In my message to the class of 2008, I said that they were graduating at the same time that the University of the Philippines was celebrating its Centennial Year, and that in a sense they were the embodiment of the path that the University had travelled in the last 100 years. In my message to the class of 2009, I said that they were entering the next phase in their lives at the same time that the University was putting in place the blueprint for the next phase of its history.
You, the class of 2010 are starting your career as professionals at the same time that UP is taking the first steps towards implementing the vision that emerged from the Centennial Lecture Series and the UP System Conference held in Subic Bay.
From the moment when I took up my post as president, I have often said that our Centennial Celebrations would also be an opportunity for taking stock, for taking a hard look at ourselves, for planning future directions, and for taking the first steps along these new paths.
Thus, during our Centennial Year, even as we focused on our record of academic excellence, and honored those of our alumni who had brought honor to our institution, some of the country’s most brilliant minds were discussing with us the implications of our role as the National University. And since 2009, we have been rethinking our role as a Public Service University.
In short, having imagined UP in its second century, we are now working at carrying out the task of bringing it about. If we make some mistakes—something which is inevitable in any human institution—none of them will be irreparable. We will persevere. We are all part of a community which is one in its faith in the importance of UP’s mission.
The University of the Philippines is a work in progress. Even as each of you, members of the class of 2010, will be works in progress as you make your way as professionals and as citizens of a country that is a developing country, and in that sense, also a work in progress.
You are graduating at a time when the country is about to select the men and women who will lead it in the next six years. I urge you all to take an active hand in the process.
For all of you that may have been disenchanted and disillusioned with our national leaders, as you were growing older and coming to grips with the nation’s political dynamics, I hope you will not hold yourselves aloof. I hope that you will remind yourselves that ours is a young nation, and that each step we take is, in a sense, an experiment. It is an attempt, and at least in the case of some of our leaders or would-be leaders, an honest attempt to make things better. You must be a part of that continuing experiment.
That is what your UP education has prepared you for.
Mabuhay kayo! Mabuhay ang bayan natin!
Emerlinda R. Román
President