UV: 100 years as haven for life’s wisdom

To gauge the greatness of an educational institution, it is not enough that we look at the modern buildings and world-class facilities, as well as latest technology. To measure excellence among the many universities and colleges here in Cebu, as well as in the whole world, the experts in the field of education would usually look at the quality of the curriculum, the degree of excellence of the faculty, the modern facilities like the laboratory, libraries, computer centers, and other information and communication facilities. DepEd, CHED, and other government regulatory agencies, as well as the self-regulating associations of different colleges and universities, have their own standards and criteria in measuring excellence in education.

The University of the Visayas, over the last 100 years of its existence, has progressively pursued excellence in all these aspects. But to the minds of the students in UV, what matters most is the kind of care and the kind of relationship that the administration keeps with its students, faculty and non-teaching personnel. What distinctively distinguishes UV from other institution is the strong relationship between the administration and the employees, both teaching and non-teaching, both academic and co-curricular. The personnel in UV, for the last 100 years, have not formed a union because a family relationship can never be replaced by a formalistic, structured and legalistic interactions and transactions.

There is also a close relationship between students and their teachers, their professors and their instructors. Here, in UV, you cannot find any faculty member bullying or terrorizing their students. Neither can you see any student association staging a demonstration against any faculty, much less the administration. In my time in the seventies, I was the president of the Supreme Student Council. During those days of radical student activism and youth militancy, we were always in the streets demonstrating and staging rallies. But our issues were not against UV. We were raising issues against the government, against the Martial Law, against the dictatorship. Our mantra was against imperialism, fascism and capitalism. We did not have any complaint against UV.

The reason why we are deeply loyal to UV is the feeling of being loved, cared for, nurtured and protected inside the portals of this great institution. The values that bind us in UV (as exemplified by the Gullas family) are respect for individuals, compassion for the less fortunate and different, and acceptance and care for unique kinds of personalities, like working students, solo parents, sons and daughters of farmers, fisher folks, public teachers, policemen, and clerks and janitors,  PWDs, LGBTs, among others. This university is the greatest advocate for mutual acceptance, respect, tolerance for diversity, and inclusiveness.

The values that unite us in UV are trademarks of the Gullas family: the values of integrity, passion for excellence in education without being very expensive, being pro-people, pro-poor, God-centered and pro-Philippines. UV has existed for 100 years, not for business but for education for all, even the poor and the powerless.