New UP president breaks ground for SRP campus

A new campus of the University of the Philippines will rise in a five hectare lot of Cebu City’s South Road Properties.

Ground breaking rites were held yesterday at the site with the new UP System president Alfredo Pascual calling for support behind “the remaking of UP as a great university”.

The UP Cebu Professional Schools will be designed as “green building” that incorporates concepts like efficient day lighting, passive ventilation and rainwater harvesting for a “healthier, more environmentally sustainable architecture that respects our precious resources,” said Pascual, quoting Carnegie Foundation president Ernest Boyer.

The extension campus will offer courses in computer education, research and extension as well as business management and continuing professional education.

Pascual, in investiture rites at the main UP Cebu campus in barangay Lahug, thanked the Cebu city government, through efforts of Rep. Tomas Osmeña, for providing 51,372 square meters of SRP land during his term as city mayor for the campus.

Pascual also thanked Sen. Serge Osmeña for allocating P30 million from his Priority Development Assistance Fund for construction of the building with more funds to be mobilized from other senators.

Cebuano architect Christopher Espina told Cebu Daily News the three-story structure will include academic offices, classrooms and space for business process outsourcing companies and restaurants similar to the the UP Ayala Techno Hub in Quezon City.

Bidding will be open to contractors and the building plan will be submitted to the Cebu City Office of the Building Official this month, Espina said.

If the plan is approved, construction can begin in November.

Meanwhile, several UP Cebu students joined the whole UP System in protesting the cut in the national budget for state universities and colleges (SUCs).

Liezyl Anne Gomez, chairperson of the UP Cebu Student Council, said the plan of the Aquino administration to reduce the budget for SUCs may compel school officials to increase tuition and other fees. From P200 per unit, she said, UP Cebu students are now paying P1,000 per unit.

Students lit candles at the UP Oblation square and as part of yesterday’s protests.

Carlo Cabatingan of the Union of Progressive Students said they could not join the UP system-wide walkout from classes since many students attended Pascual’s investiture rites and groundbreaking at the SRP.

The students, however, wore black shirts, just as their counterparts did in Iloilo and Tacloban cities. With a report from Sean Timothy F. Salvador