Can UP sustain itself?

A retired ADB executive is the new President of the University of the Philippines. Alfredo E. Pascual, a current Regent representing the alumni, was elected on the first ballot. I know Fred from the time we were undergrad students in UP. Fred Pascual is probably just what UP needs at a time when there is a serious problem with the budget.

Fred has had a good career at the ADB and it is laudable that he chose to serve the University after his retirement. Among the dozen or so aspirants for the presidency, Fred provides a fresh view of how to run the university as if reality matters.

It is time to fix things up and stop the downward spiral of our country’s premier educational institution. UP must fix its finances simply because the dependence on the national budget is no longer sustainable in this era of fiscal deficits.

There had been noisy rallies in recent weeks protesting supposed cuts in the budgets of state universities and colleges including UP. But the noisy mob refuses to understand there are now more urgent needs that the government must finance, no matter how laudable the idea of supporting tertiary education.

There is nothing wrong with the priorities set by the Aquino administration to concentrate resources on primary and secondary education. The deterioration in the quality of teachers and the education they provide in our public schools is a major drag to our future economic growth. In this era of limited resources, it makes sense to pour money into preparing students for the challenge of college rather than fund state colleges and universities whose potential students are not ready for college.

I understand that the biggest hindrance to a more democratized UP student population is the inadequate preparation of public school graduates to meet the academic demands of a UP education. I understand many are even made to undergo remedial courses so they are better able to survive UP.

On the total budget for SUCs, I am told that 45 percent goes to UP. But of that 45-percent UP budget, I read somewhere that 80 percent goes to the PGH CHARITY WARD. So in fairness to UP, it is spending most of its money to provide health care to indigents. The Department of Health or the DSWD should help by covering most of the costs of PGH.

All those factors aside, I chanced upon an interesting blog that advocates a zero budget for UP. The blog, written by Kalayaan Magno, the son of my Philippine Star colleague Alex Magno, boldly declares that “UP, in the first place, does not need a budget.” The younger Magno, a UP product from kindergarten to the time he earned his engineering degree, worked in UP until he said, he gave up in utter frustration.

In advocating a zero budget for UP, young Magno starts from the premise that “if UP indeed is the best school in the country, it should have enough talent and skill to create and sustain its own wealth.” He says that if UP cannot do this, “it’s an ivory tower made from the tusks of a white elephant. From this perspective, might as well just abolish it or privatize it.”

Based from his own experience, Magno feels that UP should “streamline its operations such that it functions efficiently, no unnecessary offices that don’t do anything… no redundant employees… no departments/ offices that have no value.” In other words, UP administration must cut the fat in its structure that has grown through the years.

Magno continues: “I was informed that UP’s cost per student is a lot bigger than Ateneo’s. This brings up a big question on UP’s efficiency. I experienced working in the UP bureaucracy and after a year I still did not understand how things worked within its administrative web of slow, old people who barely know how to use the computer, excess messengers, entire offices that do not serve a purpose, redundant employees, redundant bosses, drivers who don’t have cars… the list goes on.

“Because UP is just being fed money yearly, it doesn’t even police how each of its departments spends this money (whether it creates value or not). Although, it has an intricate approval process for each step that you need to take. A step that would otherwise take a day could take weeks, bringing up the cost of that simple step.”

The irony, Magno points out, is that “we have the best Operations Research (BS IE) course in the country. We also have the best MS Finance, BS Econ, BS Business Econ courses in the country. And we can’t solve the problem in our own backyard. How hard is it to direct students to research on the profitability of the university’s idle assets? and implement it? you got zero cost consultants already? Well, I’m not surprised. I come from an electronics engineering school where nothing is automated in the building despite all the researches on automation.”

This is not how it is supposed to be. The original intention in 1908 when UP was founded was to see it as an independent and self sufficient university. “UP is a land grant university. It was given the land so it had assets from which it will earn money from. It’s the only university that was founded in this setup in the country. It means, it is an independent institution not controlled by the government. To this day, it acts like an independent institution except for its finance. It’s still dependent on the government.”

But a lawyer familiar with the UP charter commented in our e-group that it is not as easy as the young Magno puts it. “Speaking as a lawyer, I can assure you that there’s enough imprecise language in the charter that a court can use to justify blocking any meaningful commercial exploitation of UP’s land resources. 

“The glacial pace of judicial proceedings ensures a delay of at least five years (10 or more if you go all the way to the Supreme Court, which, to be fair, has always been protective of UP’s land grant).  Add sustained rallies within the campuses and political rhetoric from the UP staff and faculty and you can be sure many commercially significant ventures will never be undertaken even within Diliman’s valuable real estate. Instead, UP’s Diliman campus will remain as it is — the largest public park in Metro Manila.”

The lawyer continues: “the land can’t be sold by UP (or for that matter leased out for long periods of time). The land can’t be used for any other purpose than that intended (presumably academic)… UP can enter into joint ventures for the land but there’s a strange restriction that UP’s participation can extend no further than its share from the JV income. In other words, UP is legally prohibited from investing its own money to earn a greater share of the profits generated by the JV.”

Even the Ayala technohub is problematic. “You will see that at least three or four buildings are completely empty. Why? Because of contractual restrictions that prevent leases by call centers and other so-called “low value” activities. These restrictions were written in to defend against claims of commercialism. If the commercial area were made any bigger, Ayala would probably turn a profit. As it is, I don’t think the project as a whole is making any money.”

I share the lawyer’s conclusion: “This is not sustainable. If UP continues down this path, it will be eclipsed by Ateneo and DLSU. UP can only ride the wave of its past glory for so long.”

It is clear that the new UP President has a challenging, if not an impossible job ahead of him. He will need to revive all the instincts we developed as students at UP to survive the toxic atmosphere in our premier state university. As a UP alumnus, I hope and pray that Fred will make significant headway… I am not even saying success because that may be asking too much. I think UP is even more ungovernable than the Philippines.

Graduates

Noted this classic joke at http://www.pinoyexchange.com

UP grad: A number of past Philippine presidents graduated from UP. Presidents Roxas, Quirino, Laurel, Garcia and Marcos, to name just a few!

ATENEO grad: Hah! That’s nothing, a number of Ateneo graduates became national heroes like Jose Rizal, Gen. Gregorio del Pilar, Gen. Antonio Luna, Evelio Javier and many others.

UP grad: That just goes to show you, UP graduates become presidents and lead countries while Ateneans end up getting shot!

LA SALLE: Wala ‘yan. Talo kayo sa mga gradweyt namin!

UP & ATENEO: Bakit sino ba ang mga graduates ninyo?

LA SALLE: Aba! Marami kaming sikat na gradweyts; si Gary Valenciano, Dingdong Avanzado, Ogie Alcasid, Monsieur del Rosario....

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]