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Stories
>> Top IT Executive Keynotes Nat'l IT Conference >> New Buildings Ready by 2nd Sem >> Dance Troupe Joins China Arts Festival >> SU is Octofinalist in Nat'l Debate Tournament >> Sillimanians in Olympics, ASEAN Games >> Rare Book Donated to Library >> Visiting Professor Lectures on Business Ethics >> Alumnus’ Performing Arts Organization Turns 35 >> Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project >> Pinoy Media Congress 2007 >> Education USA Officers’ Visit >> October is Mission Month Top IT Executive Keynotes Nat'l IT Conference 
Dr. William Torres, co-founder of Mosaic Communications, Inc. (Mozcom),
the country's first commercial internet service provider, keynoted
the opening rites of the 5th National Conference on Information
Technology Educators (NCITE) at the Luce Auditorium.Talking to about 200 IT educators from universities and colleges all over the Philippines, Dr. Torres said the role of information and communication technology is that of an enabler, promoting efficiency and competitiveness, transparency and empowerment. In order for ICT to expand in the country, Dr. Torres explained that it needs the four A’s and four C’s. He said the four A’s are awareness, availability, accessibility, and affordability. Referring to the four C's, he said ICT does not only involve computing, but also connectivity, content applications, databases, services and infrastructure, and human capacity. Dr. Torres, who started college in Silliman, is also the former head of the Philippines’ National Computer Center, the vice chairperson of the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Negros Oriental State University . [BACK TO TOP] ........................................................................................................................ New
Buildings Ready by 2nd Sem
 Two
academic buildings will be ready for occupancy next month, in
time for the second semester. Buildings and Grounds (BG) Superintendent Engr. Edgar Ygnalaga said the new College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences building, named Nursing Education Building 1, will be ready on the first day of classes, November 5. Only the first two floors will be available, however, since finishing touches for the third floor, which will be ready by December, are still ongoing. Costing around P20 million, the three-storey building will house lecture and laboratory rooms. Another three-storey building, Uytengsu College of Computer Studies Building, located at the back of the present Uytengsu Foundation Computer Center building, will also be available for occupancy next month. The building, which costs P12 million, is a donation from the Uytengsu Foundation, Inc. Meanwhile, construction works at the Portal West building is on full swing. The lobby, which will feature the "Tree of Life" as a tribute to the alumni and friends of Silliman who donated funds for the construction of the building, will be ready by the end of November. To provide better accessibility to all four floors, an elevator has also been installed and will be tested next week. Portal West's groundfloor and mezzanine are fully occupied, and there are only six slots left on the second floor. The third floor and the additional fourth floor are almost fully occupied and committed to leases, respectively. Other projects of the BG are the concreting of Laguna Road from Doltz Hall gate to Aldecoa Road and the repair of rows of the Amphitheater using donations from alumni. [BACK TO TOP] ........................................................................................................................  The
Silliman University Kahayag Dance Troupe (SUKDT) will represent
the country in 9th Nanning International Folk Song Arts Festival
in Guangxi, Mainland China on October 28 to 31. Organized for eight straight years, the Nanning International Folk Song Arts Festival has become one of the most famous cultural events in China . SUKDT is the only group invited from the Philippines. Seven students comprise the SUKDT delegation to the festival: Naddie Orillana, Aljana Alicia Limuaco, Claudio Ramos II, Brian Lee Celeste, Engel Boen Zerna, Aiken Quipot and Richu John Kung. SUKDT is headed by Dance Director Ronnie Mirabuena. [BACK
TO TOP]
........................................................................................................................ SU is Octofinalist in Nat'l Debate Tournament Three teams from Silliman University made it to the list of top 32 teams of the 9th National Debate Championship (NDC) hosted by the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City from October 21 to 27. This year's tournament gathered over 350 college students from different colleges and universities in the country. Silliman teams A, B and C made it to the octofinals, one of the final series rounds among the tournament's top 32 teams. The tournament hosted 132 teams from different parts of the country in seven elimination rounds for two days, prior to the octofinals. The octofinalist teams from Silliman were composed of: (Silliman A) Noel Valente and Robert Jed Malayang, (Silliman B) Kristie Allen and Gerswane Omaguing and (Silliman C) Ana Espino and Anthony Gerard Odtohan. Ten more students represented Silliman as debaters and student-adjudicators: Bryce Tenorio, Theresa Amor, Wiem Bonganciso, Clyde Gregorio, Glenn Sotto, Carlo Regalado, Alfonso Go, Ron Banogon, Eliora Bernedo and Emarrah Sarreal. [BACK TO TOP] ........................................................................................................................ Sillimanians in Olympics, ASEAN Games  Information
Technology graduate Mark Javier won the gold medal in the Olympic
Qualification Match held September 20 in Xian, China, making
it as the lone Filipino to qualify for the archery competition
in the Beijing Olympics next year. Javier is also the first Sillimanian male archer to qualify for the Olympics. Silliman has already produced two other Olympians: Lisa Ygnalaga (Seoul Olympics – 1988) and Jennifer Chan (Sydney Olympics – 2000). Four
Sillimanians, including Javier, also qualified for the Southeast
East Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand on December 6 to 15: Javier
and Ian Wayne Larsen (Recurve Men’s Division), Jennifer
Chan and Joan Chan-Tabañag (Compound Bow Women’s
Division) and Karen Grace Yasi (Recurve Women’s Division).
........................................................................................................................
A rare book containing
the laws and decrees on minting in the Philippines from 1860-1898
is the newest addition to the rare book collection of the Silliman
University Main Library. The
antique book containing Philippine minting laws was donated to the
Library by some members of the Unitarian Universalist Church. The
book, handwritten in Spanish, was delivered by Phyllis A. Marsh
of Annapolis, Maryland to the Library last month at the request
of William and Sadie Curtis of Severna Park, Maryland.
Sadie’s grandparents, Milan and Sadie Garrett, were in Manila in the early 1900s. Milan was a US Civil Servant and served as the supply officer for the Manila prison. Sometime during their stay in the Philippines, Sadie Garrett taught in the local schools. When Sadie and Milan returned to the US in 1910, they brought with them from the Philippines a table which they used as a dining table. They did not realize until the 1940s that there was a drawer beneath it. When they opened the drawer, they found the book. William
and Sadie Curtis preserved the book, wishing to some day return
it to the Philippines. In their visit to the Philippines, they visited
Negros Island with fellow Unitarian Universalists and became acquainted
with Silliman University. It was after knowing more about Silliman
that they decided to donate the book to the University. The
book is now kept in the Library as part of its rare book collection.
[BACK
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........................................................................................................................ Visiting Professor Lectures on Business Ethics  Business
professors and students from different schools and some members
of the business sector in Negros Oriental attended the lecture on
“The Ethics of Buying and Selling: What the Philosophers and
Theologians Have to Say”.The lecture was given October 18 by Dr. Dennis McCann, a Visiting Professor of Religion and Philosophy of Hong Kong Baptist University and a member of the Centre for Applied Ethics of the same university. In his lecture, Dr. McCann cited St. Thomas Aquinas, who, he said, was known as “the Angelic Doctor” in the later centuries “because his teachings were thought to reflect the wisdom of angels”. He said that Aquinas thought that philosophy was the “Queen of the Sciences” and yet but the “Handmaid of Theology”. “Thus,
like a piece of stained glass in a giant rose window, Aquinas’
teaching on ‘Buying and Selling’ is but a part of his
treatise on ‘Justice’ that is but a part of his treatment
of the virtues, whose cultivation must be understood theologically
in relation to the soul’s return to God,” Dr. McCann
explained.
As his talk progressed, he discussed “The Moral Logic of Buying and Selling: Commutative Justice”, focusing on how Aquinas divided his treatise on commercial cheating into four questions: (1) Unjust sales as regards the price: namely, whether it is lawful to sell a thing for more than its worth?; (2) Unjust sales on the part of the thing sold: whether it is lawful to offer goods with various defects for sale?; (3) Whether the seller is morally obligated to reveal a fault in the thing sold?; and (4) Whether it is lawful in trading to sell a thing at a higher price than was paid for it? Dr. McCann also talked about developing a Biblical perspective on finance. He said that it is not enough simply to read a list of Biblical passages that have to do with economic activities. “We need to learn to read the Bible ‘between the lines’. To be sure, this is risky, because we could be wrong in the conclusions we draw from our Bible reading. On the other hand, we could be just as wrong, if we tried to stick only to the literal meaning of the Biblical text,” he said. The
lecture of Dr. McCann was part of the Silliman University College
of Business Administration’s continuing business education
and extension program.
[BACK TO TOP] ........................................................................................................................ Artists
International Presentations, Inc., a non-profit organization established
by a Sillimanian and dedicated to discovering and promoting artists
from all over the world is turning 35 this year.
Artists
International was established in 1972 by its Founder-Executive Director
Mr. Leo Ruiz. Mr. Ruiz finished high school in Silliman then pursued
college at the University of Illinois and graduated from the American
Conservatory of Music in Chicago, Major in Piano Performance. He
is the youngest child of Silliman’s first Filipino President,
the late Dr. Leopoldo T. Ruiz.
As part of its 2007-2008 celebration season, Artists International will feature 60 concerts to be presented in three series at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall, and at Kaufman Center’s Merkin Concert Hall. These concerns will feature artists from 10 countries and five continents. For his works in the performing arts, the Silliman University Alumni Association, Inc. of New York-New Jersey presented Mr. Ruiz with the “Who’s Who Among Sillimanians” 1993 Award in Music. He was also awarded the Distinguished Leadership Award for Outstanding Service in the Performing Arts by The American Biographical Institute, including him in Institute’s The International Directory of Distinguished Leadership. [BACK TO TOP] ........................................................................................................................ 
The Asian Institute
of Management Policy Center partners with Silliman University for
the conduct of this year’s Philippine Cities Competitiveness
Ranking Project (PCCRP), a 2-year project which runs from 2007 to
2008. College of Business Administration Economics Department Chairperson Prof. Wilma Tejero is the project leader for Silliman, with Dean Atty. Tabitha Tinagan as adviser. They will handle the project in six cities in Negros: Dumaguete, San Carlos, Escalante, Kabankalan, Bayawan and Bais. PCCRP will evaluate a total of 90 cities around the country based on six identified competitiveness drivers: (1) cost of doing business, (2) dynamism of local economy, (3) human resource and training, (4) infrastructure, (5) responsiveness of LGUs to business needs, and (7) quality of life. Funded by the International Labor Organization, German Technical Cooperation, Petron, SM, and International Finance Corporation, PCCRP is being used by businessmen in evaluating the viability of localities for investment. Data gathering will start this month until January next year. Results of the survey will be released and presented between April and September 2008. [BACK TO TOP] ........................................................................................................................ Pinoy
Media Congress 2007
Over 300 students and communication professionals from Visayas and
Mindanao are expected to grace the first-ever Visayas-Mindanao phase
of the Pinoy Media Congress (PMC) – Year 3 to be hosted by
Silliman University on November 8 and 9. With this year’s theme, “Media Policy Regulation, Ethics and Practice”, PMC aims to continue serving as a venue for interaction among media experts, teachers and students of communication towards the improvement of media content, practice and policy. Issues and topics about communication, broadcasting, journalism and allied disciplines current and relevant information in the field will be provided to students and teachers. PMC is organized by the Philippine Association of Communication Educators (PACE) with ABS-CBN and Studio 23. PACE is an organization of communication arts teachers and institutions that offer degrees in communication, broadcasting, journalism, advertising, and communication research. Silliman University is one of the founding institutional members of PACE. (This year’s PACE Vice President is Dr. Rosario Baseleres, Dean of College of Mass Communication at Silliman.) Far Eastern University will host the PMC Luzon phase on October 16 and 17, with participants coming from institutions in Luzon and the National Capital Region. (Some information were taken from the ABS-CBN Interactive website) [BACK
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........................................................................................................................ Education USA Officers’ Visit 
Two officers
from the Education USA visited Silliman University last October
3 to promote the different education opportunities in the United
States.Mr. Richard O’ Rourke, Assistant Regional Educational Advising Coordinator of Education USA, and Ms Eileen Valdecanas, Educational Advising Coordinator/Program Officer of the Philippine-American Educational Foundation (PAEF), were guests during the Education USA Outreach Presentation at the MBA Presentation Room, College of Business Administration. At the forum, they were joined by Prof. Regan Jomao-as and Dr. Earl Jude Paul Cleope, Educational Advisers of the SU-PAEF Satellite Advising Center, who discussed benefits from studying abroad and how the Center can be of assistance to those wanting to pursue studies in the US. [BACK TO TOP] ........................................................................................................................ October
is Mission Month | ||||
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The
Silliman University Church celebrates October as Mission Month,
highlighting its life and ministry of faith building and spiritual
nurture.