As my school counts down to its centennial

OK, boys and girls, let's pull our heads from the sand this morning. Let's un-stick our necks from the mud and see the world for what it is, not for what we wish it were. Here's shocking news from GMA News:

Four Philippine universities made it again to the Top 200 Asian universities list of consultancy Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd. (QS) for 2010, even as this is not really a cause for celebration in a country with about 2,000 institutions of higher education.

Leading the Philippine schools is the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University, which tied Taiwan’s National Central University at the 58th spot. Ateneo rose from the 84th spot it occupied last year.

State-run University of the Philippines’ rank fell from 63 to 78, while University of Santo Tomas ranked 101st, an advance from its former 144th spot.

De la Salle University suffered the worst blow among the four Philippine universities, falling from the 76th spot to land at 106th.

In measuring quality, QS used the following criteria: Asian academic peers (30 percent), papers per faculty (15 percent), citations per paper (15 percent), student-faculty ratio (20 percent), Asian employer review (10 percent), international faculty (2.5 percent), international students (2.5 percent), inbound exchange students (2.5 percent), and outbound exchange students (2.5 percent). – (GMA News)


We Lasallians know in our hearts that La Salle is an excellent school, perhaps even the best educational institution in the Philippines. Not long ago, there were suggestions that La Salle was the best school in the Philippines, better even than U.P. Yet, as we count down to our centennial celebrations next year, we are besieged by reports that Asian academics no longer think highly of our school and, conversely, those same academics are becoming enamored of the Jesuit institution which is bent on throwing sand in our face.

What happened?

The report reprinted above presumably provides an explanation for why La Salle no longer scores as well as Ateneo in university rankings. Yet, from my perspective, the criteria used probably should favor La Salle. What is really going on?

I think there is widespread perception out there that La Salle does not produce the kind of graduates that Ateneo does. If you want to know about a school's quality, look at the graduates. This is how schools are generally rated. Harvard is considered the top school in the U.S. because its graduates are the leaders in most fields. Princeton graduates, Yale graduates, Columbia graduates, Stanford graduates, UC-Berkely graduates, etc. manage to rise to the top. Ergo, those are great schools.

Ateneo produces many of the country's leaders. Look at the Presidency. The last three Philippine presidents are products of Ateneo. National conversations and discourse are often led by graduates of Ateneo. The school is heavily and prominently represented in culture, science and - now - even in business. Lasallians have always been in command of the commercial world and this has become a problem. There is widespread perception that Lsallians are one-dimensional. That we are good business people and nothing much else. We are too busy making money or are just not interested in anything else - least of all being leaders in the country's drive to economic ascendancy.

We have ceded the high ground to Ateneo and U.P. And now, apparently, to U.S.T.

In La Salle's Internet circles the moderators have adopted the policy of non-engagement. If it's serious stuff, or controversial stuff, or politics, we are cautioned to stay away. We're just not interested. We will talk about the birthday parties we are going to attend, the chicks we will surround ourselves with, but we will not be caught commenting on the sad state of our country. We abhor serious topics, they are too "heavy" for our taste.

We do not want to speak out against the country's elite, who have mismanaged the country for close to a century, partly because we are the elite and partly because most of us are marketing men and women and therefore take pains to avoid the prospect of displeasing anyone.

People take potshots at us as society boys, gay boys, China, Inc. or conyo boys. If not for our women graduates, people would have an even lower opinion of us.

I am in the process of reading the celebrated novel, Ilustrado, by Miguel Syjuco. Miguel is a son of one of my classmates in La Salle-Taft, Augusto Syjuco, Jr. I think it's reasonable to assume that Miguel would speak of La Salle, his dad's alma mater, more favorably than he would of Ateneo. Never mind that Miguel actually grew up in Canada, where his family elected to wait out the Marcos years.

I was taken aback by a passage in Ilustrado:


And so it became a habit for Crispin and me to trade these well-worn classics, particularly the ones about our distinguished alma mater, writing them on slips of paper to pass like shibboleths when next we'd meet.

"These male students loiter around Shoe Mart Megamall," one note said. "One is from the exclusive Ateneo de Manila University. One from the rival De La Salle University. The third, named Erning Isip, is from the populist AMA Computer College. The three students spot a very pretty light skinned girl. Each of the boys takes a turn at trying to woo her. The Atenean says: 'Why, hello there. Perhaps I should text my driver to bring my BMW around to chauffeur us to the Polo Club so we can get some gindara?' The Lasallista says: 'Wow, you're so talagang pretty, as in totally ganda gorgeous. Are you hungry at all? Let's ride my CRV and I'll make libre fried chicken skin and Cuba libres at Dencio's bar and grill.' Erning Isip, the AMA Computer College student, timidly approaches the girl. Scratching the back of his head, he says: 'Miss, please, miss, give me autograph?' "


It is clear that Miguel has a low opinion of the school that his dad attended and grew up in.

I know the characterization of the Lasallista in Syjuco's Ilustrado is a stereotype and perhaps unfair. The problem I have, though, is that I've heard Lasallians (people from La Salle are no longer called Lasallistas) talk in Taglish. Whether most Lasallians talk in Taglish is not a conclusion I'm prepared to concede. But clearly Syjuco seems to think that at the very least Lasallians are less educated than Ateneans.

It is this widespread perception that we are fighting. It's an uphill climb. Ateneo has managed to convince Asian academics that it is far superior to La Salle and it will take years before La Salle can reclaim the top spotlight from its much-ballyhooed rival.

And so we've gone full circle. When La Salle started in 1911 with a little school in Paco, Manila, the high-flying Ateneo de Manila was already one of two premier educational institutions in the country, along with University of Santo Tomas. La Salle was just a dream, a gleam in the eyes of the Christian Brothers who first ventured in the only American colony in Asia. The University of the Philippines was only two years old.

Now, nearly 100 years later, La Salle is taking the back seat to the venerable Ateneo. While La Salle is going-away the better commercial success than Ateneo - we have 19 campuses nationwide, Ateneo has a mere handful - it is Ateneo that has claimed the highest rock in the country's academic circles. We are somewhere down below, on a lower rock, in the shadow of that big rock where the Lion King rests and roars and stares with bored eyes at the moon.

That La Salle has added a Law School is welcome news. The institution must produce lawyers who will someday lead the country. We must at some point produce a President or Prime Minister of the Philippines. We must graduate people who will someday have major roles in the country's nation-building.

Asian academics must become aware that we are not just a Computer Science School, or an engineering school, or an accounting, marketing, advertising or salesmanship school or a finishing school for call-center employees. They must perceive us as present and future leaders of the country.

Someday, we will retake the glory from our fierce rival. We are capable of doing that, I know, because we did it in the past. Not too long ago Asian academics - in fact, academics around the world - thought of La Salle as one of the top two schools in the country, along with the University of the Philippines. We did it before, we can do it again.

It's just sad that as we start the countdown to our centennial celebrations in June, 2011 we are playing second fiddle to the school that is making fun of the way we use the English language.

They also make fun of us in Latin.