New DLSU president open to next great idea

In the coming years, a typical Lasallian would pray for a few minutes upon waking up then check the Internet and social media sites for trending topics, said the newly installed president and chancellor of De La Salle University.

Thus, “we need to keep our curriculum, pedagogy and research relevant,”  Br. Ricardo Laguda, FSC, said in a speech during his investiture on Friday at the Most Blessed Sacrament Chapel on the DLSU campus on Taft Avenue, Manila. The 43-year-old Laguda is DLSU’s 22nd president and fourth chancellor.

“Our teaching and learning processes should inspire young minds to make other people’s lives better… We need to pave the way for the ‘next great idea’ in all fields, especially as we embark on a new journey with our Science and Technology Complex (in Santa Rosa, Laguna),” Laguda said.

“The DLSU Science and Technology Complex is a testament to our drive to constantly reinvent education with the same innovative spirit as that of our founder, St. John Baptist de la Salle, and the first nine brothers in Manila,” he said.

On Laguda’s appointment, DLSU’s board of trustees said: “The relatively young age of Br. Ricky provides him not only greater rapport with the students, but also the energy and dynamism to pursue innovative and creative future directions.”

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle, who officiated at the Mass, welcomed Laguda to his “calvary of love,” and expressed the hope he would have the wisdom and power to lead the university and love the students, faculty, nonteaching staff and other members of the Lasallian community.

Wearing the ‘enemy’s’ color

Tagle and Laguda joked about the latter’s academic regalia, as the president was wearing a blue hood signifying his doctorate degree. Blue is the color of DLSU archrival, Ateneo de Manila University, and Laguda got his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Ateneo.

“I had to ask permission to wear the color that I must not name,” Laguda joked.

Laguda became a Lasallian at age 5, as a prep school student at University of St. La Salle Integrated School in Bacolod City. In 1992, after earning his philosophy degree from Ateneo, he joined the De La Salle Brothers, completing one-year of postulancy at the Lasallian Center.

He started his novitiate in Lipa, Batangas, the following year, with Education Secretary Armin Luistro as his novice master. He took his first profession of vows in 1995.

Laguda finished his master’s degree in religious education at DLSU in 2000 and his doctorate in executive program in educational leadership and management in 2007.

He was interim president of DLS-Canlubang in 2006, concurrently serving as president of Jaime Hilario Integrated School-La Salle in Bagac, Bataan, and DLS Araneta University in Malabon City in 2007.

Laguda enrolled in management training at Harvard University. As president of De La Salle Philippines, he gained a broader perspective of the education mission of the La Salle Brothers.

Among DLSU’s challenges, according to Laguda, are “striking a balance between the affordability of tuition and ensuring that the quality of education is continuously improving,” and “recruiting the best students, especially from among the economically disadvantaged sector.”

Quoting former Harvard University dean Harry Lewis, he said that beyond academic and research excellence, the university needed to help the community “learn who they are, to search for a larger purpose for their lives and to leave college as better human beings.”

Laguda would want DLSU to become a community of learners striving to live the Lasallian core values of faith, service and communion in mission.

“To be such a community of scholars is to serve as an instrument to help individuals, especially the youth, discover their genuine vocation, their passion, and their God-given purpose in a world that is full of ambiguity and complexity,” he said.