Letter of Support from Prof. Neferti Tadiar, Barnard College, Columbia University

CMC faculty, students, staff and alumni support Rolando Tolentino

Scanned documents of signatories may be seen in this album on FB: CMC faculty, students, staff and alumni support Rolando Tolentino

On Commercial Ethos, Higher Education and Dean Rolando Tolentino for Chancellor

February 8, 2011

The Board of Regents  

Quezon Hall, University of the Philippines

Diliman, Quezon City

cc: The Search Committee

Re: Commercial Ethos, Higher Education and Dean Rolando Tolentino’s nomination for UP Diliman Chancellor

Dear Members of the Board of Regents:

The reality of contemporary  commercial  ethos  that is taking shape and defining the path of higher education has been the subject of debate worldwide, especially among scholars whose imagination of their respective disciplines stretches far and firm into the future.  That the debate on commercialization continues to bring forth disturbing questions both from its proponents and opponents is a sign that our University is alive and well. In the past five months or so, with the ending of terms of key leaders and the search for new ones, the tension between our University’s public character and the necessity to survive and flourish as an academic institution given budget constraints has very well captured inquisitive and critical minds that make up our community.

In reading the vision statements of our esteemed nominees for the next UP-Diliman Chancellor, not only have I been inspired by their apparent and sincere concern for the University, I have also been humbled by the boldness in and through which they allow themselves to speak to UP’s past, present, and future, at the same time that they define these in order to address the conditions that we face. But Dean Roland Tolentino’s vision of a “culture of innovation” within the context of a “public university for public service” distinguishes itself by its patent intellectual firepower that resonates with the necessity of a National University being an instrument of progressive social influence. Let me share with you what I consider to be the most important lesson I have learned about markets and commercialization.

It is from a graduate class on Film Theory and Criticism under Dean Rolando Tolentino where I have appreciated that to critically examine increasing commercialization of universities is not to pour a scorn on markets themselves but precisely to assert the social role of the university in critiquing a kind of free market fundamentalism that presumes markets to be so perfect. It is from that class of eleven years ago where I have been trained to problematize the crises of higher education in terms of the consequences of the gradual elimination of the division between academic and commercial spheres for both the public and private sectors. Dean Tolentino has trained a generation of art and literary critics, media practitioners and academics to raising the toughest and most thoughtful questions that cannot be resolved practically without first disabusing burning issues of their most simplistic versions and interpretations.

In conferences, research endeavors, and gatherings of academics both here and abroad, I observe that academics would customarily strike out  productive conversations by referring to academic figures they know from the country and, particularly, from the University of the Philippines. In my own experience, these academic figures would be Epifanio San Juan Jr. and  Rolando Tolentino. As a retired professor and public intellectual, Dr. Epifanio San Juan Jr. directs the Philippine Cultural Studies Center in Connecticut, U.S.A. and continues to publish books and articles, and deliver public lectures everywhere in the world. Dean Rolando Tolentino has now fully owned up to the responsibilities of a nominee for Chancellor. His international renown as a film theorist and public intellectual and his venerable record as an academic leader make the best combination of the factors needed to bring the level of Chancellorship to a higher plane. 

Great challenges come with great expectations. Currently, university students worldwide have been mounting the most fervent critique and protest against cuts to education. This, of course, is not unprecedented. In the 1960s, the same worldwide clamor for relevance and access to education pushed students “up against the Ivy Walls.” Both then and now, this exercise in opposition has been primarily directed against the policies of university Chancellors. But with Dr. Tolentino’s brand of commitment to academic excellence, honor, human rights and social justice, the ideal of university administrators as academic leaders who will serve as a credible and exemplary guiding conscience ceases to be a pipe dream. It is with my best hopes for UP and higher education that I respectfully urge the esteemed members of the Board of Regents to elect Dean RolandoTolentino for Chancellor of the University of the Philippines-Diliman.

Sincerely,

Sarah Raymundo

BA Sociology, 1998, MA Sociology 2005, UP Diliman

Lectrurer, Instructor and Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, 1999-2009, UP Diliman

Letter of support from Prof. Theodore Gonzalves, Ph.D, University of Hawaii, Manoa

Letter of Support from Gladys Nubla, University of California, Berkeley

Letter of support from National Artist Prof. Bienvenido Lumbera

Letter of support from the College Editors Guild of the Philippines

To our dear Board of Regents:

The oldest and largest alliance of collegiate student publication in Asia takes pride and honor in endorsing and supporting Dr. Rolando B. Tolentino to be the next University of the Philippines – Diliman Chancellor.

 The College Editors Guild of the Philippines believes in the capability of Dr. Rolando B. Tolentino not only to serve the UP Diliman community but also to strengthen it and put it all back together as one.

Last year, UP was bombarded with a lot of issues. There was a call to restore integrity, there was a call to revive and take a “new” look into “Honor and Excellence”, and there was budget cut. There are those who made extra efforts to divide the community using these issues but only a few looked at it in a pro-students angle and would answer the moral obligation of UP to serve the people, and one of the few is Dr. Rolando B. Tolentino.

Dr. Tolentino, former National Capital Region Chairperson of CEGP, is not only a teacher, a mentor, or a lecturer but also a Guilder. Dean RT, as Guilders fondly call him, has been one with us in our cause to fight and pursue genuine press freedom and seek justice for the victims of repression. He has been a speaker and a lecturer to almost all CEGP gatherings, giving inspiration to the young blood in journalism not only to write well but to write for the people and serve and protect their interest.

CEGP believes that Dr. Rolando Tolentino together with the UP Community can make UP one again. With the integrity of being a pro-student faculty, he pushes for the real meaning of UP’s “Honor and Excellence” and that is leading UP to a patriotic and democratic institution geared towards answering its moral and ultimate obligation of serving the people and being one with its battle towards repression and freedom.

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines, together with its more than 750 member publications all over the country, supports and endorses Dr. Rolando Tolentino to be UP Diliman’s Chancellor.