Push on U.P.

My family was on our way to Antipolo this morning and we took C.P. Garcia Avenue going to C-5. From the University Avenue, while making a right turn to C.P. Garcia, I caught a glimpse of the banners relating to UP's Centennial celebrations, and strangely, the pep squad song we were taught on our freshman year played in my head, the lyrics distinct, correct and alive:

Push on UP and go in to win. Push on UP and fight.

Loyal and true, we're always with you.

Push on to victory with all your might.

Rise, rise UP. We;ll always stand by you

Go on, UP. We will ever cheer and sing for you to 

WIN, WIN, UP!

Our hearts will ever yearn.

For the maroon and green banner waving high up for UP.

Varsity, varsity, hit then high and low.

VArsity, varsity, go fight UP go.

UP rah, UP rah, UP rah, rah boom! Ssst!

I swear, those were the lyrics as I remember them.  As far as I remember, I attended just one UAAP basketball game, and UP did not win. The best that the UP basketball team ever fared was when it had Paolo Mendoza and his teammates who were from UPIS and whose parents were employees, hence had the loyalty not to be lured into the powerhouse, high budget UAAP teams.

I wonder if UP will host this year's UAAP, in celebration of its centennial. I also wonder whatever happened to efforts by the UP Alumni to develop its sports program and help the UP basketball team get better players and, consequently, do better in the UAAP. While UP does well in the other UAAP sports and actually places in the top 3 at the end of the UAAP season, UP in basketball has been hibernating and has not won a championship since the team of Benjie Paras, Joey Guanio, Ronnie Magsanoc, Alfie Manlulu, and company won the championship in 1986. Holy cow! Dalawang dekada na halos!

The dismal performance of UP in the UAAP basketball tournament is attributed to its lack of a sports program and lack of funds. I am not aware what is the significance of the fiscal autonomy provisions of the new UP Charter in making the basketball team more competitive. Perhaps, UP will never even consider matching the sports program of the likes of Ateneo and La Salle, arguing that it doesn't care, it is academically superior anyway.

Truth is, the exodus of professors opting to teach in La Salle or Ateneo rather than UP exemplifies the consequences of lack of funding, support and facilities in UP. Never mind if the bright students who can afford choose to go to Ateneo rather than UP. Okay lang yun, dapat lang naman siguro yun. 

Despite the lack of funds, UP has not been successfully overtaken by the other schools in terms of ranking, at least with respect to the 2007 Times Higher Education university rankings. UP is number one in the Philippines, followed by Ateneo, La Salle and then UST. It makes you think how it can be still be number one in the Philippines despite the other 3 universities being relatively better funded. Perhaps, this can be attributed to the quality of students and the dedication of its faculty who stay in UP out of loyalty and sense of the service. (I know a lot of people who would opt to teach at the UP College of Law despite the pay.) The other way of looking at this ranking is, looking beyond the other Philippine universities, how UP could fare better only if it had funding. The UP is ranked below 300 while La Salle and UST are both out of the top 500. Afterall, the National University of Singapore is at No. 33, (It seems though I have chosen well in my selection of a school where to get my LLM in Australia - the University of Sydney is third in Australia at NO. 31. The Australian National University is the top school in Australia, at No. 16.) 

I happen to had the chance to sit beside W.S., a wealthy and prominent UP alumni whose grandchildren, brilliant, intelligent and very talented, went to UP undergraduate - the other one even went on to law school. He believes that he and his family should not have been made to pay a measly sum for their granddaughter's tuition which at that time, was only around P7,000 per semester. To resolve his dissonance, he claimed he donated a large amount of money to the university. Good!

The other extreme of this situation is whether the current tuition of UP is still affordable for the brightest of the bright but poorest of the poor. I heard that you need to be Bracket 3 in STFAP so you can still pay P300 per unit. To be Bracket 3, you have to have an annual gross family income of P80,000m which means that to be able to go to UP, you have to set aside 10% of that amount to send just one of your children to school. Geesh, this is how it feels like - like sending your child to say, Poveda when your annual salary is P900,000. That is a lot!  A big share of the pie.

I wonder where and how the new UP Charter would lead UP, what will eventually happen to UP's idle lands, will the judges and justices still be from UP after 10 years (considering there are very few UP graduates who work for the DOJ or the courts. We can only hope that things will get better, and UP graduates will live up to its self-laudatory centennial motto, "UP, ang galing mo!" to which the other schools most probably modify into "UP, ang yabang mo!" Hahaha!

I remember when I was a freshman in UP, I pondered where would I be on June 18, 2008, the day UP turns 100. I was positive that I would be joining the centennial celebrations back then but I ended up staying in the office, reviewing contracts and sending emails. Anyway, I was celebrating, and contemplating with the rest of the UP community in spirit.