It
took almost a hundred years for the University
of the Philippines to install its first woman president.
In 2005, UP’s Board of Regents did so by voting
Dr. Emerlinda Roman to serve a six-year term as the
chief officer of the country’s premier university.
The former chancellor of UP’s Diliman campus,
Dr. Roman also assumes the added distinction of
being its Centennial president. UP will celebrate
the 100th
year of its founding next year. Early this year, several Centennial committees
were organized to oversee fund-raising activities in connection with the celebration
of the first century of the State University.
Her appointment into the highest office of the country’s premier university
was as unprecedented as it was fraught with insinuations of machinations to put
Malacanang’s choice in place. Dr. Roman was the hands down favorite if
the UP community during the run up to selection day.
On voting day, UP’s Board of Regents remained deadlocked in a 6-6 standoff
up to the fourth balloting. In a subsequent secret balloting, one of Palace’s
supposed fair-haired boys switched sides to give Dr. Roman the winning edge
over her main contender, Ambassador to the UK and former CEO of Philippine
National
Bank Edgardo Espiritu.
An agriculture graduate
Dr. Roman graduated with a BS Agriculture degree from UP
at Los Baños
in 1972. She then obtained her master's degree in agribusiness management from
UP Diliman in 1977 and her doctorate in Business Administration also from UP
Diliman in 1989.
She went on to teach business administration, and through the years, held various
administrative positions most prominently faculty regent (1995), university secretary
(1988-1991), vice chancellor (1985-1988) and chancellor of UP Diliman, a position
she held in 1991-93 and from 1999 to her appointment as UP president.
Being an educator first and foremost. Dr. Roman’s basic advocacy is that “education
begins in the home.” She also believes that women must use all the means
at their disposal to eliminate all cultural beliefs, norms and practices that
undermine women’s capacity to contribute fully to society.
In this task, she expects the woman to lead the re-education
of both young men and women – at home, in school,
in the workplace, through books and the mass media, to
remove biases against women.
She says she was very happy with her first year in office
even as she was at the center of her controversial decision
to hike tuition fees by 300 percent
in the face of shrinking government subsidy and UP’s failure to upgrade
its socialized tuition program. She argued that quality education comes with
a cost which past administrations failed to address.
Dr. Roman also made concrete progress was made in specific areas she hoped to
venture into in the near future. Dr. Roman is particularly excited about emerging
fields in science and technology such as nanotechnology and biotech.
UP in Makati
As current president of the State University, Dr. Roman
is in the midst of transforming into action the University’s
10-point Master Plan for 2005-2011. She has subsumed the
Master Plan into three main concerns: first, UP as a Center
of Excellence
and a Center of Culture; second, UP as an Efficient University; and third,
the Celebration of the UP Centennial. Dr. Roman proposes
these efforts to be a major
part of a larger imitative to make UP more than a premier institution of learning.
She calls it a return to the original concept of UP as the central conduit
in forging a national identity, culture and purpose in
the 21st century.
Among the current priority projects under the Plan are
the development of UP’s
regional units, the establishment of a UP presence in Makati, and the development
of the Science and Technology Park.
A baseball and basketball fan
Dr. Roman loves watching baseball and basketball. One of
her cherished dreams is for the UP men’s basketball
team to win the UAAP championship crown in 2008, a feat
the UP Maroons last accomplished in 1986.
Grandma Emer dotes on a granddaughter who sings professionally. Her granddaughter
has performed live with Martin Nievera and Leah Salonga and appeared in a local
musical entitled Aspects of Love which had a limited run at the Republic of Malate
in Manila.
Other than that, she considers herself a UP girl through and through. The University
of the Philippines deserves a woman president at a crucial turn in its storied
history. |
