Dean's message
June 2007
I would like to thank Dr. Primitivo Cal for the
many contributions he had done for the School. He had already mentioned
many of them.
We will continue the programs he started and we are very fortunate
that he will still be around to help us.
The disadvantage always faced by a new Dean is that he may run out
of new ideas on how to further contribute to the improvement of
the School. This is because the Deans before him had already consumed
the good ideas and undertaken highly commendable projects and actions
leading to where the School is now. We had five outstanding Deans
before me and I pay tribute to them for making the job of future
deans easy and somehow pleasurable. I thank them for their sacrifices
while serving the School.
Our previous Deans laid the necessary foundation for the School
to grow and flourish as a leading or premier school in urban and
regional planning. My main task for the next three years is just
to add on some more building blocks to that foundation. Building
blocks that are strong and can withstand the test of time.
My program for the next three years is focused on improving the
quality of planning education at the school with the hindsight of
also influencing our plicy makers and leaders in the planning industry
in promoting the planning profession. I hope that the PIEP, with
Popoy Magno at its helm, would reach out and open its doors widely
to other planning groups and specialists; I believe that PIEP was
not established to just cater to a narrow niche of urban and regional
planners. It could be a melting pot for renowned planners coming
from different professions and a venue for the exchange of ideas
and experiences. After all, environmental planning has taken a new
scope and meaning.
With the help of our faculty members, we will
strive to be more active in representing the school and the planning
profession in policy dialogues, policy making and plan formulation
by key government agencies so that we can continue to actively contribute
to nation-building. We will seize every opportunity to be represented
in these endeavors. We need to seek out to connect and mainstream
with the legislative and executive branches of government.
We will continue to strengthen our local and international
linkages. Our tie-up with the Tarumanagara University of Indonesia
is now in the pipeline and we hope that this will materialize soon.
We will establish closer linkages and partnerships with NGOs, other
academic institutions and the business and industry sectors through
joint research, project and training programs and activities.
Our curriculum warrants revision to adjust to
the changing times; we will move from traditional to contemporary
and advanced planning to be more competitive in the Asian regional
regime of planning. Our students should also learn the skills in
the preparation of specialized plans and the art of anticipative
planning.
Our physical facilities need much improvement.
As part of our centennial project, we will work out to put up a
planning laboratory with advanced equipment and softwares and a
modern training facility with a dormitory. We enjoin you to help
us raise the funds for these physical structures. Next semester,
we plan to adjust our tuition fees to meet our school’s physical
development needs.
Our faculty line up is strong although a few veterans
will already be retiring. We will recruit new faculty members; the
cream of the crop in the fields of infrastructure and urban planning.
We hope to attract good people by offering them better salaries
when the UP Charter is legislated on time.
The thrust of our Research and Publications program
is to provide the media where our faculty and students can share
their scholarly work. It will also serve as a venue to discuss research
problems and generate research studies.
For our non-academic personnel, the opportunity
for professional growth will always be there. The school is also
concerned with their economic status and social welfare; I was told
that many of them live below the poverty line and government insurance
cannot cover their financial needs when they get sick. We will try
our best to remedy this problem.
The quality of our students seems to be deteriorating. Out of the
2000 – 2001 batch, only 35% got their degrees to date. Our DURP
has the highest graduation rate of 50% while MURP has the lowest
at 19%. Our admissions policies will be reviewed and revised accordingly
in the light of this. We hope to recruit better students starting
this school year and we will see to it that they are closely and
properly guided in their course program.
I always thought that the Deanship is a prelude to retirement. You
get so tired after serving and all you want to do is take a long
rest. The road ahead is rough but if we do our job well, everything
will be fine.
Let us just do it!
Thank you and good day.
CANDIDO A. CABRIDO, JR., Ph.D.
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