Ateneo de Naga University: The Jesuit University in the Bicol Region

Autonomy: You Raise Us Up

Autonomy Celebration
Ateneo de Naga University
17 June 2008

Fr. Joel Tabora, S.J.

The Very Rev. Jose Cecilio Magadia, S.J., Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus in the Philippines, the Honorable Dr. Nona Ricafort, Commissioner, CHED, the Hon. Dr. Dominador Peralta, Jr., Director, CHED-ROV, the Hon. Jesse Robredo, Mayor of the City of Naga and Trustee of this University, Sr. Asuncion Evidente, President of the Universidad de Santa Isabel and concurrenty President of the Bicol Foundation for Higher Education and Representative of the Bicol Association for Catholic Schools, Presidents and representatives of universities and colleges in Bikol, Fr. Ernesto Carretero and other members of the Ateneo de Naga Board of Trustees, Mr. Ron Velarde, Officer-in-Charge of the Supreme Student Council of the Ateneo de Naga University, the distinguished administrators, faculty and staff, beloved students, parents, alumni and alumnae, and friends of the Ateneo de Naga University:

The Ateneo de Naga University accepts its new autonomous status granted for a period of five years under CMO 52, s. of 2006 through an en banc decision of the Commission on Higher Education on June 2, 2008. Ateneo de Naga acknowledges that this distinction has been conferred in this manner as of yet only on eleven higher educational institutions in the country. We are both humbled by the recognition and encouraged to dedicate ourselves more to quality education in Bicol that is at once Filipino, Catholic and Jesuit.

In the presence of the entire University Community, of the Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus in the Philippines, of representations of the commission on Higher Education and of sister colleges and universities throughout Bikol, I thank the entire Commission on Higher Education represented here by the Hon. Comissioner Dr Nona Ricafort and the Hon. Director Dominador Peralta, Jr. of Region V for the honor accorded the Ateneo de Naga University in this recognition.

Thank you, Commissioner Ricafort, for coming personally to inform us formally of CHED’s resolution!

We would be saying less than the truth were we to say that our faculty, staff and students did not work very hard throughout the years for this distinction. Your grant of autonomy is received as an encouraging reward. It is an award that makes us happy. It is a recognition that I believe makes similarly happy those whose names are synonomous with Ateneo de Naga as they smile on us from heaven: Fr. Rolly Bonoan, Fr. John Phelan, Fr. Michael Rooney, Fr. Frank Dolan, Fr. James O’Brian, Bro. Serg Adriatico and Bishop Pedro Santos.

As provided in CMO 52, s. 2006, “autonomy” formally recognizes our long tradition of integrity, our untarnished reputation, our enduring commitment to excellence, and the sustainability and viability of our operations. It recognizes our excellence in Humanities, Science, Mathematics, the Social Sciences, Business and Management, Education, as well as in Computer Science and Information Management. It recognizes our outstanding achievements in Information Technology, Business Management, and Entrepreneurship, where we are CHED Centers of Development for Excellence, and especially in Teacher Education, where we have also just been named a CHED Center of Excellence.

We are truly gratified by this recognition.

Arriving at this point has been possible only because of the long-standing trust and support that our constituents in Naga and in Bicol have placed in us. These are primarily our students and their parents, many of them children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of other Ateneans, who through the years have allowed us to play a role in their education and in their lives and so to attain the status we now enjoy. They are also other students who have heard of our educational culture; they have come, they have enrolled, and have not found the school wanting. We are most grateful to all.

We are also deeply thankful for the guidance and support that our entire CHED-Region V has extended us throughout the years through its Director, Dr. Dominador Peralta, Jr. I mark this year my tenth year as President of the Ateneo de Naga University. These have been ten years of deepening respect and friendship for the civil servant at the helm of CHED in Bikol, Dr. Dominador Peralta, Jr.

We are especially grateful for, and moved by, the solid and tenacious recognition accorded us through its Regional Team of Experts, including Dr. Gregoria Benosa of Divine Word College in Legazpi, Dr. Teresa Borromeo of St. Louise de Marillac of Sorsogon, Dr. Domingo Ortega, Jr. of University of St. Anthony in Iriga, and Dr. Sally Gerona of the Naga College Foundation.

Though Ina, our patroness in Bicol, we now dedicate this “autonomous” status to our constituents and supporters with genuine gratitude and deep resolve to continue serving the Bicolano people through quality education – both in basic as well as in higher education.

We intend to use our autonomy to improve our service of our constituent community in Bicol, as well as open our doors to the East Asian region, especially to China, in ongoing implementation of our mission as a Filipino, Catholic and Jesuit University.

We will do so “in autonomy” – with increased consciousness of the interior imperatives of our educational mission. It is these interior imperatives and norms that shall govern our directions and programs. After the last General Congregation 35 of the Society of Jesus, this includes our ongoing commitment to the service of the Faith, the promotion of the Justice of the Kingdom of God, a commitment to cultural transformation and interreligious dialogue. It includes a fresh awareness of our being sent to the difficult-to-reach Frontiers of today’s world, while yet remaining rooted in the heart of Christ. It includes being enflamed by the fire of Christ’s love, and being ready to kindle this fire in others. It includes intimate and enduring friendship with the Lord, His Church and Magisterium, friendships with others in mission, and friendships with those we are called to serve.

We will certainly not work in an autonomy of solipsistic isolation. CHED recognizes our autonomy, but autonomously we wish to work even more closely with CHED – following, if not surpassing, guidelines on standards and quality assurance, contributing even, when possible, to their formulation. We wish to keep lines of communication open in order to partner more intensely in the mandate of CHED to promote quality higher education to the Filipino People and make quality higher education accessible - to the Bicolano people and beyond.

In this context, we wish to continue to work closely with the Catholic Dioceses of Virac, Sorsogon, Masbate, Daet, the Catholic Prelature of Libmanan, and especially the Archdiocese of Caceres under the leadership of His Grace, Archbishop Leonardo Legaspi, D.D. Similarly, we will work actively with friends and colleagues in other institutes of higher education in the Bicol Region, especially in the Bicol Association of Catholic Schools and Bicol Foundation for Higher Education.

As in the past, we will use our autonomy to marshal and manage resources to provide quality and accessible higher education to the Bikolano people. We will work towards better programs of instruction, more efficient disciplines of learning, improved student accompaniment and service. We will continue autonomously to use substantial resources in faculty and staff development, attending to both mind and spirit. We will continue autonomously to aggressively support our scholars on different levels, working even more to expand our 21 percent-scholar population today. We will continue autonomously to support our faculty and student formation program where freedom is formed and the spirit nurtured in the tested tradition of Ignatian spirituality. We will continue autonomously to pursue research which discovers knowledge, especially as relevant to social and cultural transformation in Bicol. We will continue autonomously to fight poverty in Bicol by integrating university resources to effect focused change in partner communities. We have done this in the past not arbitrarily but autonomously, based on the inner law and mission of our being a Filipino Catholic and Jesuit university. In the future, with our autonomy now recognized, we will continue to do this.

But only with the continued support of our constituents, our pastors, our superiors, our partners and our friends – including our friends in CHED. In this context, perhaps lyrics from a song popularized by the artist Josh Groban best express our conviction: “You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains; you raise me up, to walk on stormy seas. I am strong, when I am on your shoulders. You raise me up… to more than I can be.” You, dear friends in the Commission on Higher Education, raise us up in the autonomy you recognize in us. You, dear students and parents in Bikol, raise us up in your continued support and demand for quality education. You, dear superiors and pastors, raise us up in sustaining our mission to higher education ex corde ecclesiae – from the heart of the Church. You, dear Lord, raise us up in your love, your Paschal Mystery, and Good News. You all raise us up so we can stand on mountains, walk on stormy seas. We are strong when we are on your shoulders. You raise us up to more than we can be.