In celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of UP’s fourth president, his contribution to education, and the nation, the UP Diliman College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) formally unveiled the Rafael V. Palma marker at the CSSP main entrance on Dec. 13.
According to the book At the Helm of UP: Presidential Accents edited and introduced by Helen E. Lopez and project management by Ruben D.F. Defeo, Palma’s administration is “hailed by historians as UP’s golden age, its ‘first great era,’ and widely regarded as that defining moment when the University could be said to have first truly deserved its name as the University of the Philippines.”
Serving as UP president from 1923 to 1933, the book also states that one of his priority agenda was “the assertion of UP’s administrative autonomy to safeguard it from political interference specifically regarding appropriations and the compositions of the Board of Regents.”
Present at the marker unveiling were CSSP officials and faculty led by Dean Ruth R. Lusterio-Rico, Chair Regalado Trota Jose Jr. of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), NHCP Executive Director Carminda R. Arevalo, members of the Rafael Palma Masonic Lodge 147, and Palma’s family and relatives.