Dean's message

April 27, 2008

Welcome Remarks delivered during the School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP) 2008 Recognition Program

SUCCESS IN HARD WORK

Our guest speaker, Dr. Nathaniel von Einsiedel; former Deans: Professor Dolores Endriga, Dr. Leandro Viloria, Dr. Benjamin Cariño and Dr. Primitivo Cal; faculty members and staff; graduating students, their parents, relatives and friends: Good afternoon and welcome to this recognition program.

I thought I should deliver a farewell message to you and not a welcome message, since we will be seeing less of you after graduation. However, I believe a welcome message is also appropriate because we now welcome you as new alumni of SURP. You will be added to our list of alumni and I hope that you will help our school in its ongoing and future development programs.  

Success in graduate work depends upon strong motivation, patience, diligence, discipline, responsibility and hard work. This is the time in a graduate student’s life when he or she has to prioritize in the face of conflicting demands from work, family, and study. Of course, as a rationale decision-maker, your family is given the highest priority, followed by your work, while your studies always take the back seat. Perhaps, sometimes you find that your studies interfere with your work, and not the other way around.  

I am sure you have experienced such problems as a student and yet managed to balance everything and cope with your studies, perhaps with a time lag or number of delays for some of you. But you overcame these problems, which is why you are here today. I congratulate you for this. A few of your less persevering and dedicated contemporaries are still going through the hurdles and have now been left behind. Many students also simply ran out of time, gave up, and failed to make it for various reasons. Of those who started their course work in 2000 and 2001, only 50% managed to graduate from the diploma course, and just 20% from the MA course.

The school will always strive to produce quality graduates by providing quality education, despite its meager resources. For the last two academic years, we had an average of 38 College Scholars and 22 University Scholars per year. These comprise about 20% and 10% of our student population, respectively. During the same period, we also had an average of four students receiving the Dean’s Medallion. For this year, we have three (3) Dean’s Medalists, which is about 20% of the MA graduating batch.  

Now, I pose this question: Does this mean that we are having increasingly good students? Or is it just that our professors are becoming increasingly generous in giving grades? 

There are ways to answer this question. Prove to yourselves that you deserve your honors and high grades by excelling in your work and by passing the board examinations. The way forward is for you to join the ranks of professional planners, take the board exams and be a member of Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners (PIEP).

Before this day closes, you will be graduates of SURP and may then call yourselves urban and regional planners; but the title of EnP or Environmental Planner cannot be prefixed to your name until you pass the board exams. Thus, I urge you to take the board exams while you are still fresh from school.  

There is a growing demand for environmental planners, particularly in the fields of estate, infrastructure, transport, and environment and natural resources planning. Many clients and employers now give priority to licensed environmental planners, to ensure that they hire only highly qualified people. 

You have a promising career ahead of you. Your diploma is testimony that you have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to do a good job.  

Again, I extend my congratulations to all of you.

Dr. CANDIDO A. CABRIDO, JR.

 
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