sta. Cruz, Laguna.  The wake was at the small chapel of Sto. Angel, one of the Barangays of Sta. Cruz.  We got there about 9 a.m., so there were very few people.  When we got there, Jegs’ other Auntie, Purita (who happened to be Jegs’ godmother) right away started sobbing on Jegs’ shoulders.  Of course, this was not time to be absolutely happy, even if logically one should because a loved one has ceased suffering.  Anyway, after a couple of minutes of inquiry, Jegs apparently started talking to her Auntie about internment possibilities.  Naturally, burial has been scheduled in the next  few days.

Nevertheless, Jegs seemed to have subtly brought up the concept of cremation to her Auntie Purita, who appeared to have become interested.

Both Jegs and I believe in the concept and practicality of cremation, so we know what to do when the other goes.  In fact, we do have two chambers (spaces) in a columbarium in Los Baños.  But I’m digressing.  I’d like to share some information with readers regarding cremation as an option.

What’s Cremation?

For the uninitiated, and from a technical point of view, cremation is the process of reducing a dead body to basic chemical compounds in the form of gases and bone fragments, according to Wikipedia.  The place to cremate (burn) dead bodies is called crematorium or crematory, which is actually a furnace that generates  very high temperatures, normally from 870-980^oC.  To produce this heat, a crematorium utilizes electricity or gas.  Modern furnaces, or crematoria, have sophisticated controls that ensure clean burning and have automatic monitors  of the cremation process.  Normally the body burns at the rate of 45 kg per hour.

Wikipedia tells us that cremation dates back about 20,000 years based on archaeological evidence found at Mungo Lake in Australia.  Similar archaeological evidences have been found in the Middle East and Europe, dating back to the Early Bronze Age (c. 2000BC).  Then, during the Iron Age (which came after the Bronze Age), inhumation, or the practice of burying the dead, became common practice once more.  Still, cremation didn’t completely disappear, until finally Christianity frowned upon it during the 5^th Century mainly through the influence of Judaism and Christianity’s attempt to abolish the Graeco-Roman pagan rituals.  When inhumation was a general practice, cremation was sometimes used as part of the punishment for heretics (recall your European history when witches were burned at the stakes?).

Cremation in Modern Times

According to Wikipedia, cremation once more became popular when in 1873, Professor Brunetti presented a cremation chamber at the Vienna Exposition. A year after, in 1874, Queen Victoria’s own surgeon, Sir Henry Thompson, together with his colleagues, founded the Cremation Society of Great Britain.  Then the first crematoria in Europe were built in 1878 in England and in Germany.  The first North American crematorium was built in 1876 by Dr. Francis Julius LeMoyne in Pensylvannia, while the second one was built by Charles Winslow in Salt Lake City on July 31, 1877.

Cremation was declared legal in England and Wales when Dr. William Price was unsuccessfully prosecuted for cremating his son toward the end of the 19^th century, then followed by a series of events that led to the formal legalization of cremation.  These events included the first official cremation that took place in Woking, England in 1885, then about ten cremations took place in 1886, followed by the building of a crematorium in Manchester in 1892, and another one in Glasgow in 1895, then another one in Liverpool in 1896.  Finally, England passed the Cremation Act of 1902.

It is said that some protestant churches accepted cremation arguing that “God can resurrect a bowl of ashes just as conveniently as he can resurrect a bowl of dust.”  Still, the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1908 was critical of these efforts, referring to them as “sinister movement” and associating them with Freemasonry, even if said Catholic encyclopedia said “there is nothing directly opposed to any dogma of the Church in the practice of cremation.”  Finally, in 1963, Pope Paul VI lifted the ban on cremation, and in 1966 allowed Catholic priests to officiate at cremation ceremonies.

Today, crematories have largely improved.  In fact, there are crematories that are fully automated with PLC (programmable logic controller) touchscreens, where the weight and the name of the deceased have to be entered before the start-button is pressed (Wikipedia).

Your Ashes?

It’s not true that you’ll burn completely and what would be left of you are only ashes.  For the most part, your large bones wouldn’t burn completely.  In fact, there would be fragments of bones, while very clean and white, wouldn’t completely burn.  What they do is grind these pieces of bones until they look like fine sand.  These are the materials they deposit in small containers, like zip-lock bag, which is deposited in the urn.   When you are sure that you don’t like to see the container that holds the bone “ashes” anymore, seal the urn.  If it’s a marble urn, seal it with mighty bond or epoxy, and you’ll have it well kept in the urn.  You can bury the urn if you like to, or perhaps put it in a place where you can always see it, or even broadcast your “ashes” in the sea or perhaps in the atmosphere.  But the most common place to deposit the urn is in the Columbarium, or the house where urns are deposited in chambers, usually, a maximum of two urns per chamber.

Cremation is a Personal Thing

Cremation, I consider, is a very personal thing.  For Jegs and myself, we chose cremation for ourselves when the time comes for many reasons.  For example, for practical reasons, it is far cheaper than inhumation, or burial in the ground.  When I sold my lot in the Memorial Garden about 15 years ago, the rate during that time was P26,000 per lot of  4’x8’ and up to 6 feet under.  Now, if you want to, you can construct a tomb as well as  put a roof above.  Or, as in most Philippine cemeteries today, construct a family mausoleum.  All these can cost upwards to P500,000.  Cremation?  Just about P50,000.  And that already includes an urn made of brass or marble, and a chamber in the Columbarium.  There are a lot of reasons associated with cremation that  Jegs and I both like but which we rather not openly discuss.  Point is, we’ll let you be according to your own personal beliefs and preferences.

There is a psychological issue for me, personally, though.  Like, when buried you’d slowly decay and mix with the dirt beneath.  I can’t, and I won’t, imagine myself in that condition.  Too depressing to think of yourself as very dead and have rotted, mixing with the dirt underground.  In a beautiful urn, you’d look majestic all the time, especially when the urn stands next to a framed picture of you which has greatly benefited from Adobe Photoshop.

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