75th year of SVD Missionary Service

(Following is the speech delivered by Fr. Dionisio M. Miranda, SVD, University President, on the occasion of the unveiling of the logo celebrating the 75th year of SVD missionary service at the University of San Carlos, on Monday, 1 March 2010, at the Ayala Activity Centre, Cebu City.)

Time is not only a measure; it is a dimension; it is a history; it is a perspective. For the University of San Carlos 2010 is a milestone. Institutionally USC began as a grammar school, evolved into a college-seminary, and finally ended as a university. The school saw various personalities come and go, mostly religious, such as the Jesuits, the Dominicans, the Vincentians, and the SVD, always under the guidance of the Archbishop and in partnership with his clergy. It was silent observer to critical periods in Cebu history, such as the Spanish evangelization, conciliar reform, the Philippine Revolution, the American administration, World War II, independence, martial law and the outburst of People Power. With so many disparate events and personalities, places and institutions coming together the mind struggles to find a focal point to lend coherence to the whole, as a thread to a narrative.

It is the milestone which itself provides the perspective, for it was 75 years ago in 1935 when the Society of the Divine Word accepted the administration of the Colégio de San Carlos as its form of mission in this part of the archipelago. So soon after, the war totally devastated what little they had built, and could have aborted the mission then and there. But the pioneers regrouped, and instead of merely restoring the college, raised the school to its status of University of San Carlos on July 1, 1948. Steadily the school responded to the educational needs of Cebu and beyond by opening 8 colleges: Arts and Sciences, Education, Commerce, Engineering, Architecture and Fine Arts, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Law. USC was a founding member of PAASCU and promoter of its standards. Repeatedly granted autonomous status by CHED, USC boasts of a good share of Centers of Excellence and Centers of Development. Its international linkages are unmatched locally, and often fruitful. Its research institutes have contributed to Cebu in varied and significant ways, such as water management, population studies, history, architecture, literature and culture.

That is what USC reads out of, and invites you to read into, not only the logo for the celebration, but USC’s partnership with Cebu. The diamond represents the gem that is in people, for education is the systematic and methodical process of drawing out the very best in any learner, an end-result pursued each in its own way by the university’s major facets and minor planes, namely our colleges and departments. Some units have few parallels in the Visayas, such as Anthropology and Pharmacy, others are leaders in their fields such as Engineering and Biology; we compete respectably with Manila in Law and Architecture. The USC diamond blends with the SVD logo to affirm how intimately their histories have woven into each other. It signals as well our commitment to interlink our educational programs more and more with the social, economic and cultural agendas which will further enhance the progress and development of our island home. The cross points to our vision of educating to God’s love which embraces the world and redeems it in so many ways, especially through cultural and religious studies. The blue evokes the sea the first missionaries had to cross from Manila to Cebu, pointing to other horizons as we launch into the deep of twenty-first century educational challenges and possibilities marked by Bologna, Washington and APEC.

We invite you to join USC as we celebrate our common achievement and consecrate each milestone in thanksgiving to God who made it possible.

We invite you as well to join USC as we accept the challenge of expanding horizons in our shared journey for Philippine progress and development through education.