Ateneans, meet the John Gokongwei School of Management

[pyket]

hey people. after the whole vagina monologues issue comes another one. read the following e-mail:


To the Ateneo Community,

If you would look into today's (March 2, 2002) issue of the Inquirer (page 3), and Phil. Star (page 24, Business Section) the articles say that the newly constructed Loyola School of Management (SOM) will be named The JOHN GOKONGWEI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT. This has been already signed into an agreement by the John Gokongwei Group of Companies and Fr. Bien Nebres at the cost of 200 Million Php.

First, I am sure that every Atenean would care to ask what will happen to the newly established "LOYOLA SCHOOLS" in the University? This deal would definitely set an ugly precedent, does it mean that every School in the Ateneo has a corresponding price?

200 Million Pesos is certainly an unfathomable amount, but if Lucio Tan, Jaime Zobel, or Andres Soriano decide to match the price, will the rest of the Schools be named after them as well? What will be the price to change "Ateneo de Manila University" then?

Indeed other universities have named Halls and even buildings after their patrons, but never has been a School (at least in the Ateneo tradition) named after a very generous donor. In fact, every room and facility in the University could have been named after a proper settlement of "the right price", but a School is a priceless institution.

Furthermore, exceptional Ateneans who had placed their mark in history received little reverence from our University. Have we forgotten the likes of Raul Manglapus, Evelio Javier, and countless others? The Library and a study foyer, to say the least, was named after our National hero. Even Sts. Stanislaus Kostka, Francis Xavier, Frs. Berchmann, Bellarmine, Dela Costa, Faura, etc. only had buildings and halls named after them. What did
John Gokongwei have that these great people didn't? Plain and simple: nine digits- Php. 200,000,000

In the light of the current problems of the University, such as the banning of "Vagina Monologues", and the issue regarding lack of
consultation between the administration, alumni, and especially the student body, this too failed to reach the concerns of the whole Community.

Lastly, I also seek the help of the omniscient alumni. Are they really doing anything to preserve the name and Jesuit tradition that our University stands for, or do they just clamor around the selection of coaches for the UAAP basketball team? As Ateneans, they are and should be our "big brothers and sisters", yet it seems that the students are alone when facing monumental issues such as this. We cannot do it alone.

If you agree with my concern and arguments, please pass this message to every Atenean, hopefully we can make our voices be heard.I believe that The Ateneo de Manila University and its Schools more particularly, cannot be bought at any price.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, For the Greater Glory of God.

Karl Frederick S. Borja
AB Political Science

[pyket]

i have two questions about the issue:

first, is john gokongwei an alumnus of the Ateneo de Manila University? if so, end discussion, but if not...

second question, does that mean that there isn't any other worthy Ateneo alumnus who is/was successful in the business world?

what in heaven's name is happening to the university???

[Gangreen]

Originally posted by pyket
i have two questions about the issue:

first, is john gokongwei an alumnus of the Ateneo de Manila University? if so, end discussion, but if not...

second question, does that mean that there isn't any other worthy Ateneo alumnus who is/was successful in the business world?

what in heaven's name is happening to the university???

John Gokongwei, an alumnus of La Salle, never studied in the Ateneo but admitted that he had always admired the Ateneo and the Jesuits. Some of his children (eg Lisa studied Communications) have studied in the Ateneo. His son-in-law, Perry Pe, is also an alumnus of the Ateneo.

The Ateneo has its own distinguished roster of very successful businessmen which includes, among others: Andres Soriano, Sr. (founder of San Miguel), Eugenio Lopez, Sr. (founder of Meralco, Benpres, etc.), the Gotianun family (founder of Family Savings Bank, Filinvest, etc.), Jose Yulo and practically the whole Yulo clan (Founder of Canlubang Estates), the children of Lucio Tan are mostly Ateneans, many of the children of Danding Cojuangco (a La Salle/UP alumnus) are Ateneans, the Macapagal and Aquino families are comprised mainly of Ateneans, the other half of the Yuchengco family (i.e., the Sy side) are mainly Ateneans whereas the father's side is mainly green, the Oledans, Aranetas, part of the Aboitiz family is blue, the same goes with the Ayalas and the Lhuilliers, Manny Pangilinan, some of Henry Sy's family, the Lobregats, Monserrats, Henares, etc.

Ever wondered why the Jesuits keep raking it in?

They have the right connections.

[TAMZ]

A wealthy alumnus of the Ateneo in the USA has donated $100 MM via his foundation. The money is being held in a trust fund for the benefit of the Ateneo by the Society of Jesus in New York. I heard there are restrictions on the timing of the disbursements. FYI.

The Jesuits are also working on a "global brand" for all Jesuit institutions worldwide. I think either Loyola or Ignatius or Xavier will be used depending on the level of education - i.e., primary ("Ignatius"), secondary ("Xavier"), tertiary ("Loyola"). Therefore, expect some name changes in the near future. Ateneo de Manila has already adopted "Loyola Schools."

[Exterminator]

Gokongwei endows P200 M to Ateneo management school


The Gokongwei Brothers’ Foundation and Gokongwei Group of Companies committed to endow P200 million to the Ateneo de Manila University’s undergraduate School of Management to help produce the country’s next generation of leaders and contribute to nationbuilding.


The marker for the new John Gokongwei School of Management, named after the family's patriarch, was presented to JG Summit Holdings chairman emeritus John Gokongwei Jr. yesterday after the signing of the memorandum of agreement to formalize the grant.


Gokongwei heir and JG Summit president Lance Gokongwei said the endowment was originally planned as a birthday gift to Mr. John Jr. who turned 75 last August. However, preparations took longer than was anticipated.


The new school is envisioned to be among the ranks of worldrenowned business schools and to produce principled graduates steeped in the disciplines of business and the economy.


The endowment highlights the family's continuing commitment to education through the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation.


The foundation already maintains a technical training center for engineering graduates using German methods and the Children's Library located in various Robinsons malls. The Library offers free computer learning and various educational and entertainment materials especially to walk-in preschoolers.


JG Summit chairman and GBF director James Go said the family recognizes education as a critical factor to the success of an individual and collectively the nation and it is this guiding philosophy that has made it support other educational institutions.


Other schools its has supported include San Carlos University, Xavier School, De La Salle University, Sacred Heart School and Immaculate Conception Academy.


Under the commitment, Ateneo will have complete control of the funds which will go to such initiatives as: faculty development and recruitment; improvement of faculty remuneration; research, course and textbook development, and policy studies; influencing national policy and decision-making through seminars, conferences and publications; and the grant of scholarships.


A substantial part of the endowment has been earmarked for the construction of the new Gokongwei building which will house the School of Management inside Ateneo's Loyola campus.


The School has the secondlargest undergraduate population in Ateneo, and has consistently accounted for roughly 50 percent of the entire university's top honor students.


Among the programs being offered by the college are B.S. Management, B.S. Management Engineering, B.S. Managementmajor in Legal Management; B.S. Management of Applied Chemistry; and B.S. Management-major in Management of Communications Technology.

[Bluest]

Bill Gates is making a huge donation to the Ateneo.

I won't be surprised if DISC gets renamed "William Gates School of Technology." Many Pangilinan will not allow it since PLDT has also made a huge donation.

The Jesuits should also engage in the banking business, not just education. They seem to be very good in raising money.

[tr|n|ty]

i think the success of the Jesuits lie in their being so "kulet" in asking donations from alumni. most of the men in my family are ateneans in some shape or form and i myself graduated from a Jesuit University in New York and i have seen and experienced first hand their persistence.

[onwils]

I remember there was a movie "Back to School" starring Rodney Dangerfield. Same scenario. :D

[pyket]

okay pa yata yung PLDT Convergent Technologies ekk ng DISC eh, Manny Pangilinan is an alumnus of the Ateneo. Pero John Gokongwei is a La Sallite, and not an Atenean. I have nothing against people from La Salle, pero hindi kaya't maraming na bypass na successful alumni ng Ateneo with this naming?

hmmmmmmm...

magkakaroon kaya ng Dr. Margarita Holmes School of Social Sciences? or Bernardo Bernardo School of Fine Arts in the Future?

[Moon Goddess]

Uuuuuy.... Interesting..... Nakaka aliw ang courses na offered na management courses niyo ha. So... Bachelor of Science in Management kayo, hindi yung yung Bachelor of Science in Commerce. Ooooh. Ok. So halimbawa, LM ako sa Ateneo, BSM, major in Legal Management ang course ko. Oooooh. Ok. or BSM major in Management of Communication Technology. Ok. Nagiisip lang...

So hindi ito business school? Management school siya. Kase kung business school siya, wala siyang chemistry at communication technology management na courses. i think. Ok. Sige, kaiba siya ha.

[Rambus]

What's the big deal? It's only a name. Besides, they are honoring John's father - a practice which is very Filipino, Asian, and Christian.

Will the students get Gokongwei diplomas? I don't think so. They'll still get the honest to goodness Ateneo ones.

Will Gokongwei teach or otherwise influence the curriculum? I hope not. He may be a good businessman, but who really has a clue about his teaching abilities?

Will the reputation of the school or its graduates be diminished as a result of this name change? I always thought reputations were built by individuals working on the little things, day by day. Can a name really change all that?

The point now, I think, is that the university is P200 million richer. What will they do with the money? Put up a nice building? What good does that do for society? Shouldn't they be using it instead to fund teaching, research, and scholarships?

[atenistangatenista]

as long as they have teachers like Aida Reyes and Crispin Aquino teaching, the new building would not make a difference in the quality of education.

[pyket]

so wait... dalawa ang john gokongwei? yung patriarch at yung anak niya?

[tesseract]

So let's get this straight... They're naming the SOM after Gokongwei, and will erect a new building for the SOM? So what will the PLDTTCTC be for? Isn't that where the SOM was supposed to be housed already?

[Rambus]

Originally posted by pyket
so wait... dalawa ang john gokongwei? yung patriarch at yung anak niya?

Opo.

Yung original John Gokongwei ang ama ni John Gokongwei, Jr. Bata pa si John, Jr nang mamatay si John, Sr. Si John, Jr ang naging sikat at mayaman na mangangalakal. Kay John, Sr nakapangalan ang school.

Medyo garapal naman yata kung ipapangalan mo ang isang bagay sa taong buhay pa, diba?

[clone19]

Originally posted by tesseract
So let's get this straight... They're naming the SOM after Gokongwei, and will erect a new building for the SOM? So what will the PLDTTCTC be for? Isn't that where the SOM was supposed to be housed already?

REMEMBER SEC?

THERE'S SEC A, SEC B, and SEC.

SEC ARE MATH AND SCIENCE BUILDINGS

THE PLDT CONVERGENCE CENTER WILL BE RIGHT NEXT SEC C, BUT IT WONT BE CALLED "SEC D"

NEXT TO PLDT IS JOHN GOKONGWEI CENTER, THE NEW HOUSE OF SOM, AND IT WONT BE CALED "SEC E".

[tesseract]

Originally posted by clone19


REMEMBER SEC?

THERE'S SEC A, SEC B, and SEC.

SEC ARE MATH AND SCIENCE BUILDINGS

THE PLDT CONVERGENCE CENTER WILL BE RIGHT NEXT SEC C, BUT IT WONT BE CALLED "SEC D"

NEXT TO PLDT IS JOHN GOKONGWEI CENTER, THE NEW HOUSE OF SOM, AND IT WONT BE CALED "SEC E".

When do they plan to start on the JGC if ever? Wasnt the PLDT building supposed to be the new home of the SOM for the coming year (at least, until the JGC is built)?

[Lek-Lek]

Originally posted by pyket
okay pa yata yung PLDT Convergent Technologies ekk ng DISC eh, Manny Pangilinan is an alumnus of the Ateneo. Pero John Gokongwei is a La Sallite, and not an Atenean. I have nothing against people from La Salle, pero hindi kaya't maraming na bypass na successful alumni ng Ateneo with this naming?

hmmmmmmm...

magkakaroon kaya ng Dr. Margarita Holmes School of Social Sciences? or Bernardo Bernardo School of Fine Arts in the Future?

Eh, what can we do? Mr. Gokongwei was the only one willing to donate P 200 million. JG Summit was approached for a P 1 million donation for a professorial chair--but the conglomerate wanted to give P 200 million for the new building and faculty recruitment and development. Naming the SOM after Mr. Gokongwei is somehow similar to the tradition of US business schools--they are named after the philanthropist who donated to these institutions--that is why you have The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania), Kellogg Graduate School of Management (Northwestern University), Darden Graduate School of Management (University of Virginia), Stern School of Business (New York University), and even here in the Philippines, AIM has been named after Mr. Washington SyCip. I wonder if Mr. Karl Borja, the author of the e-mail is aware of this.

[renina]

Originally posted by Moon Goddess
Uuuuuy.... Interesting..... Nakaka aliw ang courses na offered na management courses niyo ha. So... Bachelor of Science in Management kayo, hindi yung yung Bachelor of Science in Commerce. Ooooh. Ok. So halimbawa, LM ako sa Ateneo, BSM, major in Legal Management ang course ko. Oooooh. Ok. or BSM major in Management of Communication Technology. Ok. Nagiisip lang...

So hindi ito business school? Management school siya. Kase kung business school siya, wala siyang chemistry at communication technology management na courses. i think. Ok. Sige, kaiba siya ha.


KAKAIBA KA RIN MAG-COMMENT. ooooooh ka pa!

I think the term business is also related to management, industry and trade. Management of Applied Chemistry is about learning knowledge management for future use in the chemical business or industry. Communications Technology is about learning the different aspects of communication with industrial application for use in advertising and other media-related businesses.

Talagang kakaiba, di ba? Proud to have this school. Salamat Mr. John G.

P.S. The author is not in a business-related course and work, so please do correct me if i am mistaken. I just hope that those Ateneans who are taking these two courses mentioned can enlighten us with their courses and academic experiences.

Para naman itong si Moon Goddess ay lumiwanag din ang kanyang utak. Mukhang sarcastic remark kasi, I assume.

Nagbabasa lang naman at sumasagot......

[victory]

Here are my two cents worth on the matter, for those of you who are feeling queasy about the whole "naming" bit. Below I've written a little satirical piece that will hopefully get you thinking about this issue -- because it touches upon two very important things in my own life: Managing an educational institution (particularly a school of management), and the underlying philosophies and outlooks people have about the role of business in society. Please note that I am purposely trying to be satirical with this piece: I'm addressing this to Ateneans, particularly current students, who have qualms about the Gokongwei SOM issue. If there are individuals or institutions that I end up offending along the way, I apologize deeply. But I hope that this piece gets you thinking carefully about your own beliefs as well.

1. Have any of you had real experience trying to raise funds for a school?

2. Let's examine some underlying beliefs many of you seem to have about "norms."

a.) "John Gokongwei is a La Salle alumnus. He is not an Ateneo alumnus."

-- Where was it written in stone that only Ateneo alumni ought to help out Ateneo as an educational institution? Which law codifies this?

b.) Got this from another e-mail that is going around: "Can't Ateneo find alumni who are also successful in the business world?"

-- Manny Pangilinan has done more than his fair share for Ateneo. His donations and efforts have helped build not only the SEC and the upcoming PLDT Center for Convergent Technologies -- if you look carefully at the little plaque off to the right side of the entrance of De la Costa building, you will see that a certain Metro Pacific Corporation (on whose board Mr. Pangilinan sits) coughed up the funds to house Ateneo's "priceless" liberal arts departments. Could this be TRUE? How SHOCKING! A "lowly business" put a roof over the head of some teachers who denounce "business as suspect; commercial activity as inherently sinful." Mr. Pangilinan seems to be one among many who have been trying very hard to help build the school and make things better.

"Oh, but Mr. Pangilinan also donates things like expensive basketball courts!" And who gave YOU the moral ascendancy to tell Mr. Pangilinan what to do with his money?

b.) "Naming a building is fine, but naming the school itself -- that's another matter."

Interesting. What is the difference between a building and an institution? You see, there are these business schools in the US that are called Wharton, Stanford, Harvard, Darden, and many others -- who named their institutions after donors. Last I looked these schools were the best in the world at what they did.

c.) "We are selling out a 'priceless institution.'"

Were Wharton and Stanford etc. "wrong" in "selling out" their "priceless names" for money provided by businesspeople who were during their time in fact denounced as "robber barons" by some factions as well? (Joseph Wharton and Leland Stanford were both in the "highly politicized" railroad business -- read your US industrial history) Last I looked, these business schools were doing well for themselves. Ateneo's School of Management is light years away from these institutions -- and yet it ought to refuse help when it is offered?

Amidst all the complaints about how antiquated Ateneo's systems are, how our textbooks are fifteen (thirty?) years behind the cutting edge, and how our teachers are not paid well enough to help them develop as business scholars -- much less keep them working in Ateneo?

Did you ever put yourself in the position of one of the SOM department chairs who are doing their best to try and retain the best young faculty they have -- because a teacher's salary in the Philippines is dismally low? Have you tried raising a family on a teacher's salary?

Corollaries to this: "Oh, but teachers are supposed to be noble." Should this equate to accepting a lower salary for the "nobility of molding young minds?" What if these "noble teachers" end up not being able to save enough to send their kids to school -- because they sacrificed their income earning potential FOR YOU? Will YOU pay for their children's education?

Are you the same young people who complain about inefficient registration systems, the lack of computers and multimedia facilities, the shortage of opportunities to access information over the Internet?

d.) "There are many other 'more noble' and distinguished alumni after whom we could have named the school."

Define "more noble." Died for a cause? Fought for freedom? Being a businessperson is probably "less noble," right? After all, you're just in business to make money. Ooo... what a lowly profession.

Who the hell is paying for your tuition? Mommy and Daddy? Are Mommy and Daddy working for a business in the private sector in some fashion? Gasp! Does this mean your parents are "tainted," somehow "less noble" than the other distinguished alumni about whom you seem to be so enamored? If you are on scholarship, who the hell donated the money for your scholarship? If you are working to put yourself through school, how do you think your company is paying your wages?

e.) And the best line of them all: "This is blood money."

It's one thing to accept "blood money" from a Hitler, for example. But are funds raised through business activities "equally tainted"? How many of you have solid proof that Mr. Gokongwei is "corrupt" and made his money through "illegal means"? "Mr. Gokongwei exploits his people. Everyone knows this." Who the hell is "everyone"? Where is your proof? What is your rationale for saying this?

And so Stanford University is an evil institution because the person who donated money for its creation "exploited his Chinese coolies in laying down his railroad tracks." I see. Evil, evil, evil. Don't EVER go to Stanford if you were offered acceptance there. Please. Don't corrupt yourselves! In fact, I'll do you a favor: Give me your full names and I will try to make sure that Stanford University's admissions offices block you off -- lest you be corrupted! Would you like me to do the same for Wharton and Harvard?

To what religion do you subscribe? After all, your religion may underlie your judgment of norms. You are probably Catholic. How "pure" and "taintless" is the Catholic Church? How "sterling and noble" was its history in the Philippines? And yet you try to go to Mass every Sunday?!? Gasp!!!

Is Ateneo really "selling out"? Would you refuse PHP200 million that could very well benefit countless students down the line -- for what? A "priceless name"? Do you want to put the donation acceptance to a vote -- and will you then answer to the throngs of students and faculty years down the line who complain of anachronistic teachers who are frowned upon by industry practitioners because of their antiquated teaching methods, run-down facilities, lack of computers and infrastructure support, etc.?

Young Ateneans, think and reflect carefully about your beliefs and norms. If there is anything that your PH104 should teach you, it is that the world is not as black and white as you would like it to be.

Then again, perhaps I've been corrupted by the US educational system, and that I deserve to be stripped of my "honorable Atenean heritage" (Batch 1996). You be the judge. You seem to be very good at passing judgment, in any case.

[Oscar01]

Last year, the SOM senior faculty were sharing their hopes and dreams for a new building as part of the redefinition of the Management programs. If I remember the numbers floated right, I don't think they even dreamed of hitting P100M.

As a member of the first batch to graduate after the SOM became the SOM, I'm actually happy for the future batches who'll get to use the new facilities. I think there are a lot more than classrooms in there.

We already had, for example, the P&G Lecture Hall (was it SEC Lecture Hall 3). No one complained.

As for some of the other comments here... maybe it's just me, but sometimes I just get the idea that some Ateneans feel guilty over having money.

[Exterminator]

The John Gokongwei School of Management
By Tony Lopez



INDUSTRIALIST John Gokongwei, Jr. has donated P200 million to the Ateneo de Manila University. In return, the Jesuits named their undergraduate management school after him. The money will finance a building to house the John Gokongwei School of Management.

Basically, it is the school that teaches management engineering to the children of the elite. This is a course that has become fashionable for upper-class kids to prepare themselves as heirs to great wealth or as professional ma*nagers for the country’s biggest corporations. “Ateneo is the Philippines’ best management school,” enthuses Gokongwei.

The P200-million endowment fund for Ateneo was originally one of the highlights of August last year when Gokongwei turned 75. Former Central Bank governor Gabriel Singson originally wanted a professorial chair at Ateneo in honor of the man who built a business empire, literally from rags to riches, engaged in food manufactu*ring, textile manufacturing, real estate, retailing, savings bank, telecommunications and air travel. But the Gokongwei brothers thought of something grander for the family patriarch and a ma*nagement school is it. Why Ateneo? “The Jesuits run very good schools and impart very good values,” explains James Go, chairman and CEO of JG Summit, the family holding company which has market capitalization of P12 billion and is owned substantially by the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation which donated the P200 million to Ateneo.

This is a coup for Ateneo. Gokongwei got his business degrees from La Salle and therefore, should have been the natural recipient of his generous dole out. La Salle 10 years ago got P4 million from Gokongwei and the money partly financed the La Salle Information Technology (IT) School, which is named after Gokongwei’s mother. La Salle, moreover, appears, to have become the turf of another tycoon, Alfonso Yuchengco.

Telecommunications and airlines are seen by Gokongwei as growth areas. Gokongwei’s Digital Telecommunications is today the second biggest fixed-line phone operator (after PLDT), and vows to become the third biggest cellular phone player, after PLDT’s Smart and the Ayala family’s Globe, by charging rates much lower than its rivals for the same quality of service. Gokongwei’s Cebu Pacific has just gone regional, charging atrociously low fares for flights to Hong Kong and South Korea. In Europe, no-frills, high-volume airlines are the craze and are putting the major airlines of the world out of business. Two big taipans, Lucio Tan of Philippine Airlines, and Gokongwei of Cebu Pacific, are engaged in a vicious dogfight for control of the Philippines’ lucrative air travel market, and a significant share of the Asian market. Knowing Gokongwei, he does not go into a big business fight unprepared without studying his options and possible losses. I guess in the cellular phone and airline businesses, he has counted his marbles properly.

Now why are tycoons inves*ting in schools? Lucio Tan has his University of the East, once and probably until now, the premier school for accountants. He has also funded a research center for agriculture in Central Luzon. Yuchengco has his Mapua Institute of Techno*logy (MIT), a famous Manila engineering school and the De La Salle Institute of Advanced Studies (which is housed at the massive Yuchengco Building on Ayala Avenue.)

Tan himself is a chemical engineer and has a passion for agriculture. Yuchengco is basically a banker with a foreign policy bent (he has been ambassador to China and Japan and is currently ambassador to the United Nations). Gokongwei is multi-faceted and has amazing intuitive intelligence. He can see trends miles and months away.

I guess what these tycoons are saying is that this country, its government and its corporations, ought to be run pro*perly. And the only way to do that is to prepare good mana*gers. Now, if only we could produce good politicians. Despite its having offered more than a century of quality education (Rizal supposed studied there), Ateneo has yet to produce (meaning someone who really graduated from there and didn’t drop out) a president. Cannot our tycoons invest their money to produce a good president of the Philippines from Ateneo?

[BULLD0G_FAN]

Galing talaga ng Ateneo ! Kaka bilib!

Magkakaroon kaya ng Erap Estrada School of Government? O kaya Juan Ponce Enrile School of Law?

Joke lang. Inggit lang kasi ako. Lakas ng Ateneo humatak ng datung!!!

Money begets money talaga! Yung truth lang po!

NU Fight!

[Moon Goddess]

Jose Yulo is a La Salle alumnus. He is even a member of the Jose Rizal Honors Society, which means that he was a dean's lister for all the semesters.

[poison_arrow]

As a Lasallian and a future Atenean (this coming school year), I'm very glad to see Mr. Gokongwei validate my decision.

To the Ateneo, :bow: :bow: :bow:

[floodbaby]

Naming the SOM to Gokongwei goes against my good taste, pero taste lang iyon. Convinced na ako ni victory. Iyon naman talaga ang business ng pagpapatakbo ng school. The name change honors and recognizes the fact that apart from the 'noble' things, it takes cash to run a school.

Now, my issue is consistency. Haven't the Lopezes given around 400 MILLION (in land and cash) to the Ateneo to build the Law School. Bakit iyon, hindi renamed? Sana may mas malinaw na guidelines pagdating sa name adoption.

So if I give 1 Billion, but don't ask to be honored, wala. Tapos, if I give 100 Million, pero feel kong i-rename ang Cafeteria to the Miriam Defensor-Santiago Center for the Culinarization of the Universitificity.

And FYI, there is a Joseph Ejercito Estrada Endowed Professorial Chair for the Humanities at the Ateneo.

So don't complain about Goks giving money. He's a saint compared to our dear Erap. At tinanggap natin ang jueteng money.

[Diego22]

Originally posted by Rambus
What's the big deal? It's only a name. Besides, they are honoring John's father - a practice which is very Filipino, Asian, and Christian.

Will the students get Gokongwei diplomas? I don't think so. They'll still get the honest to goodness Ateneo ones. Will Gokongwei teach or otherwise influence the curriculum? I hope not. He may be a good businessman, but who really has a clue about his teaching abilities?Will the reputation of the school or its graduates be diminished as a result of this name change? I always thought reputations were built by individuals working on the little things, day by day. Can a name really change all that?

The point now, I think, is that the university is P200 million richer. What will they do with the money? Put up a nice building? What good does that do for society? Shouldn't they be using it instead to fund teaching, research, and scholarships?

I agree with Rambus, i don't see anything wrong in honoring a person who made it's way to the top without the use of political influence. Remember the Gokongwei Family had a hard time dealing business during Erap's time yet they made their way up, competitively without political and financial considerations.

to point that Mr. Gokongwei is a La Salle Alumni is a fact but to limit his social contributions because of affinity is pathetic. C'mon guys if the man has money and wants to share it so let it be.

Also in deference to the Jesuits, what was initially asked is a 1 million donation for a professorial chair, but the family decided to donate a rather huge amount as legacy and to honor the man fondly called "Big John" with this in mind, let's just call it providence.

i just hope that part of the endowment agreement will give preferential considerations to poor students by way of scholarships, research and training. we have so many brainless politicians already, i guess we need to get more economic managers who will lead the country in action than senseless politicking.

[Diego22]

Floodbaby nakakatawa ka! palitan kaya natin yung mental institution sa Mandaluyong into the Miriam Defensor Santiago Wholistic Center of Spirituality hehehehehe

is the Erap Professorial chair still in existence? gee man, what lessons in humanity can we learn from that guy? oh well.

i'm thinking of getting rich. sige i will apply with the Jesuits.

[renina]

A donation is a form of a blessing. Ateneans should appreciate this new school.

I do not see any problem also with naming the school after its donator. So, Mr. John G., a former La Sallian, believes in the Ateneo education (think, think, think........ :) ).

AMDG.

[Lek-Lek]

I think victory has been able to sufficiently answer all of the accusations hurled against the Gokongwei School of Management.

Ateneans then should be grateful that people out there who made it big in business are willing to help the Ateneo's Management programs become more competitive.

[mac_bolan00]

i think what's obvious here is that people find "john gokongwei" a hick name; too un-dignified for a place like the ateneo business school. i see no other issue here.

[Oscar01]

I suppose no one's appreciating another side of this "issue" (don't know when it became an issue), though.

If I had more money than I knew what to do with, I'd be happy and extremely fulfilled to honor my forebears by leaving that kind of legacy. If anything, the example of filial piety is something I feel people can appreciate and identify with.

[victory]

Below is a note that the Alumni Affairs Office sent out just yesterday. May help clarify a few remaining issues about "process" and "naming rights."

A Business Education Partnership

A History of the
Ateneo de Manila University John Gokongwei School of Management

Based on Fr. Bienvenido F. Nebres’ Announcement to the Loyola Schools, profiles of the companies of the JG Summit Group, and a biography of Mr. John Gokongwei

It began thus: The Ateneo de Manila University was putting up a building for the School of Management and was looking for donors. Mr. John Gokongwei, Founding Chairman of the JG Summit Group of Companies, was about to retire and celebrate his 75th birthday. His brother, James Go, and his son, Lance Gokongwei, were looking for an appropriate way of honoring Mr. John.

*******Ateneo’s proposal for a major donation for the building evolved into a discussion on naming rights for the School of Management when the family expressed their desire of honoring Mr. John with something more than a building. Both James and Lance had done their college and graduate studies in the U.S. and were familiar with naming rights.

*******Naming rights are common among universities in the U.S. (e.g., Sloan School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; Kellogg School, Northwestern University; McDonough School, Georgetown University; Carroll School, Boston College). Fr. Bienvenido F. Nebres contacted Jesuit universities and colleges in the U.S. going through the naming rights process, to help outline the discussion points for the Ateneo de Manila University Board of Trustees.

*******In the discussions of the Ateneo Board of Trustees, which began in June 2001 and lasted nine months, the main focus was the convergence of the vision, interests, and values of the Ateneo and the JG Summit Group:


• It was noted that the JG Summit Group of Companies is regarded by the business community and the community at large as good and responsible corporate citizens.

• They are a very competitive and successful group. They are involved in a diverse range of businesses and industries nationally and regionally. • The Board was impressed with the professionalism with which the JG Summit Group handled its transition of leadership. • The Gokongwei family and the JG Summit Group of Companies have a deep interest and respect for education. The Gokongwei Brothers Foundation supports a Technical School and a Children’s Library, aside from donating buildings to various schools in the Philippines. Mr. John Gokongwei himself is known as a widely read person, with broad intellectual interests. He also continued his undergraduate and graduate studies when the burden of supporting his siblings had eased. • The Gokongwei family has had long ties with and respect for Jesuits and Jesuit education—at the Sacred Heart School in Cebu, Xavier School in Manila, and Ateneo de Manila. • Mr. John Gokongwei has a deep and personal interest in the education and training of future leaders for business and the economy.

****** It was only after a thorough discussion of the alignment of vision, interests and values between the Ateneo de Manila and the JG Summit Group and Mr. John Gokongwei that the Board discussed the endowment. The Jesuit universities in the U.S. informed the Ateneo de Manila University that the endowment should be of such a size that it would support a substantial portion of the financial needs of the School. The School of Management has identified its most urgent needs, which the endowment will cover, as:


• Faculty: development, retention, research
• Scholarships
• Outreach and Influencing Policy

****** A rare confluence of interests and events has brought about the partnership of the JG Summit Group of Companies and the Ateneo de Manila University. The JG Group wished to honor their Founding Chairman and now Chairman Emeritus, Mr. John Gokongwei, in a manner that would appropriately recognize the important and significant contributions he has made to the growth and development of the country and the region, and, at the same time, make a lasting contribution to the furtherance of such growth and development. The Ateneo School of Management, in its 1999 Vision-Mission and strategic planning sessions, envisions itself as a regional center of excellence and leadership in business education, which can only be achieved with significant support from business and industry.

****** The Ateneo, recognizing the high level of leadership that Mr. John Gokongwei has provided for the Philippine and regional business community over the years, and in the tradition of many outstanding schools of management, is therefore proud to announce the christening of the Ateneo de Manila University John Gokongwei School of Management.

[Lek-Lek]

I really hope that these issues have been settled.

[BULLD0G_FAN]

Kung ayaw ninyo, sa akin na lang ninyo ibigay ang 200 million. I will even change my name to "John Gokongwei's Slave 4 Life." Payag na rin ako magpa-sex change kung kakailangin. :lol:

Ano kaya ang susunod sa Ateneo...

"D!ck Gordon School of Tourism" (dapat siguro tanggalin ang "D!ck". Pangit pakinggan.)
"Mirriam Santiago School of Diplomacy"
"Joseph Estrada School of Public Administration"
"Juan Ponce Enrile School of Law"
"Abunda School of Communication Arts"
"Kris Aquino Finishing School"
"Erap's School of Artificial Intelligence"
"Cardinal Sin School of Theology"
"Tessie Orreta Dance School"


So many possibilities talaga when one has the money.

Totoo ang kasabihang "money begets money", kaya the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Sana mayaman ako in my next life para ako rin may school in my honor.

Hayyyy buhay talaga,,, parang life...nakakainggit kung wala tulad ko. :bigcry:

Kaya kayong mga Atenista, dapat na magpasalamat kayo at masuwerte kayo. Itigal ang pagrereklamo. Kung ayaw ninyo, ibigay na lang sa akin,,,, nandito naman ako at laging naghihintay ........one of these days, my turn will come.

Basta NU Fight pa rin!

[Sleepless6]

"Lastly, I also seek the help of the omniscient alumni. Are they really doing anything to preserve the name and Jesuit tradition that our University stands for, or do they just clamor around the selection of coaches for the UAAP basketball team? As Ateneans, they are and should be our "big brothers and sisters", yet it seems that the students are alone when facing monumental issues such as this. We cannot do it alone...."

I cannot say I speak for the "omniscient alumni."

I did graduate with AdMU, but last I checked, I wasn't omniscient.

So I speak for myself when I say that I strongly support the school administration and the efforts of the Gokongwei family to contribute to higher education in the Philippines though.

It would be redundant for me to give reasons for this -- Victory, in his post above, has articulated the rationale more coherently than I ever could.

Let me add just one sentiment though. I do wish more businesspeople could take a more active role in the field of education -- whether through teaching or through financing. It's obvious the field of business education needs all the help it can get ...

And since not all of us have JG deep pockets, I do wish that we could at least be more supportive of these good-intentioned efforts. Maybe not for our sakes, but for the sakes of the many who will benefit from his generosity.

[mufdiver_69_III]

A response to Karl Borja from Jojo Bernardo (GS 66, HS70, AB 74)


Dear Mr. Karl Frederick S. Borja,

First off, I admire your strong sense of idealism. In this day and age, it is refreshing to note that young minds are able to sense possible nuances in the manner by which institutions are being managed.

But I have to say that you have to separate the chaff from the grain; perception from substance.

Your third paragraph states - "the deal would definitely set an ugly precedent." How so? Every Ateneo graduation day, there are scores of graduates who were funded by "Mr. XYZ Scholarship" or "Blank Corporation grant." In the campus, there is the PLDT Convergence Center, the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center. You yourself mentioned in your piece that other universities, both here and abroad, practice the same recognition of donors. This is precedent setting? Hardly.

Your fourth paragraph states "a school is a priceless institution." The education, yes,the values. But the process of education takes nuts and bolts. We pay for electricity, security guards, computers, good teachers, etc. Brent School charges $16,000 per year; Ateneo about P40,000 I think per semester. I know that the school constantly struggles to bring tuition down while still maintaining quality education. There's got to be a price to pay.

In your fifth paragraph, you mention many illustrious Ateneans worthy of having their names memorialized in edifices. IF there are enough edifices to go around. First, you must build these buildings. How?

In Rome, the cathedrals and basilicas have names carved in their grand facades. The names that appear there are not necessarily of those honored but of the benefactors who had these structures built in the first place. In the Pantheon in Rome (where all the great citizens are honored), the huge letters adorning the facade are "Coster Facit" ... Coster Built It.

In your sixth paragraph, you wrote ... "in the light of the current
problems of the University, such as the banning of "Vagina Monologues"... you indicated that the banning was a problem? Again, how so? I believe that the school did right. It may appear to be an unpopular decision but it was right not to allow it in the premises. Not because of the message of the play but because of its in-your-face vulgarity. When the day comes that you students can attend classes in bikinis, that's when you should use these words in a commonplace and off-hand manner.

In your seventh paragraph, you make reference to the "omniscient alumni." You averred that selecting UAAP coaches was our primary concern. Unfair. You state that you students are left alone to do your battles. Not so. It's just that you have to choose your battles and your causes to those that are elementally right.

John Gokongwei is a La Sallite. Yet, he chose Ateneo. He chose to place his name to a school that hopefully will do credit to his endowment. As you grow older in life, you will realize that such a decision does not come lightly. It comes after a firm conviction that your reputation, much more than your money, will be amply protected and honored.

And if the Zobels, Sorianos, Tans make the same firm conviction, they should be welcomed. They will contribute to the Ateneo core vision of AMDG and man-for-others.

Four years ago, I alerted Father Tito Caluag about an Asiaweek survey of the top universities of Asia. The first in that survey was Japanese; in the top ten were those from Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia. I recall (imperfectly) that UP was 42, Ateneo was 47 and La Salle 48. About one or two years ago, the same updated survey had UP in 64 I think, La Salle was 75 and Ateneo was 76. The slide is obvious; is it irreversible?

The criteria used were: number of PhDs in the faculty, teacher-student ratio, level of computerization, quality of laboratory facilities, infrastructure, prestige among the business community and some others. While not giving it excessive importance because perhaps of the subjectivity of the criteria, nevertheless I know the Ateneo tried to address this. The quality, the vision of excellence and the core values have to be preserved.

Will these be endangered by the name of Mr. Gokongwei. I don't think so.

Lastly, you rail and complain about not being duly consulted. I recall in my day, 1973, we too complained that the Ateneo failed to consult us about going co-ed. The heretofore male bastion was going the way of the dinosaur. But years after, I don't see that we could have done otherwise. In other words, the Ateneo is administered by men who possess the good of the school at heart. It's their call. When you become a trustee, then maybe it will become your call. But let's give these men our support and help.

My friend; Welcome to the world. It is one of choices. It is one of priorities. It is still AMDG, for students and alumni alike.


Best regards, Jojo B

[floodbaby]

Mr. Bernardo's letter offends me.

Payag na ako sa Gokongwei, kahit na ayaw ko ang tunog. As I said, it's just a matter of taste.

And I think all of us should realize taste is one thing, deciding on the fate of the University is another.

But here's an old, probably distinguished, Ateneo alumnus who's making the grievous mistake of letting his personal taste take the place of his morals.

Oo, maaskad talaga sa tengang makarinig ng salitang ****, ******, kiki, puday, at iba pa. Oo, nakakabiglang makakita ng taong nakabikini sa classroom.

Pero hindi masama, hindi bulgar, at hindi madumi ang ipahayag ang tunay na sarili.

OK, these things can be vulgar. But please, please give adult Ateneans the respect we deserve. Did you think we went to so much trouble to fight the system just to be vulgar.

Utang na loob.

Well, this is the same person who didn't want women in the Ateneo in 1974. It figures.

[Mikoid]

Last Thursday, I e-mailed to some friends my reaction to the Borja letter (though I couldn't recall his name when I wrote it...)

Check it out:



Ateneo friends,

The letter below from that PolSci dude if unfair and full of uninformed, blustery pro-Ateneo rhetoric.

First of all, the lack of consultation Mr Borja decries in the VM issue doesn't apply here. I'm sure the Ateneo Board came to this decision in an informed consensus, and those in the board really have a final decision regarding the fate of the school.

As much as the new name strikes me as a bit unpalatable, I think that this is a reality that schools have to accept to help generate funds. I spoke to Ramon Reyes, one of the board of trustees of the university, yesterday, and the Ateneo had originally asked for more but the old man could only promise 200M.

To be honest, the School of Management is a tough place to be. Most good business teachers probably take on a massive opportunity cost to teach rather than work. The school needs more incentive to pluck the best and brightest out of the workplace and get them teaching. Mr Gokongwei's donation presents a solution to this pressing need, and if it means that our Management students will enjoy better facilities, our faculty gets paid more, and the quality of education improves as a whole, then there is cause for celebration rather than protest.

Also, as Dr Ramon pointed out, if a person's name if tagged onto a school it also means that the donor is obliged and honor-bound to continue investing to maintain the school's worthiness.

The PolSci person wrote about our age-old Ateneo heroes and complained about how the school seems to be passing their honorable names over in favor of moneyed folks. But the reality is that it's only the folks with money to burn who are in a position to put up buildings and donate money and infrastructure.

One other thing to consider -- DLSU has been doing it for years and they enjoy superior facilities and better faculty wages to ours. They enjoy better industry-curriculum linkage and increasingly competitive corporate placement for their graduates. If we don't want to plunge into the downward spiral of has-been universities, we need more people to cough up the money for the Ateneo to stay in the game. Either that, or get ready for another big tuition increase.

Cheers,

Mike
GS '90 HS '94 AB '98

[guess_who]

John Gokongwei is a La Sallite. Yet, he chose Ateneo. He chose to place his name to a school that hopefully will do credit to his endowment. As you grow older in life, you will realize that such a decision does not come lightly. It comes after a firm conviction that your reputation, much more than your money, will be amply protected and honored.


Am surprised some of those who posted here see this move of
Gokongwei as a sign that ADMU is but no doubt better than DLSU.

The Gokongweis has given ADMU a building and this is the sort
of words they come out with? Are they sure Gokongwei did it
because he believes his reputation will be "amply protected and
honored" by giving ADMU a building with his name on it? Is this
what ADMU teaches to their students? I am shocked at what
this university is instilling in the minds of its students. Worthless
rubbish. Ok lang ipadama sa students nila na proud sila sa
university nila right? But by indirectly depicting na mas magaling
university nila? It's this reason kaya bumabagsak quality ng
education sa Pilipinas, people think na anggaling-galing ng
education nakukuha nila pero in reality, if compared to its Asian
cousins, nangungulelat na education dito sa Pilipinas. So stop
this nonesense.

[marseilles]

My two cents'.

First point. The point that U.S. universities name their colleges after philanthropists is rather irrelevant, in my opinion. Argumentum ad baculum and all that. It doesn't necessarily mean that we should follow suit; especially since most private U.S. universities are corporations before they are anything else, unlike the Ateneo which is built on a certain pedagogic vision and a specific spirituality. Therefore, while I think that calling the whole naming a case of "selling out a priceless insitution" is pushing it a bit, I don't agree with all the rhetoric about Wharton and Stanford either. (Wharton is a great school, but yes, if I were alive at the time, I probably would think it tasteless to name a school after a "robber baron.")

Naming, after all, is more than a merely functional process. Names have meanings for people. I don't think it's fair to trivialize this fact. (I wouldn't name my kid "Feces" even if someone paid me two hundred million dollars for it.)

Nor do I think it's fair to trivialize people's desire to stick to nobler ideals (whether or not we consider their ideals unrealistic or misguided). Vision--and very often, insanity of vision--is what changes the world.

Nevertheless, I do agree that we have to be realistic about the school's needs.

My own take on the John Gokongwei issue: I wish the Gokongwei could've found another way of "honoring" John Gokongwei. If I were graduating this year from "ang Paaralan ng Pangangasiwa ni John Gokongwei," I'd probably be feeling depressed. (Especially since John Gokongwei isn't even dead yet!) But since the decision has already been made, let's just learn to live with it.

[Lek-Lek]

Ah basta ako, I don't see any problem with naming the SOM as the Gokongwei School of Management. It's a way of showing gratitude to Mr. Gokongwei. Besides, I believe that the money donated will be used in the furtherance of the JGSOM's vision of becoming the regional leader in undergraduate management education.

[Moon Goddess]

Ad Baculum ba?

Kung tama edi tama.
Kung hinde edi hinde.

Pero

ad baculum nga ba?

[mark_mark]

as they have requested...

This powerful reply is a must-read for all of those who have so
vigilantly spread Mr.
Borja's email regarding the naming of the SOM building after Mr. John
Gokongwei.
More than anyone else, we Ateneans should realize that just as
important as "freedom
of speech" is our capacity to consider both sides of the coin, and our
ability to think out
of the box.
Sadly, it seems that our stay in Ateneo has made us too comfortable
with what we think
we know.I hope that the brilliant piece below, written by no less than
one of Ateneo's greatest
products, shows us what being a true Atenean is all about. May the piece
below lead us to some
REAL critical thinking, something a lot of us mistakenly think we know a
lot about...

Stanley Ong


Hi, everyone --

It's a bit frustrating to listen to different opinions going around
about the decision to name the Ateneo's School of Management after Mr.
John Gokongwei. Below I've written a little satirical piece that will
hopefully get you thinking about this issue -- because it touches upon
two very important things in my own life: Managing an educational
institution (particularly a school of management), and the underlying
philosophies and outlooks people have about the role of business in
society. Please note that I am purposely trying to be satirical with
this piece: I'm addressing this to Ateneans,
particularly current students, who have qualms about the Gokongwei SOM
issue. If there are individuals or institutions that I end up offending
along the way, I apologize deeply. But I hope that this piece
gets you thinking carefully about your own beliefs as well.

Feel free to forward this as you forwarded Mr. Borja's e-mail. And just
as he was courageous enough to affix his name and institutional
affilation to his piece, so do I indicate my identity and affiliation
below.

Reactions and comments -- violent or otherwise -- are welcome.

Best regards,

Biboy Calanog

--- Food for Thought: On the Naming of the Gokongwei School of
Management ---

Here are my two cents worth on the matter, for those of you who are
feeling queasy about the whole "naming" bit:

1. Have any of you had real experience trying to raise funds for a
school?

2. Let's examine some underlying beliefs many of you seem to have about
"norms."

a.) "John Gokongwei is a La Salle alumnus. He is not an Ateneo alumnus."



-- Where was it written in stone that only Ateneo alumni ought to help
out Ateneo as an educational institution? Which law codifies this?

b.) Got this from another e-mail that is going around: "Can't Ateneo
find alumni who are also successful in the business world?"

-- Manny Pangilinan has done more than his fair share for Ateneo. His
donations and efforts have helped build not only the SEC and the
upcoming PLDT Center for Convergent Technologies -- if you look
carefully at the little plaque off to the right side of the entrance of
De la Costa building, you will see that a certain Metro Pacific
Corporation (on whose board Mr. Pangilinan sits) coughed up the funds to

house Ateneo's "priceless" liberal arts departments. Could this be TRUE?

How SHOCKING! A "lowly business" put a roof over the head of some
teachers who denounce "business as suspect; commercial activity as
inherently sinful." Mr. Pangilinan seems to be one among many who have
been trying very hard to help build the school and make things better.

"Oh, but Mr. Pangilinan also donates things like expensive basketball
courts!" And who gave YOU the moral ascendancy to tell Mr. Pangilinan
what to do with his money?

b.) "Naming a building is fine, but naming the school itself -- that's
another matter."

Interesting. What is the difference between a building and an
institution? You see, there are these business schools in the US that
are called Wharton, Stanford, Harvard, Darden, and many others -- who
named their institutions after donors. Last I looked these schools were
the best in the world at what they did.

c.) "We are selling out a 'priceless institution.'"

Were Wharton and Stanford etc. "wrong" in "selling out" their "priceless

names" for money provided by businesspeople who were during their time
in fact denounced as "robber barons" by some factions as well? (Joseph
Wharton and Leland Stanford were both in the "highly politicized"
railroad business -- read your US industrial history) Last I looked,
these business schools were doing well for themselves. Ateneo's School
of Management is light years away from these institutions -- and yet it
ought to refuse help when it is offered?

Amidst all the complaints about how antiquated Ateneo's systems are, how

our textbooks are fifteen (thirty?) years behind the cutting edge, and
how our teachers are not paid well enough to help them develop as
business scholars -- much less keep them working in Ateneo?

Did you ever put yourself in the position of one of the SOM department
chairs who are doing their best to try and retain the best young faculty

they have -- because a teacher's salary in the Philippines is dismally
low? Have you tried raising a family on a teacher's salary?

Corollaries to this: "Oh, but teachers are supposed to be noble." Should

this equate to accepting a lower salary for the "nobility of molding
young minds?" What if these "noble teachers" end up not being able to
save enough to send their kids to school -- because they sacrificed
their income earning potential FOR YOU? Will YOU pay for their
children's education?

Are you the same young people who complain about inefficient
registration systems, the lack of computers and multimedia facilities,
the shortage of opportunities to access information over the Internet?

d.) "There are many other 'more noble' and distinguished alumni after
whom we could have named the school."

Define "more noble." Died for a cause? Fought for freedom? Being a
businessperson is probably "less noble," right? After all, you're just
in business to make money. Ooo... what a lowly profession.

Who the hell is paying for your tuition? Mommy and Daddy? Are Mommy and
Daddy working for a business in the private sector in some fashion?
Gasp! Does this mean your parents are "tainted," somehow "less noble"
than the other distinguished alumni about whom you seem to be so
enamored? If you are on scholarship, who the hell donated the money for
your scholarship? If you are working to put yourself through school, how

do you think your company is paying your wages?

e.) And the best line of them all: "This is blood money."

It's one thing to accept "blood money" from a Hitler, for example. But
are funds raised through business activities "equally tainted"? How many

of you have solid proof that Mr. Gokongwei is "corrupt" and made his
money through "illegal means"? "Mr. Gokongwei exploits his people.
Everyone knows this." Who the hell is "everyone"? Where is your proof?
What is your rationale for saying this?

And so Stanford University is an evil institution because the person who

donated money for its creation "exploited his Chinese coolies in laying
down his railroad tracks." I see. Evil, evil, evil. Don't EVER go to
Stanford if you were offered acceptance there. Please. Don't corrupt
yourselves! In fact, I'll do you a favor: Give me your full names and I
will try to make sure that Stanford University's admissions offices
block you off -- lest you be corrupted! Would you like me to do the same

for Wharton and Harvard?

To what religion do you subscribe? After all, your religion may underlie

your judgment of norms. You are probably Catholic. How "pure" and
"taintless" is the Catholic Church? How "sterling and noble" was its
history in the Philippines? And yet you try to go to Mass every
Sunday?!? Gasp!!!

Is Ateneo really "selling out"? Would you refuse PHP200 million that
could very well benefit countless students down the line -- for what? A
"priceless name"? Do you want to put the donation acceptance to a vote
-- and will you then answer to the throngs of students and faculty years

down the line who complain of anachronistic teachers who are frowned
upon by industry practitioners because of their antiquated teaching
methods, run-down facilities, lack of computers and infrastructure
support, etc.?

Young Ateneans, think and reflect carefully about your beliefs and
norms. If there is anything that your PH104 should teach you, it is that

the world is not as black and white as you would like it to be.

Then again, perhaps this Atenean has been corrupted by the US
educational system. You be the judge.

Best regards,

Victor Franco M. Calanog
vcalanog@wharton.upenn.edu
BS 1996, Honors Program in Management, Ateneo de Manila University
MBA 2000, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D. Candidate in Applied Economics, The Wharton School of the
University of Pennsylvania

[Mikoid]

mark_mark: if you check out page 1 of this thread, you'll find that the author of that e-mail you quoted already posted his thoughts here :D

[sedfrey]

a spoon please.

[renina]

Come to think of it, does SOM really need a new school building? Ateneo SOM can survive even without a new school buliding. Lecture-basis naman ang Management courses unlike Computer Science courses which, I think, need more facilities.

Another point: John G. should have given his money to other schools (like public, for example) or other institutions which need more financial assistance than the Ateneo.

Pero, andiyan na kasi eh....may construction ongoing na. 200 Million is a lot money. You can build a small university with that money. Will all the 200-Million Pesos really go the SOM?

Or baka naman sa mga Jesuits and ibang benefactors na naman mapupunta yung ibang money diyan. Talk about corruption in the religious sector. :rolleyes:

Peace.

[Oscar01]

Originally posted by renina
Come to think of it, does SOM really need a new school building? Ateneo SOM can survive even without a new school buliding. Lecture-basis naman ang Management courses unlike Computer Science courses which, I think, need more facilities.
Personally, I'd love to take ME with the computer facilities and factory layout toys some teachers were fantasizing about.

[marseilles]

Originally posted by Moon Goddess
ad baculum nga ba?

oops. oo nga, mali nga ata yung ad baculum. ad populum?

[pyket]

Originally posted by renina
Come to think of it, does SOM really need a new school building? Ateneo SOM can survive even without a new school buliding. Lecture-basis naman ang Management courses unlike Computer Science courses which, I think, need more facilities.

uhm... honest question: you're atenean ba? if you are, i don't know how you can't see the NEED for more classrooms. a new management building means new classrooms, which means less congestion for Faura, Bell, Berch, Kostka and SEC classrooms. it also means more classes can be held at the same time (since marami na nga ang classrooms) --- i.e., less 6 to 9 classes, since they can be held at the same usual times that we're all used to.

and how can you not know about the PLDT center? i'm not personally sure if it's for CS and MIS pero still, it's upgrading computer facilities.


Another point: John G. should have given his money to other schools (like public, for example) or other institutions which need more financial assistance than the Ateneo.


well, that is a nice thought, but i as you said, "andiyan na... "


pero, andiyan na kasi eh....may construction ongoing na. 200 Million is a lot money. You can build a small university with that money. Will all the 200-Million Pesos really go the SOM?

Or baka naman sa mga Jesuits and ibang benefactors na naman mapupunta yung ibang money diyan. Talk about corruption in the religious sector. :rolleyes:

Peace.

wag naman. i'm sure that there are accounting people involved and that the trustees are to make sure it really is for the SOM. isipin lang natin: mahal na ngang magpagawa ng building, etc. mahal rin ang magpalagay ng equipment AT mahal rin ang mag-recruite at magbayad ng dekalidad na guro. so there...

i hope the ateneo decides to make or establish buildings for the other schools. for instance, Dela Costa is parang a faculty center lang eh. the SS building is funny dahil ang dami ng management classes doon. the Fine Arts Program should be eventually made into a School of ARTS (Fine Arts is a different thing --- unless Ateneo decides to venture in design, painting, sculpture, etc.) with classes in Theatre, Creative Writing, Dance. (nangangarap talaga!)

but then again that's for another thread.

[Patjo]

Originally posted by poison_arrow

Is it surprising that even John Gokongwei, a Lasallian, chose the Ateneo for his 200 million bequest? I don't think so. Is it surprising why John Gokongwei, a Lasallian, considers the Ateneo as the best business school in the Philippines when he himself is a commerce graduate of DLSU? I don't think so. I think people need to open their eyes. There's a difference between hype and reality. Students generally choose the Ateneo not because of Theology or Philosophy or English or holistic education. They choose the Ateneo because they believe the Ateneo offers high quality education. They consider the Ateneo as the best for them. That may be their personal opinion but it is corroborated by facts. Even John Gokongwei thinks so. Period.

First, let us define "donate". "Donate" was defined in Webster's Dictionary as "to bestow as a gift, especially to a cause ; to contribute".

Di nga maituturing na donation ang ginawa ni John Gokongwei sapagkat naunang nanghingi ng donation ang Ateneo sa kanya sa halagang P1 million pesos. Subalit hinigitan pa ni Gokongwei ang kahilingan ng Ateneo sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng P200M pesos. Samakatuwid, parang ang Ateneo ang nagbigay ng motibo o ideya kay John Gokongwei upang magbigay ng donasyon.

Another point, Gokongwei did not consider Ateneo as the best business school in the Philippines. Wala po siyang nababanggit na "the best". This idea, i'm sure, came out from your own head.

If I have P200 million pesos like Gokongwei, I wouldn't donate it to a school already considered as "the best" business school. Best na nga eh! I would donate it to a school that is eminently lagging behind.

So, John Gokongwei really made a pretty good choice. I commend this Lasallian for knowing the weaknesses of the different schools. Like in De La Salle, he also contributed millions of pesos for the Information and Technology Center.

So Ateneans! Be thankful for this Lasallian TYCOON. You will see the impact of his very huge donation to your institution in the succeeding years.

SIDE COMMENTS LANG:) ...

"JOHN GOKONGWEI"

>He exemplifies the product of a real great business school.

>Ang galing sa business!

>Hindi selfish at wala masyadong pride, to think that he aims to help and make a contribution to Ateneo, his alma mater's archrival.

OTHER COMMENTS...

>If Ateneo's School of Management will be named after John Gokongwei, eh di sa inaraw-araw na lang ay mababanggit ang pangalan ng Lasalistang ito sa loob ng Ateneo Campus.

>Inggit kaya ang Ateneans that De La Salle is producing great business TYCOONS...? Siguro hindi naman.

>If one day Ateneo's John Gokongwei-School of Management climbed up the ranks, would the revealing factor be pointed towards this famous Lasallian's big Donation? Hindi naman siguro..

[tesseract]

Honestly, I wouldn't care if they called it the Ateneo de Manila University John Baptist De La Salle School of Management or the Ateneo de Manila University Lucio Tan School of Managment or whatever, as long as I get the best possible education that will prepare me for my career.

[pyket]

Originally posted by Patjo
First, let us define "donate". "Donate" was defined in Webster's Dictionary as "to bestow as a gift, especially to a cause ; to contribute".

Di nga maituturing na donation ang ginawa ni John Gokongwei sapagkat naunang nanghingi ng donation ang Ateneo sa kanya sa halagang P1 million pesos. Subalit hinigitan pa ni Gokongwei ang kahilingan ng Ateneo sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng P200M pesos. Samakatuwid, parang ang Ateneo ang nagbigay ng motibo o ideya kay John Gokongwei upang magbigay ng donasyon.

let's use Webster's definition of "donate" as you so kindly posted --- "to bestow as a gift, especially to a cause ; to contribute."

fine...

assuming that the ateneo did place it in the mind of mr. gokongwei to give 200 million pesos to the ateneo, why can't it be considered a "donation"??? i don't see any prerequisite of personal initiative or personal insight for a donation to be called a "donation". so what's the real support behind "Di nga maituturing na donation ang ginawa ni John Gokongwei"? you gave Webster's definition of "donate," and, indeed, the bestowing of the 200 million pesos as a gift to the ateneo, regardless of whose idea it was, does fit the definition. so paano na ba?

if you still want to stick to your definition of "donate" (and clearly, not Webster's), you can say that 1 million pesos was solicited by the Ateneo, but the 199 million was donated by mr. gokongwei. :rolleyes"

Another point, Gokongwei did not consider Ateneo as the best business school in the Philippines. Wala po siyang nababanggit na "the best". This idea, i'm sure, came out from your own head.

If I have P200 million pesos like Gokongwei, I wouldn't donate it to a school already considered as "the best" business school. Best na nga eh! I would donate it to a school that is eminently lagging behind.


though i must agree that mr. gokongwei did not claim that the ateneo was the best, i must say that a such a gift does not mean that an institution is "lagging behind" as you claim. that's a presumption on your part --- i.e., that's your reading. generous donors give established (leading) universities in the states grants and such gifts yearly. stanford, for instance, was in the process of building another wing just last september when i visited the campus. (the money was donated, of course.) does that mean that stanford is "eminently lagging behind"? i think not.

another example that would reveal the fallacy behind your statement:

Like in De La Salle, he also contributed millions of pesos for the Information and Technology Center.

"[E]mminently lagging behind," pa ba? Or mere double standard?


MY SIDE COMMENTS LANG :bungi: :bungi2: ...


>If Ateneo's School of Management will be named after John Gokongwei, eh di sa inaraw-araw na lang ay mababanggit ang pangalan ng Lasalistang ito sa loob ng Ateneo Campus.


people like Jose Rizal are mentioned everyday in campuses around the country. people like Ferdinand Marcos are mentioned everyday in campuses around the country. so what's the big deal?


>Inggit kaya ang Ateneans that De La Salle is producing great business TYCOONS...? Siguro hindi naman.


i don't think so. the ateneo has their own fair share of business tycoons, politicians, and other high-profile people. then, what's the big deal?


>If one day Ateneo's John Gokongwei-School of Management climbed up the ranks, would the revealing factor be pointed towards this famous Lasallian's big Donation? Hindi naman siguro..

bakit naman hindi? give credit where credit is due. the money's going to a new school (buildings and all), new teachers, and research. i don't think the ateneo will try to hide that a La Sallian donated the building?

again, WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[poison_arrow]

Sige na nga. For those who are so insistent. I stand corrected. Mr. John Gokongwei never said the Ateneo was the best business school in the Philippines, contrary to what I wrote. Mr. Gokongwei, instead, said that the Ateneo is the Philippines' best management school. (see below).

As far as I am concerned, it's the same banana, just like Yale has a "School of Management" while Harvard has a "Business School." It's only a matter of semantics. But for those who want to differentiate (i.e., nitpick) between a business school and a management school, sige na nga, tumahimik na lang kayo.

Enjoy!


Originally posted by Exterminator
The John Gokongwei School of Management
By Tony Lopez



INDUSTRIALIST John Gokongwei, Jr. has donated P200 million to the Ateneo de Manila University. In return, the Jesuits named their undergraduate management school after him. The money will finance a building to house the John Gokongwei School of Management.

Basically, it is the school that teaches management engineering to the children of the elite. This is a course that has become fashionable for upper-class kids to prepare themselves as heirs to great wealth or as professional ma*nagers for the country’s biggest corporations. “Ateneo is the Philippines’ best management school,” enthuses Gokongwei.

The P200-million endowment fund for Ateneo was originally one of the highlights of August last year when Gokongwei turned 75. Former Central Bank governor Gabriel Singson originally wanted a professorial chair at Ateneo in honor of the man who built a business empire, literally from rags to riches, engaged in food manufactu*ring, textile manufacturing, real estate, retailing, savings bank, telecommunications and air travel. But the Gokongwei brothers thought of something grander for the family patriarch and a ma*nagement school is it. Why Ateneo? “The Jesuits run very good schools and impart very good values,” explains James Go, chairman and CEO of JG Summit, the family holding company which has market capitalization of P12 billion and is owned substantially by the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation which donated the P200 million to Ateneo.

This is a coup for Ateneo. Gokongwei got his business degrees from La Salle and therefore, should have been the natural recipient of his generous dole out. La Salle 10 years ago got P4 million from Gokongwei and the money partly financed the La Salle Information Technology (IT) School, which is named after Gokongwei’s mother. La Salle, moreover, appears, to have become the turf of another tycoon, Alfonso Yuchengco.

Telecommunications and airlines are seen by Gokongwei as growth areas. Gokongwei’s Digital Telecommunications is today the second biggest fixed-line phone operator (after PLDT), and vows to become the third biggest cellular phone player, after PLDT’s Smart and the Ayala family’s Globe, by charging rates much lower than its rivals for the same quality of service. Gokongwei’s Cebu Pacific has just gone regional, charging atrociously low fares for flights to Hong Kong and South Korea. In Europe, no-frills, high-volume airlines are the craze and are putting the major airlines of the world out of business. Two big taipans, Lucio Tan of Philippine Airlines, and Gokongwei of Cebu Pacific, are engaged in a vicious dogfight for control of the Philippines’ lucrative air travel market, and a significant share of the Asian market. Knowing Gokongwei, he does not go into a big business fight unprepared without studying his options and possible losses. I guess in the cellular phone and airline businesses, he has counted his marbles properly.

Now why are tycoons inves*ting in schools? Lucio Tan has his University of the East, once and probably until now, the premier school for accountants. He has also funded a research center for agriculture in Central Luzon. Yuchengco has his Mapua Institute of Techno*logy (MIT), a famous Manila engineering school and the De La Salle Institute of Advanced Studies (which is housed at the massive Yuchengco Building on Ayala Avenue.)

Tan himself is a chemical engineer and has a passion for agriculture. Yuchengco is basically a banker with a foreign policy bent (he has been ambassador to China and Japan and is currently ambassador to the United Nations). Gokongwei is multi-faceted and has amazing intuitive intelligence. He can see trends miles and months away.

I guess what these tycoons are saying is that this country, its government and its corporations, ought to be run pro*perly. And the only way to do that is to prepare good mana*gers. Now, if only we could produce good politicians. Despite its having offered more than a century of quality education (Rizal supposed studied there), Ateneo has yet to produce (meaning someone who really graduated from there and didn’t drop out) a president. Cannot our tycoons invest their money to produce a good president of the Philippines from Ateneo?

[ycbikinibrief]

check this out...here's mr. borja's reply...

************************

28 March 2002
To the Ateneo Community,

The month of March proved to be a trying time in an Ateneo student’s life. On March 2, 2002, I had written an open letter expressing my concern for the renaming of our Loyola School of Management (now John Gokongwei School of Management- JGSOM).

Much time and energy was exerted on lambasting those who shared the same initial sentiments with me. I believe that my letter was focused on one important issue, which was to question the process of renaming the School.

As an unfortunate consequence, I received some appalling letters from "concerned" Ateneans who resorted to some sort of neo-McCarthyism and pitiful personal attacks. Some range from mere curiosity about the Ateneo's long-term goals, others provided
defensive explanations on the merit of the donor (which was not the issue). I now have a herculean task of identifying the substantiated from the absurd.

"We need the nuts and bolts to build our University," citing from an email sent by a pragmatic alumnus, and these things can be bought not by pride or compassion alone, but by hard currency.

Other significant explanations came forth: naming-rights are most evident with the top
universities in the US, hence, to follow this is not only trendy but also practical. My class in Int'l Political Economy even expounds that current global financialization starts at the very commonplace; the perfect example for this would be the insertion of finance on the Academe. To me, that is the simplest and yet most convincing argument that has risen from the JGSOM issue. The truth is, Ateneo just like any other university, lacks the facilities and so forth and to address this problem is paramount.

Unfortunately, there still are a few statements that continue to hound a student who is about to enter the “real” world that everyone seems to be very wary about.

The thesis: idealists on one hand insist that institutions and tradition are priceless- an edifice built is not the institution itself. The antithesis: pragmatists on the other strongly assert the need for a paradigm based on practicality. In other words, CASH IS KING. The synthesis therefore is: did we get the fair end of the deal?

Perhaps most of the recipients of my March 2 email may have also encountered the unedited "dissertation" from Wharton School, Univ. of Pennsylvania. I have heard that our man from Wharton is nonetheless one of Ateneo’s pride and joy. I dare not challenge his
credentials; after all, I am “just” from a regular course in Ateneo. As he had strongly pronounced in his letter, Wharton Business School was also established
with the help of a generous donation. It was built in 1881 for the amount of $100,000.

Thus, using the Wharton Deal as our point of comparison, the School was founded because the amount donated was worth the prestige. If we are to talk about dollars and cents here, with the current rate of inflation, and the dollar appreciation throughout the whole 121 years, is $4,000,000 (roughly equivalent to P200,000,000) now worth the prestige of renaming the Ateneo School of Management?

Come to think of it, it was also about that time in 1898 that Spain sold the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the US for $20M. Wharton Business School- Univ. of Pennsylvania definitely aced that deal back in 1881, was it the same for Ateneo in 2002? Surely, graduates from foreign business schools of the like would dare say that “well, it’s only Ateneo, it’s only in the Phils.” Yes, it is the Ateneo and this Institution is worth every centavo.

Furthermore, our man from Wharton automatically posited that I condemn his School for taking “bribe money” considering that “it was the best at what it did.” The phrase “it (Wharton) was the best at what it did” still holds too much confusion. There is no doubt
that the School produces the best and wealthiest businessmen for that matter, yet what is the real criterion for success? Is success solely seen in the perpetuation of the global order wherein states in the Periphery submissively swallow the bitter pill of uneven development, administered by First-World countries? If it is, then I firmly believe that we
need to "re-evaluate our norms."

And as I borrow the sentiments from the armchair-Marxists in my Int’l Political Economy
class, the new global order would never cease to assert itself especially when it benefits those in the higher-ups. At the end of the day, I therefore ask our man from Wharton if his School is one that breeds those who enjoy the zero-sum game of third-world exploitation.

I thank the Office of Alumni Affairs for sending supplementary information regarding the launch of the JGSOM. Perhaps I would have thought well before if the deed had been done much earlier. Unlike others, I have seen the copy of the whole JG Summit-Ateneo
agreement. Thanks to the help of a Jesuit, the copy has answered most of my questions, and I am sure that others would want to be satisfied by it as well.

I have ranted for lack of consultation before, only to realize that students have very little say regarding important university affairs.The least we students could attain is timely information. Our motion for consultation has always been denied and I think access
to information can be provided for us even at the very minimum- and the minimum does not include a surprise article on the national dailies.

The Ateneo prays that its students and young leaders must call for transparency and accountability in a democratic society. The lack of its practice even in school has confounded most of us, leaving the students deaf from hearing the phrase “this is the real world, learn to live with it.”

Before I graduate and earn my Bachelor of Arts majoring in Cynicism, I must emphasize that I criticize the Ateneo not because I loathe it. I have done so because of the contrary. Our Institution is that of excellence in the great Catholic tradition, yet before we place it on that steep Hill between the earth and sky, we must test its foundation and sometimes jolt the whole system from outside and within.

The Ateneo is indeed a cradle of leadership, but when the bough breaks the cradle will fall. For the love of my University and country, I will do all that is possible to preserve its greatness. This spark I believe is found exclusively among the students. The world may be too cynical for us, yet in the final event, our idealism may be the only thing that is left
pure and sacred.



Karl Frederick S. Borja
AB Political Science
Loyola School of Social Sciences
Ateneo de Manila University

[victory]

Amusing at best, misinformed at worst. Obviously Mr. Borja did not understand the deeper points of "the Wharton man's" satirical note. It was not a defense based on arguments of "practicality" or "let's do what the US schools do because it's obviously best for us" (that is a logical trap "the Wharton man" had hoped others would point out, but only a few did -- like marseilles in this post).

"The Wharton man" was questioning the very theoretical and empirical basis of a deep suspicion that people have about capitalism, the theoretical and empirical basis of claims that (I quote from Mr. Borja's note above) "there is a global order where states in the Periphery swallow the bitter pill of uneven development administered by First-World countries."

Are "First World countries" responsible for the fact that despite everyone's rosy predictions, despite its obvious "advantage" in terms of natural resources and abundant population, the Philippines and most of Latin America did NOT grow and develop after World War 2? Did the CIA go into Brazil and tell its political leaders to implement import substitution policies that crippled local industries? Did the US send the Marines to the Philippines and force Marcos to create hundreds of state-owned enterprises, the remnants and offspring of which now continue to hobble the country's development? Did Europe force Burma to withdraw from global trade and impoverish its citizens by not using its comparative advantage in trade and specialization?

How long will we keep blaming others for the fact that Third World countries like our own shot THEMSELVES in the head?

"The Wharton man" was trying to defend every person who ever chose to be entrepreneurial, to add value by creating products and services that others freely demand and purchase. "The Wharton man" was trying to defend the right of Mr. Lance Gokongwei to honor his father by insisting on naming rights -- which the Ateneo, after all, could have refused. Is the donation "tainted" because it is tax-deductible? So what? "The Wharton man" is trying to defend self-interested capitalists who are hounded by moral cannibals hiding under the mantle of "nobility" and "precious values," and yet still depend on taxes paid by hardworking people in the private sector; nay, mooch off the productivity of capitalists who, yes, think it is fine to work hard, be honest, AND be rich. YES, rich enough to offer new products in the market that people will buy. Rich enough to pay for their children's education. Rich enough to actually think about ethics and morals and "giving back" to "precious institutions" like schools.

"The Wharton man" was defending every student of business or management who was ever accosted by Mr. Borja and those who think like he does, for studying things that are "worldly and base," for "selling out by wanting to work in the private sector," for "giving up their ideals for money."

Why isn't a conglomerate equally a "precious institution" if it is helping generate jobs, products and services that are valued, and yes, tax financing that help employ government workers, nonprofit institutions and public schools?

Oh well. I guess "the Wharton man's" point was lost on those who did not care to read between the lines. Those who have read the works of Ayn Rand, flawed though she may be as well (her personal life wasn't sterling), will probably understand "the Wharton man's" point in a deeper way.

It wasn't a defense based on "practicality." "The Wharton man" was asking why can't business activity be considered just as "priceless" and "honorable" as other "noble professions"? Why is it fine to name a school after a variant of some Greek building and not after a hardworking businessman whose family was trying to honor him because of the countless hours he put into trying to build a life for them?

Mr. Borja also probably finds the name of our country repulsive. After all, it was named after the King of a country that served as our colonial master for 300 or more years. Why not attack Spain, Mr. Borja? Why not give up writing in English, since we did, after all, learn this vile language from the country that took over Spain as our colonizers?

In fact, why speak Filipino at all? Isn't it a dubious imposition of the Tagalogs, who are obviously trying to marginalize other distinct ethnic groups in the Philippines (oops, should I use that term? Or do you prefer "the-country-in-which-we-live"?)? Why declare it a national language? Why not one of the other 80+ dialects we have?

Oops... did Mr. Borja quote armchair-Marxists from a class in International Political Economy? A class taught by a teacher who took his Ph.D. in a US university? But, but, but... isn't this the country that has schools that "breed those who enjoy the zero-sum of third-world exploitation?"

Mr. Borja keeps on using the term "zero sum." I wonder if he has seen the magic of rising productivity and wealth that creates economic growth, the promise of a world where the game is not "zero sum."

But I suppose these are questions of philosophy. What does "the Wharton man" know about philosophy, after all? He's probably forgotten all his ideals and "sold out" just like the rest of those dirty capitalist pigs who continue to soil precious institutions like Ateneo. I suppose that for Mr. Borja, the "Wharton man" is no longer fit to be called an "Ateneo man" as well, even if "the Wharton man" completed his undergraduate studies in Mr. Borja's precious alma mater.

I suppose Mr. Borja will also claim that the numerous teachers of philosophy and theology from his precious Ateneo -- many of whom are loved and respected by their students -- who understood and agreed with "the Wharton man's" statements are also "sell outs."

For all of Mr. Borja's bravado and idealism, he did not care to write "the Wharton man" directly, even if "the Wharton man's" e-mail address was provided in the "dissertation." Even if "the Wharton man" specifically invited any kind of comment, violent or otherwise. Instead Mr. Borja writes a passionate reply, bouncing it off cyberspace and hoping that he will find kindred souls who will side with him against "the Wharton man." Sigh... now how can "the Wharton man" reply to Mr. Borja's note, except through cyberspace as well, either through e-mail or through online fora using "anonymous" nicknames? :)

"The Wharton man" does know this, though. Mr. Borja's estimation of the present dollar worth of $100,000 invested back in 1881 is wrong (see his note above). He just divided PHP200MM by 50, more or less the current exchange rate of the peso to the dollar. He did not consider inflation, as he noted in his letter. "The Wharton man" recommends a serious class in finance and economics for Mr. Borja before he tries to construct arguments using concepts about which he probably does not know much. "Principles of Corporate Finance" by Richard Brealey and Stewart Myers is a pretty good introduction to the field. I believe it is now in its sixth edition, and may be available in National Bookstore or Powerbooks.

Oh, but then he'd have to cough up his own money to buy the book, right?

"So you think money is the root of all evil? Have you ever asked what is the root of money?"... :)

[Lek-Lek]

Originally posted by victory

"The Wharton man" does know this, though. Mr. Borja's estimation of the present dollar worth of $100,000 invested back in 1881 is wrong (see his note above). He just divided PHP200MM by 50, more or less the current exchange rate of the peso to the dollar. He did not consider inflation, as he noted in his letter. "The Wharton man" recommends a serious class in finance and economics for Mr. Borja before he tries to construct arguments using concepts about which he probably does not know much. "Principles of Corporate Finance" by Richard Brealey and Stewart Myers is a pretty good introduction to the field. I believe it is now in its sixth edition, and may be available in National Bookstore or Powerbooks.


And I'm willing to lend Mr. Borja the copy that I have--if that will contribute to the best interest of this particular issue, which regretfully and obviously is yet to be ended.

[sakuragiMC]

pardon me but while attempting to dive and respond to the issue between mr. borja and "wharton man", i shamefully had a hard time comprehending their "two-cent worth "response... i dont get borja's point.. could someone enlighten me about this? (possibly caused by the complex vocabulary; i tried asking mr webster, yet it is still vague for me) hope i got wharton man's point right- justifying the issue about the naming of ASOM to JGSOM...

[Oscar01]

I think the essential issue is whether or not one believes that naming the SOM the John Gokongwei diminishes the Ateneo and taints it with commercialism.

I don't agree, but I can respect his opinion, and commend his passion. (But not his present value computations.)

Look, at least Mr. Borja has the mind to formulate a strong stand and the balls to stick to it. You don't find that everyday.

[victory]

Hi, sakuragiMC -- thanks for your question; there's no shame in asking. I have it on good authority that a lot of people also did not understand the main point that Mr. Borja was trying to make (many of these people had to write "the Wharton man" to ask what exactly Mr. Borja was claiming). Here is my own take on Mr. Borja's main points, although I too may be wrong: It is probably best if Mr. Borja himself clarified this for us.

1. The latest letter is a reaction to people who had written him about his first note; he may have felt accosted or threatened, or simply that his main point was not sufficiently understood or considered.

-- My take: Sorry to hear about this. On the other hand, I have it on good knowledge that Mr. Borja and a bunch of his classmates made fun of two School of Management students enrolled in his International Political Economy class because of this whole naming thing. He sent out his first letter for public consumption and is not prepared to deal with various reactions from the public?

2. He again reaffirms his belief that "Ateneo, along with other precious institutions like the Philippines, is priceless."

-- My take: See "the Wharton man's" letter above, particularly the satirical lines about "the naming of the Philippines," etc. It is not “the Wharton man’s” contention that everything in this world has a price – not at all. The main critique is about how norms are used and generalized as if they were absolutes, as if they were maxims. Hence “the Wharton man’s” comparison with US business schools and naming rights. The more fundamental issue is obscured: Would Mr. Borja have objected as strongly if the School of Management was to be named after a Jesuit priest or a political hero who died for a cause about which he feels good? Would he have felt better if the School of Management took the Gokongweis’ money AND named the school “the Benigno Aquino Jr. School of Management” (assuming that Mr. Borja thinks highly of former Senator Aquino)? If so, then what kind of bias against businesspeople does that indicate?

THAT is what “the Wharton man” is examining – and contesting.

3. He is questioning some of "the Wharton man's" initial assertions based on certain beliefs about capitalism:
a.) First World countries impose rules on Third World countries so that the latter is kept forever behind through "uneven development" (Mr. Borja's term), etc.
b.) He is wondering whether, or implying that, US business schools like Wharton are breeding graduates that promote this "zero-sum game of third world exploitation."

-- My take: Lots of inspiring rhetoric, sadly lacking in empirical evidence. Artifacts of an attempt at taxonomizing the world into “good and bad,” “First, Second and Third Worlds,” etc. Note that “the Wharton man” is not a believer in unfettered free markets, which in the absence of institutional infrastructure and social norms tend to result in economic implosions, the like of which we saw in Asia in 1997, Russia in 1998 and Argentina (currently unfolding). Impressive that Mr. Borja knows how to turn on a computer, access the Internet, and search for information about the Wharton School’s history: He even got the dates and the numbers right (donation of $100,000 in 1881 given by industrialist Joseph Wharton). Welcome to the 21st century. But has he been to Wharton? Has he talked to the students? Has he taken any classes there or spoken with any of the professors? What clue does he have about the social consciousness of the people in this institution?

Yet another victim of the logical flaw called hasty generalization. “Girls in Baywatch are sexy and so I will go to a beach in California and expect to see blond bombshells running around in skimpy red bathing suits with music playing in the background.” Has Mr. Borja lived in the US and met many Americans? Has he debated the pros and cons of trade policy and its effects on social welfare, both on the bilateral and multilateral levels? What confidence in proclaiming traits and characteristics about “the First World” and how “exploitative they are.” All from a textbook or a class! Hooray.

4. Finally, Mr. Borja’s last (and perhaps his main) point was that he feels bad that he was not consulted or made to feel part of the decision process that went into the naming issue.

-- Two points here:

a.) Mr. Borja is part of the community of Ateneo and therefore has great passion for wanting to know what's going on. That's admirable. On the other hand, the finer details of negotiating for the donation was kept confidential primarily because the deal could have fallen through if constituents were involved from the outset. This is the "practical" side of it all. The deeper issue lies in what Mr. Borja feels about the role of the Board of Trustees and the administration: Does he feel that this form of representative government is inadequate? That he has to have a say in everything that Ateneo does? Direct democracy is in practice in places like Switzerland and California, but should students have a say in everything that goes on in their school? Why then should we have administrators and Board of Trustees? What is their role?

b.) Finally, an issue of jurisdiction. Some time back the Ateneo was divided into four schools: Mr. Borja is part of the School of Social Sciences as a student of Political Science. Even if we put this naming issue to a vote, should Mr. Borja have a say in the matter? The money is to be used exclusively for the School of Management! Or maybe he wants a piece of the action? :)

Is the converse reasonable? What if I demanded to know about, and have a say in, EVERY decision that the Department of Political Science takes?

It's one thing to frown upon the naming issue as a matter of preference. "Gokongwei is not as nice-sounding as Stanford," as one of "the Wharton man's" students wrote. Wala na tayong magagawa diyan. These are preferences: To modify an old song, "I spell color without a "u," you spell color with a "u," let's call the whole thing off (and have coffee)." But to go around couching arguments in terms of appeal to moral authority, to references to "priceless things," to implied barbs about institutions about which the critic knows little... that is not only questionable, it is pitiful.

"The Wharton man" makes no pretenses about business and capitalism. Business has never exalted itself; it has never proclaimed any kind of virtue from its activities. After all, it is not into saving souls, molding young minds to become leaders of the future, blah blah. And business and capitalism has its own flaws: Witness the ongoing Enron case. But when "moral cannibals" who in the end are dependent on business activities for their tax revenues or donations or tuition payments come out on their high horses, well... time to cut them down to size, too. It will be just as easy for "the Wharton man" to taxonomize the religious world and claim that Catholicism is crappy because of the way friars impregnated native Filipinos and used their spiritual authority to subjugate nations, that Catholicism is crappy because of all the freaking child molestation cases perpetrated by Catholic priests that are only now being revealed in numerous states around the US. But "the Wharton man" knows that Catholicism, of which Mr. Borja is so proud (witness his statement above: "Our Institution is that of excellence in the great Catholic tradition...") is also in the end a human institution, reaching for "nobler human ideals," stumbling often, questioning itself deeply, and forging ahead nonetheless.

Are businesspeople and capitalist enterprises so different?

And yes, in the end, I agree with Oscar01: I admire Mr. Borja for coming out with a stand and defending it. At the very least it helped bring out issues that I am sure were simmering anyway, the subject of informal conversations, etc. Others may question his methodology, but at least he was trying to reason out based on his values and norms. That's more than I can say for others, from whom the best one can glean is "Ah basta, ayoko. Ah basta, mali."

Finally, I would honestly want to speak to Mr. Borja directly, to have an engaging, sincere discussion about these issues. Of particular concern is this perceived trade-off between "idealism" on the one hand and "pragmatism/practicality" on the other. Why must there be a trade-off? Why must he graduate with a "Bachelor's Degree in Cynicism"? Ateneo philosophy, at least the way it was taught to me back then, should teach that BOTH idealism and pragmatism/practicality must exist in the same person, those who seek genuine, positive change. It is not one or the other -- it is BOTH. I will paraphrase a line I first heard from one of the most popular Political Science instructors in Ateneo, Dax Manacsa, who himself is a beloved teacher of mine: To create change in this world, we must step forward, keeping one foot firmly on the ground to anchor ourselves on the reality of the world and "how things really work," and raise one foot to the sky, remembering our ideals and values; even when a "first best" solution does not exist given current limitations on our knowledge and resources -- at least we are moving forward.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by victory

Yet another victim of the logical flaw called hasty generalization. “Girls in Baywatch are sexy and so I will go to a beach in California and expect to see blond bombshells running around in skimpy red bathing suits with music playing in the background.” Has Mr. Borja lived in the US and met many Americans?

As someone who lives in the US and has met many Americans, I can confidently say that this statement is wrong. :) :) Go to any beach in California on any given day - even on some winter days, and you will definitely see blonde bombshells running around in skimpy bathing suits. It's just that their bathing suits are not necessarily colored red. Too bad I live in the East Coast.

:D

[victory]

Go to any beach in California on any given day - even on some winter days, and you will definitely see blonde bombshells running around in skimpy bathing suits. It's just that their bathing suits are not necessarily colored red.

With music playing in the background? :D

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by victory


With music playing in the background? :D

Yup. They bring their "boom-boxes" to the beach. Minsan hip-hop but these days they have a tase for Ibiza-style "Chill Out" music. Laos na ang all-American "baywatch" na jingle. It really isn't all that bad in the East Coast as well. On a sunny spring day like today, they come out and just lie down in the lawn, but not in bathing suits. :) :) It also pays to have an all-girl college like Barnard right across the street from the campus.

[victory]

(Gasp!) rabbaddal, I am shocked! You actually LOOK at women? I knew it. You sold out. You've stayed in the US too long (your fourth month in New York, as of this post, if I am not mistaken), that filthy nation that corrupts people. You've soiled your precious Ateneo heritage. To top it all off, you're taking up a worldly course on how to do business, and propagating the exploitation of Third World countries by First World nations that are intent on furthering their aims (we all know that Third World nations are in fact countries populated by "men for others" -- saints who show absolutely no hint of self-interest -- and couldn't possibly be faulted for their countries' travails -- it's all the fault of the OECD!). To top it all off, your school, Columbia University, is playing a zero-sum game of hiring away some of the best thinkers. I heard that Harvard, that venerable institution that is free of any kind of sin and corruption (and that accepts and produces only the ABSOLUTE BEST graduates) just lost Jeffrey Sachs to Columbia. How could you!!! And this after Columbia hired Joseph Stiglitz, that Nobel-Prize winning economist who actually believes in real-world institutional development, from the World Bank! How could you!!!

Wash your mouth (or rather, the fingers with which you typed that last post!) and go to confession for forgiveness. Go to a proper Catholic priest, since Catholicism has been faultless for 2,000 years and has not perpetrated a single self-interested act throughout its history; we all know that we can trust our children with Catholic priests, and that there is zero probability of having our kids molested. And mind you -- don't just go to ANY Catholic priest: Go to a faultless Jesuit priest, "an institution that is of excellence in the Great Catholic Tradition," and pray for the mercy of your immortal soul.

And never look at a woman again.

You know I'm being satirical, right? :)

[Sleepless6]

Originally posted by rabbaddal


Yup. They bring their "boom-boxes" to the beach. Minsan hip-hop but these days they have a tase for Ibiza-style "Chill Out" music. Laos na ang all-American "baywatch" na jingle. It really isn't all that bad in the East Coast as well. On a sunny spring day like today, they come out and just lie down in the lawn, but not in bathing suits. :) :) It also pays to have an all-girl college like Barnard right across the street from the campus.

Wow! Are you in Columbus College in the New York of USA? :)

[Oscar01]

Originally posted by victory
2. He again reaffirms his belief that "Ateneo, along with other precious institutions like the Philippines, is priceless."

-- My take: See "the Wharton man's" letter above, particularly the satirical lines about "the naming of the Philippines," etc. It is not “the Wharton man’s” contention that everything in this world has a price – not at all.
What have I wrought??? That was just a simple statement, now it's turned into a discussion on blonde bombshells! :p (I still haven't forgotten that batch of T'Pol pics Victory sent the last time...)

Seriously, maybe the "Wharton man" would like Mr. Borja to read the D'Anconia monologue on the definition of money from "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand?

I'd quote some lines to make the "Wharton man" happy but my college seatmate snatched my copy the last time he visited my house...

[Ice Burn]

I don't see what the big deal is, so a wealthy person donates a huge sum of money and and has a bulding named after him. If someone were to give you a huge sum of money to help other people, why refuse? So Ateneo gets a Chinese named bulding, rather different from the usual Jesuit named building. But hey, it's all about educating students for the better!

Some universities all over the world have the same scenario (.eg. Carnegie Mellon University named after Andrew Carnegie)

Anyway, when I get filthy rich, I'll also give P200M (or its inflation equivalent) so that there will be a (my name) School of Social Sciences. This was my college course. :D :lol:

In fact for those who get fulthy rich, then why not donate huge amounts of money so you can have a building named after you as well. :)

What I can say is, Mr. Karl Borja is still a student and is full if idealism which will pass once he gets a taste of working in the real world.

This is the kind of subtle crab mentality which exists in the Philippines and what we ought to get rid of. Here's a school striving for the betterment of its education and yet even its own students pull it down just cause it deviated from the norms.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by victory
(Gasp!) rabbaddal, I am shocked! You actually LOOK at women? I knew it. You sold out. You've stayed in the US too long (your fourth month in New York, as of this post, if I am not mistaken), that filthy nation that corrupts people. You've soiled your precious Ateneo heritage. To top it all off, you're taking up a worldly course on how to do business, and propagating the exploitation of Third World countries by First World nations that are intent on furthering their aims (we all know that Third World nations are in fact countries populated by "men for others" -- saints who show absolutely no hint of self-interest -- and couldn't possibly be faulted for their countries' travails -- it's all the fault of the OECD!). To top it all off, your school, Columbia University, is playing a zero-sum game of hiring away some of the best thinkers. I heard that Harvard, that venerable institution that is free of any kind of sin and corruption (and that accepts and produces only the ABSOLUTE BEST graduates) just lost Jeffrey Sachs to Columbia. How could you!!! And this after Columbia hired Joseph Stiglitz, that Nobel-Prize winning economist who actually believes in real-world institutional development, from the World Bank! How could you!!!

Wash your mouth (or rather, the fingers with which you typed that last post!) and go to confession for forgiveness. Go to a proper Catholic priest, since Catholicism has been faultless for 2,000 years and has not perpetrated a single self-interested act throughout its history; we all know that we can trust our children with Catholic priests, and that there is zero probability of having our kids molested. And mind you -- don't just go to ANY Catholic priest: Go to a faultless Jesuit priest, "an institution that is of excellence in the Great Catholic Tradition," and pray for the mercy of your immortal soul.

And never look at a woman again.

You know I'm being satirical, right? :)

If playing this game means that I get to socialize with all those bombshell undergrads wearing spaghetti straps and short shorts each and every day that I walk to school, then Mr. Borja can accuse me of playing any game he wants – basketball, tennis, lacrosse, and the future Olympic sport called Zero-Sum! :) Of course, unlike you, I’m not married so I can get away with those things. If there’s one area I think Columbia can beat Wharton in, it’s in what is normally referred to in Accounting as “Currently Intangible but Eventually Tangible in the Future Assets”. Your choice pa – Asian, Eurasian, Hispanic, Caucasian, etc. Yup! New York is indeed the capital of the world. Kaya mahirap ang MBA dito dahil ang daming distractions. Of course, it’s a rather unfair advantage we have over Wharton since this account includes the combined total of Barnard and Columbia, and not even the best conniving accountants from Andersen can separate figures from the two. I wouldn’t worry about the Jesuits either. I have observed first-hand that they have an even greater surplus of this so-called asset up there in Fordham University. This represents “actual earnings” and is not an overstatement of estimates a-la Enron. Maybe Fordham would want to share some of those assets with its sister school Ateneo.

And about kids being molested, remember that American law recognizes minors as below the age of 18. The average age of a college undergrad is 19 to 20. It is of course illegal to understate your age or you might end up testifying in front of the Senate Oversight Committee just like those Enron executives.

Yup, I know about Stiglitz and Sachs. Their defection to Columbia must have been the biggest coup in the university circles since BJ Manalo defected to DLSU. Too bad I won’t be majoring in economics so I guess I won’t be having them for my electives. BTW, if it makes you feel any better, a renowned Columbia faculty member (forgot his name) – the one who developed the famous but irritatingly ambiguous “Strategy Diamond” (remember – arenas, staging, differentiators, vehicles, economic logic), recently defected to the most prestigious school in Pennsylvania – Penn State.
:)

[Oscar01]

This is all part of Victory's malevolent scheme to get his former students to all study at Wharton someday :p

[greenDestiny]

upon seeing the title of this thread and then reading the question of the thread starter, i easily came up with the response similar to
what victory claimed and i quote: That's more than I can say for others, from whom the best one can glean is "Ah basta, ayoko. Ah
basta, mali." i had also been one of those people... after reading the posts of these people, i had my opinion shifted from no-no to a
"fine, nothing wrong" level, as it was also influenced by the presentation and justification of points of several people. i guess i'd have
to agree to what the ff people responded:

tesseract- as long as i get the best education, so what? as if people would mind which building or school i was in my college years
and say: oh, you were from there... oh my, that's such a disgrace... imho, it would never be a consideration. more or less, just the
name ATENEO would already mean great opportunity for me or us who graduated and emancipated ourselves from the turmoils of
the winding college years.

lek-lek- he had his point raised clearly... it is not done just to be able to say that he donated such huge money but instead, it
contributed much to the development of its students; further enhancement of their skills and enrichment of what they know.

pyket- he also had a very good point. let's say that ateneo really had an attempt to "solicit" a million pesos, would the remaining
be considered as solicitations as well? i dont think so. i'd instead consider that as a "gift" "donated" by mr gokongwei.

victory- agree!

side comments- renina- the second point you raised is one thing i will disagree with. since admu's som is already considered a very
good school, the further betterment of it will benefit its students as well as the institution itself. somehow, i am not trying to imply
that accepting the "donation" is merely for exaltation.

patjo- your comments are quite affronting to ateneans side, i believe.

>If Ateneo's School of Management will be named after John Gokongwei, eh di sa inaraw-araw na lang ay mababanggit ang
pangalan ng Lasalistang ito sa loob ng Ateneo Campus.
like what pyket said- whats the big deal? as if it kills every nerve of the ateneans every time his name is mentioned... :D

>Inggit kaya ang Ateneans that De La Salle is producing great business TYCOONS...? Siguro hindi naman.
i think they'd only be insecure if ateneo never produced great individual businesses... the world is not all about who's great in business...
there are other things to consider... right?:D

to wrap things up- i think that the ideology which hangs in every concerned atenean or person will keep on bothering everyone as long
as new ideas are born from our rather critic/idealistic minds. the different rationales of people,in some ways, would expectedly
contradict to those of others which in turn would continuously lengthen this thread... :D

[jeangrey21]

tanong ng bayan!!!!

sino kaya ang susunod magdonate....

malawak pa ang area ng ateneo...

may 3 football field.... pwede pa,

at yung area na malapit sa MC.....

[jeangrey21]

tanong ng bayan!!!!

sino kaya ang susunod magdodonate?....

malawak pa ang area ng ateneo...

may 3 football field.... pwede pa,

at yung area na malapit sa MC.....

sana matapos agad ang "John Gokongwei School of Management"

[tesseract]

What if the Ateneo reacquires the land of Miriam College, and absorbs Miriam College to become a unit of the University? Harvard did this to a school called Radcliffe. When that happens, the entire stretch can become one big campus, and the Ateneo will have two separate preparatory schools -- the Ateneo de Manila Grade/High School (boys), and Miriam College Grade/High School. The College department, along with the graduate school, can be merged with the Loyola Schools, and the facilities can be expanded similar to what Harvard & Radcliffe did, turning Radcliffe into an Institute of Advanced Study or something. Even if it isn't going to end up as such an institution, it can become a unit focusing on Child Study, Women's Studies, and other fields.

[Cobkin]

So when is the JGSOM officially going to open ba? I've been checking the Ateneo website for some time now, and there's still no JGSOM there. Also, I checked the list of faculty in the Ateneo SOM (also in the website). I'm not impressed by their credentials at all.

I hope the donation changes all these.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by tesseract
What if the Ateneo reacquires the land of Miriam College, and absorbs Miriam College to become a unit of the University? Harvard did this to a school called Radcliffe. When that happens, the entire stretch can become one big campus, and the Ateneo will have two separate preparatory schools -- the Ateneo de Manila Grade/High School (boys), and Miriam College Grade/High School. The College department, along with the graduate school, can be merged with the Loyola Schools, and the facilities can be expanded similar to what Harvard & Radcliffe did, turning Radcliffe into an Institute of Advanced Study or something. Even if it isn't going to end up as such an institution, it can become a unit focusing on Child Study, Women's Studies, and other fields.

There's a big difference bet. Harvard-Radcliffe and Ateneo-Miriam. Radcliffe is an affiliate institution of Harvard while Miriam is a completely separate school. Thus, it was easier to merge Harvard and Radcliffe because Harvard didn't have to shell out money to integrate Radcliffe since Radcliffe was already part of Harvard to begin with. Ateneo sold the land to Miriam (then Maryknoll) 30 years ago when it ran into financial difficulty. Sad to say, we cannot undo some events in history that did not go Ateneo's way. I agree, Ateneo needs all that land and space to grow as a university, but re-purchasing the Miriam property is simply not within Ateneo's financial means. The market value of the land alone would amount to billions of pesos.

A merger between the two schools would most likely not work out as well. Miriam is run by a separate religious order that has a different vision and philosophy from Ateneo's. Most likely, Miriam would like to maintain its separate identity. At present, there doesn't seem any incentive on the part of Miriam to give up its independence.

In any case, Ateneo does not need to re-acquire the Miriam property to grow as an educational institution. The law and GSB campus has already been set up in Rockwell and the Medical school will soon be completed in the Meralco complex thanks to very generous donors. The next challenge is to get the regular and mainstream alumni involved in this effort. There are better ways for schools to grow and improve the quality of education without having to buy other schools.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by Cobkin
So when is the JGSOM officially going to open ba? I've been checking the Ateneo website for some time now, and there's still no JGSOM there. Also, I checked the list of faculty in the Ateneo SOM (also in the website). I'm not impressed by their credentials at all.

I hope the donation changes all these.

The School of Management is already officially known as the JGSOM.

From personal experience, I can tell you that many full-time faculty members of the JGSOM are very good teachers who really make their students learn a lot. Many of them have graduated college w/ honors and have received their masters degrees from the U.S. and Europe. Some good professors I recall during my time in the late 90s were Darwin Yu (Accounting & Finance, MBA - Yale), Annie Vistro (Stat & LP, MS - University of Paris), Marijo Ruiz (OR and author of our LP and OR textbook, Phd from an American university), Ricky Lacson (OR & LP and co-author of our LP and OR textbook, GM of Systematics), Rudy Ang (Marketing, MBA - Boston College) and Joey Mendoza (Marketing, then SVP of Philcom and now GM of Lucent South Asia). A recent addition is our fellow PEXer Victory (Wharton Phd Candidate). The former dean of the UP College of Business Administration, Emmanuel Velasco (Strategy, Phd - University of Chicago) is also a JGSOM faculty member.

I agree with you that the SOM faculty has to improve its credentials espescially in research and publication. It's not enough that they are good teachers, but they also have to produce a respectable amount of original work that they can share w/ the students. If you compare them to the faculty of AIM or Nat'l U of Singapore - where professors have earned Phds from Harvard and where they run their own research centers which produces quite a lot of original work, then its apparent that a lot more has to be done. There is also the additional challenge of recruiting more qualified full-time faculty to handle a growing number of management students.

According to the official JGSOM press release, the highest priority will be given to recruiting and developing faculty. That could probably mean more professorial chairs which translates to more Phd faculty and more research output. This should most likely be realized in the near future.

[tesseract]

Originally posted by rabbaddal


There's a big difference bet. Harvard-Radcliffe and Ateneo-Miriam. Radcliffe is an affiliate institution of Harvard while Miriam is a completely separate school. Thus, it was easier to merge Harvard and Radcliffe because Harvard didn't have to shell out money to integrate Radcliffe since Radcliffe was already part of Harvard to begin with. Ateneo sold the land to Miriam (then Maryknoll) 30 years ago when it ran into financial difficulty. Sad to say, we cannot undo some events in history that did not go Ateneo's way. I agree, Ateneo needs all that land and space to grow as a university, but re-purchasing the Miriam property is simply not within Ateneo's financial means. The market value of the land alone would amount to billions of pesos.

A merger between the two schools would most likely not work out as well. Miriam is run by a separate religious order that has a different vision and philosophy from Ateneo's. Most likely, Miriam would like to maintain its separate identity. At present, there doesn't seem any incentive on the part of Miriam to give up its independence.

In any case, Ateneo does not need to re-acquire the Miriam property to grow as an educational institution. The law and GSB campus has already been set up in Rockwell and the Medical school will soon be completed in the Meralco complex thanks to very generous donors. The next challenge is to get the regular and mainstream alumni involved in this effort. There are better ways for schools to grow and improve the quality of education without having to buy other schools.

Miriam is run by lay people. And since we've been next door neighbors, why not just form a cooperative of some sort?

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by tesseract


Miriam is run by lay people. And since we've been next door neighbors, why not just form a cooperative of some sort?

Miriam is managed by lay people, but it is still owned by the Maryknoll sisters. Therefore, the Maryknoll sisters have the final say as to whether or not they would want to sell out or merge w/ Ateneo.

Your idea of a cooperative is very good. (Ateneo can use the existing relationship bet. Xavier and ICA and Sacred Heart Boys and Girls School in Cebu as a model). Just to be on the realistic side, I still don't see any incentive on the part of the Maryknoll sisters to alter their educational philosophies just so they can merge w/ Ateneo.

BTW, check out this webste - http://web.mit.edu/sma/

It's about a cooperative alliance between 2 Singaporean universitiies - Nat'l U of SGP and Nanyang - with MIT. It's very interesting.

[tesseract]

Originally posted by rabbaddal


Miriam is managed by lay people, but it is still owned by the Maryknoll sisters. Therefore, the Maryknoll sisters have the final say as to whether or not they would want to sell out or merge w/ Ateneo.

Your idea of a cooperative is very good. (Ateneo can use the existing relationship bet. Xavier and ICA and Sacred Heart Boys and Girls School in Cebu as a model). Just to be on the realistic side, I still don't see any incentive on the part of the Maryknoll sisters to alter their educational philosophies just so they can merge w/ Ateneo.

BTW, check out this webste - http://web.mit.edu/sma/

It's about a cooperative alliance between 2 Singaporean universitiies - Nat'l U of SGP and Nanyang - with MIT. It's very interesting.

Well, one incentive I can see is this --

A school is best defined as a gathering of scholars who gather to learn together and to help others learn. With that in mind, a major incentive would be the improvement of the academe.

[tesseract]

Since we're at it, why not form partnerships with the Ivy League schools, or other prestigious universities worldwide? We can use their wanting to establish greater ties with Asia as an incentive.

Ateneo and Harvard, for example, have started working, at least on the student level, with an org called HPAIR.

[rabbaddal]

A school is best defined as a gathering of scholars who gather to learn together and to help others learn. With that in mind, a major incentive would be the improvement of the academe.

A good idea to hold on to. But then again there is that concept of selfish interests which goes - "If I'm happy with the way things are on my own, why do I have to share the spoils w/ others?"

For Miriam w/c is doing quite fine on its own to agree to a compromise, it has to be something really compelling and appealing - something that has a very significant tangible value. Does Ateneo have this thing of tangible value to offer? Based on what I know right now, not yet. Maybe in the future.

Since we're at it, why not form partnerships with the Ivy League schools, or other prestigious universities worldwide? We can use their wanting to establish greater ties with Asia as an incentive.

Ateneo and Harvard, for example, have started working, at least on the student level, with an org called HPAIR.

The HPAIR is a good first step. A partnership bet. Ateneo, Miriam, and a Liberal Arts institution like Holy Cross or Wellesey to form a strong liberal arts school in the Philippines is a good idea, considering that both Ateneo and Miriam put a high value on liberal arts education.

But anything as grandoise as that or the NSU-Nanyang-MIT partnership may not materialize in the near future. For one, there is the issue of money. Harvard or any school for that matter - even sister Jesuit schools like Georgetown and Holy Cross - is not a charitable institution. It will not share w/ Ateneo its intlellectual property for free. The term "cooperative" also means that Ateneo will have to foot for an equal share of the bill. As of now, Ateneo has other priorities for its funds. It has to work hard to improve the quality of its present offerings, unless anlother rich alumnus somewhere out there puts up an endowment specifically for this purpose.

Related to that, Ateneo has to bring its offerings to world-class before it partners w/ reknowned institutions. Even before NSU and Nanyang partnered w/ MIT, these schools were already world class in their own right. And from what I've been hearing, NSU at least has been trying to fish for a strategic partner in this field since the 1980s, but it was only recently that it finally closed the deal w/ MIT. This goes to show what kind of effort and prior accomplishment is required for something of this scale to materialize. MIT did not hesitate to partner w/ institutions that it felt were worthy of a school of MIT's caliber.

Like I said earlier, the immediate challenge is to get the mainstream alumni involved in this effort. Ateneo has rich donors, but it is the mainstream alumni's participation that will be the key to elevating the quality of its education to the global level. Simple things like a class endowment to fund a professorial chair will be a positive first step in this direction. The real goal should be - Get everyone involved. Growth shold be organic first and formeost. There can be no short cuts.

[tesseract]

Originally posted by rabbaddal


A good idea to hold on to. But then again there is that concept of selfish interests which goes - "If I'm happy with the way things are on my own, why do I have to share the spoils w/ others?"

For Miriam w/c is doing quite fine on its own to agree to a compromise, it has to be something really compelling and appealing - something that has a very significant tangible value. Does Ateneo have this thing of tangible value to offer? Based on what I know right now, not yet. Maybe in the future.



The HPAIR is a good first step. A partnership bet. Ateneo, Miriam, and a Liberal Arts institution like Holy Cross or Wellesey to form a strong liberal arts school in the Philippines is a good idea, considering that both Ateneo and Miriam put a high value on liberal arts education.

But anything as grandoise as that or the NSU-Nanyang-MIT partnership may not materialize in the near future. For one, there is the issue of money. Harvard or any school for that matter - even sister Jesuit schools like Georgetown and Holy Cross - is not a charitable institution. It will not share w/ Ateneo its intlellectual property for free. The term "cooperative" also means that Ateneo will have to foot for an equal share of the bill. As of now, Ateneo has other priorities for its funds. It has to work hard to improve the quality of its present offerings, unless anlother rich alumnus somewhere out there puts up an endowment specifically for this purpose.

Related to that, Ateneo has to bring its offerings to world-class before it partners w/ reknowned institutions. Even before NSU and Nanyang partnered w/ MIT, these schools were already world class in their own right. And from what I've been hearing, NSU at least has been trying to fish for a strategic partner in this field since the 1980s, but it was only recently that it finally closed the deal w/ MIT. This goes to show what kind of effort and prior accomplishment is required for something of this scale to materialize. MIT did not hesitate to partner w/ institutions that it felt were worthy of a school of MIT's caliber.

Like I said earlier, the immediate challenge is to get the mainstream alumni involved in this effort. Ateneo has rich donors, but it is the mainstream alumni's participation that will be the key to elevating the quality of its education to the global level. Simple things like a class endowment to fund a professorial chair will be a positive first step in this direction. The real goal should be - Get everyone involved. Growth shold be organic first and formeost. There can be no short cuts.

Agreed. I wonder if Fr. Caluag can read this?

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by tesseract


Agreed. I wonder if Fr. Caluag can read this?

Well I hope he can. Actually, the AAA website at - http://www.atenista.net/alumni/

has already been launched. This means that alumni from all over the world and every income level will be updated on all alumni-related events, including fundraising events. Expect in the near future that donations can be made to the Ateneo Capital Management Fund Online.

Ateneo is already partnering with the University of San Francisco for its MS Environmental Management offering. This means that a degree in this program earned from the Ateneo will be equivalent to that of one earned in USF. There will also be a sharing of technology, intellectual property, and faculty members between both schools. This is one example of how Ateneo can use the world-wide Jesuit school network to bring all of its academic programs to world class status. Hopefully, this partnership will set the precedent for more partnerships.

On the side, it would be interesting if Ateneo could partner with Georgetown for its business program. They're very good in finance.

[tesseract]

Agreed. Time for the Jesuits to flex their muscle.

As an aside, do you think we should bring more Jesuits in as faculty?

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by tesseract
As an aside, do you think we should bring more Jesuits in as faculty?

If you look at all the great Jesuit universities around the world, most of them except for the Pontifical Gregorian University depend on lay faculty. This is because in the first place, there simply aren't enough priests in the order. Second, the level of cutting-edge expertise needed to achieve top-level status can only be reached if lay faculty are involved. You won't be able to get the most brilliant and accomplished teachers if you limit yourself to just Jesuit priests. And finally, lay faculty improve the diversity in the school - thereby enriching the whole educational experience. In Fordham, for example, they have protestant ministers teaching Theology. More important than having more priests is having better teachers who are accomplished in their respective fields.

[tesseract]

Originally posted by rabbaddal


If you look at all the great Jesuit universities around the world, most of them except for the Pontifical Gregorian University depend on lay faculty. This is because in the first place, there simply aren't enough priests in the order. Second, the level of cutting-edge expertise needed to achieve top-level status can only be reached if lay faculty are involved. You won't be able to get the most brilliant and accomplished teachers if you limit yourself to just Jesuit priests. And finally, lay faculty improve the diversity in the school - thereby enriching the whole educational experience. In Fordham, for example, they have protestant ministers teaching Theology. More important than having more priests is having better teachers who are accomplished in their respective fields.

I understand. I believe we need more PhDs.

[marseilles]

Originally posted by rabbaddal
I agree with you that the SOM faculty has to improve its credentials espescially in research and publication. It's not enough that they are good teachers, but they also have to produce a respectable amount of original work that they can share w/ the students. If you compare them to the faculty of AIM or Nat'l U of Singapore - where professors have earned Phds from Harvard and where they run their own research centers which produces quite a lot of original work, then its apparent that a lot more has to be done. There is also the additional challenge of recruiting more qualified full-time faculty to handle a growing number of management students.
I think one of the problems is that the SOM caters to undergraduates only. The Ateneo- and Ateneo-affiliated graduate schools of business--the Business School at Rockwell and AIM--are separate from the SOM. If I were a serious scholar of business and wanted to work at the Ateneo, I think I'd be more attracted to either of these graduate schools where I can work with graduate students who might also be working on similar research projects, rather than at the SOM, where most of the students are simply in a hurry to finish their requirements, get their bachelor's degree, and rush off into the corporate world.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by marseilles

I think one of the problems is that the SOM caters to undergraduates only. The Ateneo- and Ateneo-affiliated graduate schools of business--the Business School at Rockwell and AIM--are separate from the SOM. If I were a serious scholar of business and wanted to work at the Ateneo, I think I'd be more attracted to either of these graduate schools where I can work with graduate students who might also be working on similar research projects, rather than at the SOM, where most of the students are simply in a hurry to finish their requirements, get their bachelor's degree, and rush off into the corporate world.

There is an ongoing debate within the world's academe with regards to the proper balance between teaching and research. Some professors would like to focus more on research while others would like to devote more time and effort to teaching. It is plausible, but not absolute, to assume that those who prefer research would rather work with graduate schools while those who prefer teaching work in the undergrad level. Nonetheless, in world class universities, undergrads are taught by Phd-level faculty because even if they choose teaching over reseach, the money is there to sustain them. And while they tend to focus more on teaching than they do on research, they still do some amount of research that enriches both their own learning experience as well as that of their students. Sometimes - but not all the time - Phds teach in the undergrad level until they attain tenure, and move on to the graduate level.

You are right about many undergrad students wanting to finish their studies ASAP so they can join the corporate world. That will always be the case, espescially when it comes to business majors. As Ateneo students, they deserve the best education they can get even if it would be for a short time. Otherwise, the next in line may choose to study somewhere else.

[victory]

posted by marseilles

If I were a serious scholar of business and wanted to work at the Ateneo, I think I'd be more attracted to either of these graduate schools where I can work with graduate students who might also be working on similar research projects, rather than at the SOM, where most of the students are simply in a hurry to finish their requirements, get their bachelor's degree, and rush off into the corporate world.

Careful, marseilles. What makes you think that graduate students in the AGSB or AIM are required to produce research that might interest "serious scholars of business"? Here one must make the distinction between "graduate schools" (arts and sciences, usually) and "professional schools" (law, business, medicine, etc.). What makes you think that MBAs from AGSB or AIM are just as, if not even more so, in a hurry to finish their requirements to rush off into the corporate world?

For example, let's take the case of rabbaddal: Tell me how much of the consideration of "opportunities for graduate-level research" weighed in your evaluation of MBA programs? Tell me how many of your classmates enrolled in Columbia "primarily to work with distinguished professors as teaching and research assistants and produce outstanding research" versus "getting training that will provide me with skills, personal and professional networking opportunities, and other benefits that will help me progress in my career?"

Or at least tell me what proportion of your MBA classmates don't just want to "get their degree and rush off into the world of work"?

Caveat: "Rush off into the world of work" for many MBAs is usually "secure a good offer from a firm to make sure you can pay off any student loans and you can earn a good return on your 'MBA investment,' and then enjoy student life as much as possible while you're in school because this is probably the last time you're going to be able to do this." Whaddyatink, rabbaddal? Still enjoying life in NYC? :)



posted by rabbaddal

Nonetheless, in world class universities, undergrads are taught by Phd-level faculty because even if they choose teaching over reseach, the money is there to sustain them. And while they tend to focus more on teaching than they do on research, they still do some amount of research that enriches both their own learning experience as well as that of their students. Sometimes - but not all the time - Phds teach in the undergrad level until they attain tenure, and move on to the graduate level.

Let's talk preferences and incentives. rabbaddal, how exactly does the tenure system work? How does a "serious scholar of business," a budding young assistant professor teaching in Columbia University, actually get tenured? What role does teaching performance play? What role does research output play? How do you measure these things?

What if you are a mediocre teacher but a stellar researcher? What if you are a stellar teacher but a mediocre researcher?

Does the choice of "teaching undergrads" vs. "teaching graduate students" even play a part in the tenure process?

Then bring this all back to the situation of the SOM in AdMU and tell me how the current infrastructure (finances, support systems, incentives, etc.) either nurtures or hinders the development of "serious scholars in business." Tell me why, appeals to being a "man for others" and "serving the Ateneo and Philippine community" aside, a fresh Ph.D. with a promising career in academia will choose to go to Ateneo's SOM if he or she has an offer from US universities.

Sorry for pitching all these questions back at you. Remnants of my Ateneo philosophy classes. Kidding aside, though, these are serious questions that SOM administrators have been tackling for quite a long time. They continue to struggle with these questions.

As do I.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by victory


For example, let's take the case of rabbaddal: Tell me how much of the consideration of "opportunities for graduate-level research" weighed in your evaluation of MBA programs? Tell me how many of your classmates enrolled in Columbia "primarily to work with distinguished professors as teaching and research assistants and produce outstanding research" versus "getting training that will provide me with skills, personal and professional networking opportunities, and other benefits that will help me progress in my career?"

Or at least tell me what proportion of your MBA classmates don't just want to "get their degree and rush off into the world of work"?

Caveat: "Rush off into the world of work" for many MBAs is usually "secure a good offer from a firm to make sure you can pay off any student loans and you can earn a good return on your 'MBA investment,' and then enjoy student life as much as possible while you're in school because this is probably the last time you're going to be able to do this." Whaddyatink, rabbaddal? Still enjoying life in NYC? :)




Majority of my classmates went to Columbia to advance their careers. Here's my previous post on that matter -

Originally posted by rabbaddal
You are right about many undergrad students wanting to finish their studies ASAP so they can join the corporate world. That will always be the case, espescially when it comes to business majors. As Ateneo students, they deserve the best education they can get even if it would be for a short time. Otherwise, the next in line may choose to study somewhere else.

Originally posted by victory

Let's talk preferences and incentives. rabbaddal, how exactly does the tenure system work? How does a "serious scholar of business," a budding young assistant professor teaching in Columbia University, actually get tenured?


Tenure is measured on a temporal cycle, normally every 4 to 5 years. A teacher recruited by Columbia already has a Phd with some years teaching experience in another distinguished university. Besides his/her thesis dissertation, a potential assistant professor is expected to have already published some original work before he/she can be considered for a teaching position in Columbia. If the school is happy with his/her performance, then he/she is offered tenure in the university. Among the “perks” of being tenured are – a more senior faculty rank, a more or less “permanent” position in the school, and assignment to head high-profile research teams. Tenure is also a pre-requisite in climbing up the academic career ladder for those who wish to become deans, department heads, and so on.

Originally posted by victory


What role does teaching performance play? What role does research output play? How do you measure these things?

What if you are a mediocre teacher but a stellar researcher? What if you are a stellar teacher but a mediocre researcher?



It depends from school to school. In Columbia, it’s 50% teaching and 50% research. For example, a Columbia professor is expected to teach for one semester and take a leave from teaching to prioritize research the next semester. Unlike some other overrated b-schools out there, Columbia is serious about giving its students the best learning experience for what they pay for. Although Columbia understands the value of research and the role it plays in the development of the school, it will not compromise teaching for research just so it can build up its reputation.:D

Originally posted by victory

Does the choice of "teaching undergrads" vs. "teaching graduate students" even play a part in the tenure process?



Not an issue in CBS bec. Columbia, like almost all other Ivy League universities does not have an undergrad program in management. Since you attended the only Ivy League school that offers an undergrad program in management, maybe you can share your insights about this.

Originally posted by victory
Then bring this all back to the situation of the SOM in AdMU and tell me how the current infrastructure (finances, support systems, incentives, etc.) either nurtures or hinders the development of "serious scholars in business." Tell me why, appeals to being a "man for others" and "serving the Ateneo and Philippine community" aside, a fresh Ph.D. with a promising career in academia will choose to go to Ateneo's SOM if he or she has an offer from US universities.


Already discussed in the posts above.

Originally posted by victory
Sorry for pitching all these questions back at you. Remnants of my Ateneo philosophy classes. Kidding aside, though, these are serious questions that SOM administrators have been tackling for quite a long time. They continue to struggle with these questions.

As do I.

They struggle with those questions over here as well. The difference is that with CBS, finances are not as much of a problem as they are with the SOM.

But what's even more important is that current and incoming SOM students are struggling with those questions as well. If you read Tesseract's posts, you'll see that more students are taking a greater interest in furthering the quality of their education, no matter how feasible/unfeasible their ideas may be at the moment.

BTW, your last line sounded very much like someone very endearing to you in his last email -

The month of March proved to be a trying time in an Ateneo student’s life.

Hehehehehe...:D

Even if you hurled a barrage of questions at me, I'll retaliate with just one question for you -

Since you're very active right now in helping improve the quality of education in the SOM, what strategy do you think is better - forming strategic partnerships with more reputable institutions or having Ateneo build its programs organically on its own? Don't throw questions back at me please bec. I really don't have a clue.:)

[Cobkin]

Originally posted by victory
Then bring this all back to the situation of the SOM in AdMU and tell me how the current infrastructure (finances, support systems, incentives, etc.) either nurtures or hinders the development of "serious scholars in business." Tell me why, appeals to being a "man for others" and "serving the Ateneo and Philippine community" aside, a fresh Ph.D. with a promising career in academia will choose to go to Ateneo's SOM if he or she has an offer from US universities.

Sorry for pitching all these questions back at you. Remnants of my Ateneo philosophy classes. Kidding aside, though, these are serious questions that SOM administrators have been tackling for quite a long time. They continue to struggle with these questions.

As do I.
The fresh Ph.D. with a promising career in academia may want to be a big fish in a smaller pond than drown in a flood of geniuses; the fresh Ph.D. may want to be closer to family; the fresh Ph.D. may recognize that there's actually a lot of business opportunities in the Philippines that s/he can work on while at the same time working in the academe; the fresh Ph.D. may realize that s/he can build a reputation much faster in the Philippines than overseas, paving the way for possible careers/advisory positions in business and government.

These are just a few reasons. Perhaps what Ateneo should consider is setting up an environment that capitalizes on these positives. Like encouraging more research or setting up research centres, directorships & consulting works or even setting up an in-house consultancy that caters for both business and government. Linkages with outside schools may actually also be beneficial for teachers, not just for students. Ateneo should probably look at the possibility of teaching exchange programs with other universities to provide teachers the global experience that they may want and need.

[victory]

posted by Cobkin

The fresh Ph.D. with a promising career in academia may want to be a big fish in a smaller pond than drown in a flood of geniuses; the fresh Ph.D. may want to be closer to family; the fresh Ph.D. may recognize that there's actually a lot of business opportunities in the Philippines that s/he can work on while at the same time working in the academe; the fresh Ph.D. may realize that s/he can build a reputation much faster in the Philippines than overseas, paving the way for possible careers/advisory positions in business and government

Good that you mentioned these things, Cobkin. As usual, here I go again asking even more questions; I hope you don't mind.

1. What do "serious scholars in business" really want to do? What makes you think that fresh Ph.D.s, really "serious scholars in business" want to go into business or into advisory positions in business and government?
2. If academics have to go into business at the same time that they work in academia, how good a "serious academic" would they be? Have you tried putting up your own business and teaching at the same time?

3. If indeed the fresh Ph.D. has some concern for reputation, would they want to be known as the big fish in the small pond of the Philippines, or as a tenured faculty considered "average" in the US? Which offers greater possible careers/advisory positions in business and government? If reputation is a real concern, why shouldn't the promising fresh Ph.D. then want to hack it out in the US and emerge as the best of the best in the biggest pond of them all?

What if the fresh young Ph.D. wants to do groundbreaking innovative research that advances the theory and empirics of business and economics, and needs to be among peers who can challenge his or her thought process, provide insights and ideas and a supportive but competitive environment that will encourage sharper and sharper thinking? Does this qualify as wanting to be a "serious scholar in business"? If so, should the fresh young Ph.D. be in the Philippines or in the US?

Wanting to be close to family, having a "sense of home and belonging in the Philippines" that far outweighs the kind of professional benefits that US universities can provide, is perhaps the most compelling reason that fresh Ph.D.s might return to the Philippines.

These are just a few reasons. Perhaps what Ateneo should consider is setting up an environment that capitalizes on these positives. Like encouraging more research or setting up research centres, directorships & consulting works or even setting up an in-house consultancy that caters for both business and government. Linkages with outside schools may actually also be beneficial for teachers, not just for students. Ateneo should probably look at the possibility of teaching exchange programs with other universities to provide teachers the global experience that they may want and need.

I agree that these are good, constructive recommendations. But what makes you think that AdMU isn't already doing these things? There already are several research centers, directorships and opportunities for consultancy work for both private and public sector clients. There already are linkages with schools both in the Philippines and abroad. There already are teaching and research exchange programs to provide teachers with some sort of opportunities for intellectual exchange and collaboration on an international scale.

But if the reality is such that promising young faculty are still difficult to retain in the AdMU SOM, where is AdMU falling short?

[victory]

Since you're very active right now in helping improve the quality of education in the SOM, what strategy do you think is better - forming strategic partnerships with more reputable institutions or having Ateneo build its programs organically on its own? Don't throw questions back at me please bec. I really don't have a clue.

But why should this be an either/or question? Are these two "strategies" for AdMU's SOM substitutes or complements?

Far more interesting and valid is the point you raised a few posts back: What indeed would incentivize "more reputable institutions" to partner up with AdMU? What exactly does AdMU bring to the table that might interest "more reputable institutions"?

Case in point: The Singapore Management University (http://www.smu.edu.sg/) (SMU) was founded just last 2000, but is now attracting droves of top scholars for research opportunities, and is winning over graduates of top Ph.D. programs in the US to join its faculty. It recently scored a coup with the appointment of Bobby Mariano, perhaps the top-ranked US academic of Filipino origin (B.S., AdMU, M.S., UP, Ph.D., Stanford University; professor of economics and statistics at the University of Pennsylvania (protege of Nobel Laureate Lawrence Klein); creator of the first econometric model of the Philippine economy; consultant to various Southeast Asian governments; creator of the Diebold-Mariano statistical test for predictive accuracy; etc.) as Dean of its School of Economics and Social Sciences.

Whatever could SMU be doing right? Or perhaps more importantly, whatever could be enabling SMU to do the right things?

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by victory


3. If indeed the fresh Ph.D. has some concern for reputation, would they want to be known as the big fish in the small pond of the Philippines, or as a tenured faculty considered "average" in the US? Which offers greater possible careers/advisory positions in business and government? If reputation is a real concern, why shouldn't the promising fresh Ph.D. then want to hack it out in the US and emerge as the best of the best in the biggest pond of them all?

What if the fresh young Ph.D. wants to do groundbreaking innovative research that advances the theory and empirics of business and economics, and needs to be among peers who can challenge his or her thought process, provide insights and ideas and a supportive but competitive environment that will encourage sharper and sharper thinking? Does this qualify as wanting to be a "serious scholar in business"? If so, should the fresh young Ph.D. be in the Philippines or in the US?

Wanting to be close to family, having a "sense of home and belonging in the Philippines" that far outweighs the kind of professional benefits that US universities can provide, is perhaps the most compelling reason that fresh Ph.D.s might return to the Philippines.


Victory, good point. I have some questions - Why is it that other schools like the Nat'l U of SGP and AIM can hire and retain talented Phd-level faculty even if the US is indeed the best place in the world for a Phd to develop his/her knowledge? Some of them like Profs. Morato and Palma Gil are Ateneo alumni. Even if they may not be of the caliber that you find in Wharton, people of their expertise would be highly appreciated in the SOM, right?

And going back to something I had raised earlier - Given that it is very difficult to hire and retain faculty of this caliber, would it then be easier in the long-term for Ateneo to just form a strategic partnership with a foreign institution that can attract the best Phds rather than build its program from scratch, as Tesseract had earlier suggested? This takes in to account, of course, the limited financial resources that the school has.

[victory]

Victory, good point. I have some questions - Why is it that other schools like the Nat'l U of SGP and AIM can hire and retain talented Phd-level faculty even if the US is indeed the best place in the world for a Phd to develop his/her knowledge? Some of them like Profs. Morato and Palma Gil are Ateneo alumni. Even if they may not be of the caliber that you find in Wharton, people of their expertise would be highly appreciated in the SOM, right?

Good questions, rabbaddal. My response (as usual) will not be in the form of a straightforward answer, but a fairly rhetorical question (if you can find the facts).

1. Available options: Did Professors Morato and Palma Gil have offers from US universities after they finished their Ph.D.s? If they did have offers, did they get tenured? Top-notch academic appointments in the US are extremely difficult to obtain, and tenure even more so. That's why I qualified my earlier "thought experiment" to the situation of a fresh young Ph.D. with offers from US universities.
2. Other concerns aside from 'desire to develop knowledge': A point raised by Cobkin as well. Even if Professors Morato and Palma Gil got offers of appointment and tenure from US universities, what other circumstances in their professional and personal lives affected their decision to come back to the Philippines? Spouse wanted to go back? Family concerns and desire to help the country? That's why I qualified my earlier thought experiment by "holding these variables constant."
3. Opportunity cost differentials: Why does the preference ordering seem to be US > NUS/AIM > AdMU? Well, what kind of compensation packages, teaching and research support and other professional benefits do these institutions provide, on a comparative scale? Would it surprise you if the remuneration & benefits packages were also lined up in the same US > NUS/AIM > AdMU order?

And going back to something I had raised earlier - Given that it is very difficult to hire and retain faculty of this caliber, would it then be easier in the long-term for Ateneo to just form a strategic partnership with a foreign institution that can attract the best Phds rather than build its program from scratch, as Tesseract had earlier suggested? This takes in to account, of course, the limited financial resources that the school has.

What did Singapore Management University (http://www.smu.edu.sg/) and the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration (http://www.sasin.edu/) of Thailand's Chulalongkorn University (http://www.chula.ac.th/) do? In fact, what did AdMU and DLSU do to help create AIM (http://www.aim.edu.ph/) ? Did it "build its program from scratch" or did it seek the help of a fairly good business school in Boston?

Of course, I am just assuming that you believe that SMU, Sasin and AIM are better than SOM.

But again, let's focus on perhaps the most important point you raised: What might interest "more reputable institutions" to partner up with AdMU's SOM?

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by victory


But why should this be an either/or question? Are these two "strategies" for AdMU's SOM substitutes or complements?

Far more interesting and valid is the point you raised a few posts back: What indeed would incentivize "more reputable institutions" to partner up with AdMU? What exactly does AdMU bring to the table that might interest "more reputable institutions"?

Case in point: The Singapore Management University (http://www.smu.edu.sg/) (SMU) was founded just last 2000, but is now attracting droves of top scholars for research opportunities, and is winning over graduates of top Ph.D. programs in the US to join its faculty. It recently scored a coup with the appointment of Bobby Mariano, perhaps the top-ranked US academic of Filipino origin (B.S., AdMU, M.S., UP, Ph.D., Stanford University; professor of economics and statistics at the University of Pennsylvania (protege of Nobel Laureate Lawrence Klein); creator of the first econometric model of the Philippine economy; consultant to various Southeast Asian governments; creator of the Diebold-Mariano statistical test for predictive accuracy; etc.) as Dean of its School of Economics and Social Sciences.

Whatever could SMU be doing right? Or perhaps more importantly, whatever could be enabling SMU to do the right things?

Akala ko ba ikaw ang top-ranked US academic of Filipino origin?

Well for one, I would think that unlike Ateneo, SMU is serious about its graduate business program. Ateneo's GSB, on the other hand, is more like an executive training center rather than an institution w/c churns out the latest and greatest home-grown ideas in business. marseilles had an interesting point which I now see from a different perspective - if a professor wants to some day research on higher-level management topics like value investing, for example, he/she won't have anyone to share his work with if all he can teach are undergrad students.

Second is the fact that Singapore is the region's center for commerce as well as science and technology. By partnering w/ a Singaporean institution, for example, Wharton and MIT are assured that they will be present in the center of all commercial and scientific activity. However, strategic partnerships are still possible in the Philippines to a certain extent - as proven by AIM and Harvard.

Finally, it all boils down to funding. Like I said earlier, a partnership means that each partner will have to carry an equal share of the burden - including the financial burden.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by victory


Good questions, rabbaddal. My response (as usual) will not be in the form of a straightforward answer, but a fairly rhetorical question (if you can find the facts).

1. Available options: Did Professors Morato and Palma Gil have offers from US universities after they finished their Ph.D.s? If they did have offers, did they get tenured? Top-notch academic appointments in the US are extremely difficult to obtain, and tenure even more so. That's why I qualified my earlier "thought experiment" to the situation of a fresh young Ph.D. with offers from US universities.


I don’t know. But since they’re here in Manila, I would much rather that they were my professors in Ateneo rather than some of those part-time teachers that I had.

Originally posted by victory

2. Other concerns aside from 'desire to develop knowledge': A point raised by Cobkin as well. Even if Professors Morato and Palma Gil got offers of appointment and tenure from US universities, what other circumstances in their professional and personal lives affected their decision to come back to the Philippines? Spouse wanted to go back? Family concerns and desire to help the country? That's why I qualified my earlier thought experiment by "holding these variables constant."


I don’t know the answer to this also. But I do know that some of AIM’s Phd-level profs are being subsidized by Harvard. So I guess a balance bet. The chance to live and work in the Philippines as well as have a decent salary and the opportunity to do research and to publish could be a good incentive. The point is that there are people of their caliber lurking around so why aren’t they teaching at the SOM?

Originally posted by victory
3. Opportunity cost differentials: Why does the preference ordering seem to be US > NUS/AIM > AdMU? Well, what kind of compensation packages, teaching and research support and other professional benefits do these institutions provide, on a comparative scale? Would it surprise you if the remuneration & benefits packages were also lined up in the same US > NUS/AIM > AdMU order?



Obviously it wouldn’t. Does it mean it all boils down to money, as I had thought so for so long? Remember, I am looking at it from an outsider’s perspective.

Originally posted by victory
What did Singapore Management University (http://www.smu.edu.sg/) and the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration (http://www.sasin.edu/) of Thailand's Chulalongkorn University (http://www.chula.ac.th/) do? In fact, what did AdMU and DLSU do to help create AIM (http://www.aim.edu.ph/) ? Did it "build its program from scratch" or did it seek the help of a fairly good business school in Boston?

Of course, I am just assuming that you believe that SMU, Sasin and AIM are better than SOM.

But again, let's focus on perhaps the most important point you raised: What might interest "more reputable institutions" to partner up with AdMU's SOM?

Then given that we know what these incentives are, would it be easier in the long-term to build these incentives so the SOM can find a strategic partner rather than build the program from scratch.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by victory

or did it seek the help of a fairly good business school in Boston?



By the way...I missed this one.

So, is that how you rate that school in Boston, or more accurately, Cambridge, MA? Fairly good lang pala yan.

I now wonder how you've been rating us.

:lol:

[victory]

posted by rabbaddal

By the way...I missed this one.

So, is that how you rate that school in Boston, or more accurately, Cambridge, MA? Fairly good lang pala yan.

I now wonder how you've been rating us.


:lol:

Oh, but I wasn't being inaccurate, rabbaddal. The University itself sprawls around Cambridge, MA, but the entire business school is "across the Charles River" in Boston.

But I do know that some of AIM’s Phd-level profs are being subsidized by Harvard.

Really? What kind of form do these subsidies take?

Obviously it wouldn’t. Does it mean it all boils down to money, as I had thought so for so long? Remember, I am looking at it from an outsider’s perspective.

It's not all about the money. But think about it from the perspective of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: If you don't even earn enough money to finance the kind of lifestyle you would want your family to live, how far do you think appeals to "serving the Ateneo and the country" will go? Add the fact that you will be giving up the opportunity to interact with the top thinkers in your field on a close basis as a young scholar and the problem is just compounded even more.

As I wrote in another thread: If you choose to work as a teacher in the Philippines, knowing you had other options that were more lucrative and provided more professional advancement opportunities, will you be able to look your children in the eye when you have to turn down their requests for things you cannot afford? What if they qualified for a top school and the only reason they can't go is because you can't afford it? Did you sacrifice your family for your ideals?

Now apply this thinking to "US vs SOM" or even "AIM vs SOM" options for faculty.

Then given that we know what these incentives are, would it be easier in the long-term to build these incentives so the SOM can find a strategic partner rather than build the program from scratch.

Look at it as a dynamic "make or buy" decision. What are the costs and benefits of contracting (i.e., "finding a strategic partner") and what are the costs and benefits of ownership (i.e., "building a program from scratch in-house")? Which option is better for AdMU's SOM at this point in its development? Can we write contracts for hybrid options, leaving the teaching load to SOM faculty but 'contracting out' research opportunities by inviting top faculty from other institutions, on the condition that their research should be conducted and published jointly? How do we implement or execute these strategies? The "dynamic" part of the decision comes from constantly thinking about whether we should shift to "make" or "buy" as we progress (hopefully) through time.

Mahabang usapan ito. Magkape na lang tayo pag nagawi ako diyan sa NYC o pag nagawi ka dito sa Philadelphia.

[victory]

posted by rabbaddal

Finally, it all boils down to funding. Like I said earlier, a partnership means that each partner will have to carry an equal share of the burden - including the financial burden.

Wh-a-a-at? Funding?!? Concerns about money?

But I thought that institutions were priceless, and that we should not accept the PHP200MM donation of Mr. Gokongwei because it will obviously do more harm than good in the long-term?

Here's an interesting comparative statistic: That PHP200MM donation which spawned this thread and a slew of interesting e-mail messages is roughly equivalent to funding about two endowed professorial chairs to support the research of academics in top US business schools. Even adjusting for purchasing power parity, think about it: PHP200MM, an 'unfathomable amount' (I quote Mr. Borja) in the Philippines -- will support the research of only two top academics in US universities.

Should we even be wondering why top academics, "serious scholars in business" aren't flocking to AdMU's SOM?

It's not all about the money. But boy oh boy if we really want to attract "serious scholars in business," we have a l-o-n-g way to go.

[victory]

For marseilles and rabbaddal: Indeed, it's not just about the money


posted by rabbaddal

Well for one, I would think that unlike Ateneo, SMU is serious about its graduate business program. Ateneo's GSB, on the other hand, is more like an executive training center rather than an institution w/c churns out the latest and greatest home-grown ideas in business. marseilles had an interesting point which I now see from a different perspective - if a professor wants to some day research on higher-level management topics like value investing, for example, he/she won't have anyone to share his work with if all he can teach are undergrad students.

marseilles and rabbaddal, you brought up an interesting point, but got it a bit muddled when you focused on grad/undergrad students. Scholars seek the company of people from whom they can learn, with whom they can exchange ideas, and at their level there are only a handful of people in the world who can speak their lingo. It's not interesting conversations with graduate or undergraduate students per se that is most attractive for scholars: It is the opportunity to have interesting conversations, and work with, the top people in their fields. What would it be like to have an office beside a Nobel Laureate? To have lunch and discuss one's ideas with the best scholar in your field? To work on a joint paper with the brightest young rising star in your profession?

Case in point: For the longest time Dr. Marasigan, arguably one of AdMU's best mathematicians, has been wanting to work on advanced topics in financial engineering. Sino ang nakakausap niya sa SOM? Wala. Zip. Zero. Nada.

A good start may be to create incentives and support for SOM faculty to attend international conferences, publish in top international journals, and collaborate with other scholars long-distance. But what if you were a scholar of the theory of finance and got an offer from the University of Chicago? Nothing beats being able to walk over to Eugene Fama's office to discuss your ideas. What if you were a scholar of strategic management and industrial organization, and got an offer from Harvard Business School? Can the SOM make an offer that beats being able to have lunch with Richard Caves or Mike Porter to work on a joint paper? What if you were a scholar of transaction cost economics and got an offer from UC Berkeley? What would it be like to have dinner with Olly Williamson, the creator of the subfield?

Add the compensation package issue to the whole 'need to work with other scholars' bit. Now formulate a strategy that will allow SOM to compete for the top "serious scholars in business." Can this be done? SMU is battling US universities for top talent and is winning over a few fresh Ph.D.s, bit by bit.

What is enabling SMU to go head to head with US universities? rabbaddal already mentioned a few in his post above. It's not all about the money, but guess what? An assistant professor position for a fresh Ph.D. in a US business school offers salaries in the range of $80,000 to $130,000 per annum. SMU matches or even tops US universities' compensation package offers for fresh Ph.D.s!

Sure, it's not all about the money. Maybe SMU can't top the US universities in terms of the opportunity to work with the top scholars in your field. But hey -- the money helps, doesn't it?

[victory]

posted by rabbaddal

Akala ko ba ikaw ang top-ranked US academic of Filipino origin?

Ha ha, this one I missed.

Marami pa akong kakaining bigas, rabbaddal. But I am willing to bet that I can bench press, squat or deadlift more than most US academics of Filipino origin. :lol:

[Cobkin]

Disclaimer: I'm not an academic or scholar.

Originally posted by victory
1. What do "serious scholars in business" really want to do? What makes you think that fresh Ph.D.s, really "serious scholars in business" want to go into business or into advisory positions in business and government?

2. If academics have to go into business at the same time that they work in academia, how good a "serious academic" would they be? Have you tried putting up your own business and teaching at the same time?

In my opinion, it adds substance to their being. Speaking as an outsider, I have this notion that these scholars and academics sound very prescriptive a lot of times. They need to back their research with actual work application.
The Philippines provides an excellent opportunity for academic scholars because not a lot is written about it. If you work in the US, what else can you study and stamp your name on that hasn't already been done? By a genius that may be decades ahead of you in research?

3. If indeed the fresh Ph.D. has some concern for reputation, would they want to be known as the big fish in the small pond of the Philippines, or as a tenured faculty considered "average" in the US? Which offers greater possible careers/advisory positions in business and government? If reputation is a real concern, why shouldn't the promising fresh Ph.D. then want to hack it out in the US and emerge as the best of the best in the biggest pond of them all?
Because the US is so full of them already. And Asia is where the world's real growth is in the next I don't know how many decades. And as you and rabbadal mentioned, Asia is seeing some growth in the academe already - in Singapore. Instead of being a small fish in the US, why not collaborate with say, Singapore and Australia to build your own pond here? That's one other thing that the SOM can probably consider. Instead of forming alliances with the giants in the US, why not start with linking with other institutions in Singapore, Australia, and even India first and set up your own regional research center? In the long-term, this might make you more attractive for US institutions to affiliate.

What if the fresh young Ph.D. wants to do groundbreaking innovative research that advances the theory and empirics of business and economics, and needs to be among peers who can challenge his or her thought process, provide insights and ideas and a supportive but competitive environment that will encourage sharper and sharper thinking? Does this qualify as wanting to be a "serious scholar in business"? If so, should the fresh young Ph.D. be in the Philippines or in the US?

As I mentioned, to make it more attractive, don't make it a US vs the Philippines, but North America vs Asia issue. And as I already mentioned, even setting family aside, Asia has its own merit point that the US can never match. After that, it's so much easier to convince the scholar to stay in the Philippines.

I agree that these are good, constructive recommendations. But what makes you think that AdMU isn't already doing these things? There already are several research centers, directorships and opportunities for consultancy work for both private and public sector clients. There already are linkages with schools both in the Philippines and abroad. There already are teaching and research exchange programs to provide teachers with some sort of opportunities for intellectual exchange and collaboration on an international scale.

But if the reality is such that promising young faculty are still difficult to retain in the AdMU SOM, where is AdMU falling short?
Well, as you've already mentioned, access to fellow scholars. The other single most important thing in my opinion is a world-class research facility. I mean, compare the Rizal Library na lang to that of your libary at Wharton.
And another thing, when you're talking "promising, young faculty", are you limiting it to Filipinos in the Philippines? If you are, I don't think you're really losing "promising, young faculty" to US institutions. I think you're losing "promising, young, graduates" to the business sector. I'm not sure if there's that many "promising, young, graduates" who'd want to join the academe in the Philippines. Or maybe I'm wrong.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by victory
For marseilles and rabbaddal: Indeed, it's not just about the money



What would it be like to have an office beside a Nobel Laureate? To have lunch and discuss one's ideas with the best scholar in your field? To work on a joint paper with the brightest young rising star in your profession?

Case in point: For the longest time Dr. Marasigan, arguably one of AdMU's best mathematicians, has been wanting to work on advanced topics in financial engineering. Sino ang nakakausap niya sa SOM? Wala. Zip. Zero. Nada.



Next term, I'll know how its like to work w/ a Nobel Laureate.

Dr. Marasigan exploring financial engineering? The question shouldn't be "Sino ang nakakausap niya sa SOM?" but rather "Sino ang nakakausap niya sa PILIPINAS?". And to think all I have to do now to talk financial engineering is go to the next building. But then the BW scam proved that Pinoys are very good in "financial engineering".

[victory]

posted by Cobkin

The Philippines provides an excellent opportunity for academic scholars because not a lot is written about it. If you work in the US, what else can you study and stamp your name on that hasn't already been done? By a genius that may be decades ahead of you in research?

What makes you think not a lot has been written about the Philippines? Oh, and there are many things that have yet to be studied and proven definitively.


Because the US is so full of them already. And Asia is where the world's real growth is in the next I don't know how many decades. And as you and rabbadal mentioned, Asia is seeing some growth in the academe already - in Singapore. Instead of being a small fish in the US, why not collaborate with say, Singapore and Australia to build your own pond here? That's one other thing that the SOM can probably consider. Instead of forming alliances with the giants in the US, why not start with linking with other institutions in Singapore, Australia, and even India first and set up your own regional research center? In the long-term, this might make you more attractive for US institutions to affiliate.

But are scholars into empire-building? Into "building their own ponds"?


As I mentioned, to make it more attractive, don't make it a US vs the Philippines, but North America vs Asia issue. And as I already mentioned, even setting family aside, Asia has its own merit point that the US can never match. After that, it's so much easier to convince the scholar to stay in the Philippines.


Ah, but here's the real kicker, Cobkin: What makes you think that being based in the US as an academic prohibits you from studying Asia as a growth sector? Why was the groundbreaking work "The East Asian Miracle" published in 1994 by eminent scholars affiliated with the World Bank and based in the US (including one academic of Filipino origin)? Why do Asian governments and companies still go to US-based academics and consultants for advice on critical decision matters?

Why not be based in the US and study Asia, flying to Asia as often as you would like, or even living in Asia as long as it takes to get "immersed in the region," because you have the means to do so?

And another thing, when you're talking "promising, young faculty", are you limiting it to Filipinos in the Philippines? If you are, I don't think you're really losing "promising, young faculty" to US institutions. I think you're losing "promising, young, graduates" to the business sector. I'm not sure if there's that many "promising, young, graduates" who'd want to join the
academe in the Philippines. Or maybe I'm wrong.

You're not wrong. But the basis of comparison may be flawed. If promising young graduates choose to go to the business sector both because of preference and potential, why force them to go into academia? Heck, we need promising young graduates both in our private and public sectors. The saddening thing is when one sees promising young faculty who want to remain, flourish and contribute to academia -- leave for other occupations because academia in the Philippines just can't give them what they need, both personally and professionally.

Disclaimer: I'm not an academic or scholar.

But have you tried studying in a top US institution? Learning from "serious scholars in business" and from classmates from all over the world who have done amazing things with their lives and careers? If not, how can you compare the Philippine scenario with the US scenario if you haven't seen or experienced both?

Please don't get me wrong: I'm not trying to 'shoot down your ideas,' nor am I stubbornly seeing the glass "half-empty." I really appreciate your taking the time to think about these things and post your thoughts. Through this exchange I just hope we can clarify the kind of issues with which we need to grapple if we are serious about our stated intentions of helping build AdMU's SOM into a world-class institution. They are more complex than one might think because they involve multiple players and consideration sets.

Thanks again, Cobkin. I look forward to any further thoughts or reflections you may have about these matters.

[victory]

posted byrabbaddal

Next term, I'll know how its like to work w/ a Nobel Laureate.

With whom will you be working and in what fashion? Note that the experience may be radically different if you are a student in a Nobel Laureate's MBA class, or if you are his (sorry for the seemingly anti-feminist use of the term -- but a woman has yet to receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences -- more a testament against the institution awarding the prizes than to the actual lack of feminine talent in the profession) research assistant collaborating on a joint paper. Being an exceptionally brilliant researcher and thinker need not mean you are also a fantastic teacher...

Dr. Marasigan exploring financial engineering? The question shouldn't be "Sino ang nakakausap niya sa SOM?" but rather "Sino ang nakakausap niya sa PILIPINAS?". And to think all I have to do now to talk financial engineering is go to the next building. But then the BW scam proved that Pinoys are very good in "financial engineering".

:)

Wouldn't go so far as this, though. There are lots of people in the Philippines with whom you can have an intelligent, stimulating conversation about financial engineering. Here alone in PeX, I am sure KuyaDanny and mac_bolan00 can teach us all a thing or two about this topic. But I limited my comparison set to the SOM specifically to illustrate how far we need to go as an academic institution. In the US, academia leads the way; industry follows when it finds the means to understand and apply what academics have long thought about. Economists have long been calculating general equilbrium models of country economies by hand, even before computers helped make the task much easier. Various approaches to valuation were presented in academic papers far before spreadsheet programs made it feasible for financial analysts to use these methods in their day-to-day work in industry (Markowitz proposed the CAPM for his Ph.D. dissertation in the 1950s, for example).

In Philippine academia (at least for AdMU's SOM) and industry, the situation is usually reversed: Where does the SOM lead the way in terms of innovative thinking and the creation of new knowledge in business? Are SOM faculty highly prized by industry for advice and consultancies? Or were you as SOM graduates astounded by how much you had to unlearn or relearn when you started work in "the real world"? If you worked in a company that provided great training and development opportunities, did you outstrip your former teachers fairly quickly in terms of your grasp of 'what's really going on' in the business world? Were you aware of the latest developments while your former teachers still taught the same basic lessons from the same old textbooks?

How far do we need to go if we truly want to build a "world-class institution"?

[kodak]

how do you make a "world-class" institution? simple...

1) have money
2) hire a strong faculty
3) have weekly colloqiua
4) publish
5) publish
6) publish
7) host international conferences
8) piss on your academic territory...if you're good at something, then make sure you are and that everyone knows about it.
9) send students to conferences.
10) repeat step one

let's drop "world-class", ok? it's sounds so...well...third-world...

[Cobkin]

Originally posted by victory
What makes you think not a lot has been written about the Philippines? Oh, and there are many things that have yet to be studied and proven definitively.
Perception, basically. Most of the economic and management theories I have come across (very limited, by the way) are grounded in US based case studies, even those prescribed as solutions for Asian problems.



But are scholars into empire-building? Into "building their own ponds"?
As I said, I'm not a scholar, so I can't speak for them. But I would infer, yes, although not in the so blatantly selfish way you're putting it. Scholars probably want recognition, they'd probably want their papers published, even if their names are mere "co-authors" of laureates.


Ah, but here's the real kicker, Cobkin: What makes you think that being based in the US as an academic prohibits you from studying Asia as a growth sector? Why was the groundbreaking work "The East Asian Miracle" published in 1994 by eminent scholars affiliated with the World Bank and based in the US (including one academic of Filipino origin)? Why do Asian governments and companies still go to US-based academics and consultants for advice on critical decision matters?
I didn't say that it's impossible to be based in the US and study Asia. But suppose, Asian scholars of the same calibre as those in the US are provided with the same resources as those in the US. Will they be as successful as their US-based counterparts in studying the US? I think not. On the other hand, should they decide to focus their studies in Asia, I would think they could easily eclipse the US scholars studying the same subject.
Asian governments and companies go to US-based academics because there's just no one in this region that they can go to.

Why not be based in the US and study Asia, flying to Asia as often as you would like, or even living in Asia as long as it takes to get "immersed in the region," because you have the means to do so?
I'd contend that utilising the same resources and means, the same academic will be more accomplished in his studies if he's based in Asia.
Getting oneself "immersed" is one thing, actual experience is another. To provide some analogy, Th 141 could only really educate you about the plight of the poor. You can study them, you can recommend solutions for them, but you'll never really fully comprehend them, because you just don't experience what they go through.
I'd say the same for US-based scholars "prescribing" solutions for Asia. Whether they get it right or wrong, should be beside the point.

You're not wrong. But the basis of comparison may be flawed. If promising young graduates choose to go to the business sector both because of preference and potential, why force them to go into academia? Heck, we need promising young graduates both in our private and public sectors. The saddening thing is when one sees promising young faculty who want to remain, flourish and contribute to academia -- leave for other occupations because academia in the Philippines just can't give them what they need, both personally and professionally.
I raised this because I'm just wondering how many "promising, young, FILIPINO academics" we are actually losing to US-based schools, which is I think the basis of your original question. If there's not that many, I wonder if we're actually barking up the wrong tree.

But have you tried studying in a top US institution? Learning from "serious scholars in business" and from classmates from all over the world who have done amazing things with their lives and careers? If not, how can you compare the Philippine scenario with the US scenario if you haven't seen or experienced both?
One can infer based on your and rabbaddal's testimony. Much like how US-based scholars study Asia. I also plan to get myself "immersed" for a couple of weeks early next year in a US-based institution. Again, based on your argument, that should suffice for me to draw conclusions.
Seriously, except for the Rizal Library comparison, I don't think I've really said any concrete comparisons between the Philippines and the US academic experience.

Please don't get me wrong: I'm not trying to 'shoot down your ideas,' nor am I stubbornly seeing the glass "half-empty."
Don't worry, no offense taken.

I really appreciate your taking the time to think about these things and post your thoughts. Through this exchange I just hope we can clarify the kind of issues with which we need to grapple if we are serious about our stated intentions of helping build AdMU's SOM into a world-class institution. They are more complex than one might think because they involve multiple players and consideration sets.
My thought, though, is you may be too consumed by the US experience that you're not looking at any more alternatives. While we can aspire for SOM to eventually reach the level of US schools, we have to look at our means and capabilities at this stage.
I'm trying to suggest an alternative - instead of pushing for the level of US institutions and knocking at these schools' doors begging for their affiliation, why doesn't SOM collaborate with other schools of its level in Australasia and utilise their limited resources to provide an altenative to US-based learning and research? In this case, while it probably won't match the resources available to the US institutions, it has its own selling point - it is at the heart of the region that will shape the global economy in the next decades. And howeve the US-based scholars utilise their gazillion resources in their attempt to study Asia, they just don't have the proximity to be as effective as they probably could.

We have focused too much on the limitations of being based in the Philippines, perhaps it's time that we also consider our country's - and region's - competitive advantage.

[dgz]

What can I say? This thread is really interesting to read! Medyo nakakahilo nga lang but it's worth it!

Anyway, I can see victory's point. Mahirap talagang magpatakbo ng school. You really need lots of money to be able to do so. And I agree with him. So I don't see any problem with naming SOM as JGSOM. Of course it sounds weird kasi nga JG's a LaSallian, but I don't care as long as AdMU is improving its' facilities. We should think about practicality.

I agree with Cobkin: we should instead concentrate on our region. Makipag-affiliate tayo sa other Asian and Australian universities and we could exchange our students and share information and such.

As victory said, AdMU has a long way to go to improve its' facilities so that we could compete with other world-class universities in the US. Kaya nga as of now, makipag-affiliate muna tayo sa ibang universities here in our region. Yun na muna siguro ang pinaka-OK for me para naman continuous ang improvement ng Ateneo. As we are doing this, we could send our faculty in other countries like US as to improve the quality of our faculty: to further enhance their knowledge and skills. Maybe attending international conferences would do this. At the same time, the whole region would benefit from this. At least we could compare the quality of our region's education with US education. And after that, we could affiliate our university with other US prestigious institutions.

I also agree with kodak. I know that in order for us to do this, we should have tons of money! Either tayong mga estudyante ang magbabayad upang mangyari ang mga ito o tumanggap ang AdMU ng mga donasyon upang tumaas ang kalidad ng edukasyon ng unibersidad. Of course we need to improve our facilities, our faculty, and the like so that our quality of education would improve.

We still have a long way to go. Really.

Hay naku... ang hirap talagang magpatakbo ng institusyong tulad ng Ateneo. :)

[victory]

posted by Cobkin

My thought, though, is you may be too consumed by the US experience that you're not looking at any more alternatives. While we can aspire for SOM to eventually reach the level of US schools, we have to look at our means and capabilities at this stage.

Not sure what you mean by 'too consumed,' or 'not looking at any more alternatives.' I've been working for AdMU in various fashions as teacher, researcher and administrator for 6 years now, so believe me: Along with several other administrators who have at different times in my life served as teachers and mentors and now colleagues, I've been thinking about and working to achieve many different alternatives. Every month, I ship teaching and research materials from Wharton, HBS and other US b-schools to the Philippines to help our faculty. Every day I e-mail or talk with administrators to help put out little fires and consider options for the future. Whenever I receive requests from industry practitioners about opportunities to teach and 'give back,' I make sure they reach the appropriate decision-makers so that AdMU students can benefit from what they wish to contribute.

Don't ever think I am no longer looking at any more alternatives. Nor that I am levying criticisms or recommendations from the sidelines. I am in the thick of this.

I'm trying to suggest an alternative - instead of pushing for the level of US institutions and knocking at these schools' doors begging for their affiliation, why doesn't SOM collaborate with other schools of its level in Australasia and utilise their limited resources to provide an altenative to US-based learning and research?

We have already worked on this and we've achieved a few things of which we can be proud. AdMU took the lead in establishing working relationships that offer teaching and research exchange programs with a European consortia that provides access to several European universities (how was AdMU able to sponsor Christina Cheng & Joy Pastor's studies in Belgium, Dax Manacsa's studies in Amsterdam and Sandra Seno-Alday's studies in France?). This relationship with European universities sponsored the visits of Dr. Richard Lynch of the University of Sussex, Fr. Jack Mahoney of London Business School, and several other international scholars -- they came and lectured in AdMU and/or conducted research in the Philippines and the Asian region. In 1997 we became part of a consortia of universities spanning the US, Europe, Asia and Australia that provided graduate school level opportunities for study in Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). Lloyd Tanlu was among the first beneficiaries of this program when AdMU sponsored his studies in HKBU in 1997. We've been sending a couple of our young faculty to HKBU every year since then. Our affiliation with Jesuit universities around the world are also a key resource we have yet to tap fully.

You see, what you're suggesting is already on the plate. You reached the same recommendation that SOM administrators have been working on for years. Did you know about these opportunities that are available for SOM faculty?

Is this enough though? The names I mentioned above are I believe pretty much among the better teachers one can find in AdMU, based on teaching ratings. But every single one of them has left AdMU except for Dax Manacsa. Bakit kaya?

We have focused too much on the limitations of being based in the Philippines, perhaps it's time that we also consider our country's - and region's - competitive advantage.

In this thread, perhaps. And I suppose it is my fault for being too Socratic about things and asking questions instead of providing you with more information about the kind of progress AdMU's SOM has made over the years. It's made a lot of strides forward, thanks to incredibly dedicated teachers and administrators like Rudy Ang, Darwin Yu, etc. But is this enough? We have a long way to go. And while the most reasonable suggestion may be to consider our limitations first and partner up with 'institutions of similar caliber,' our benchmark should be the best institutions in the world. We owe our constituents -- students, faculty, administrators... indeed, the Philippines -- nothing less. Will I shoot myself in the head in frustration if the SOM does not approach the level of US universities in 5 years? Of course not. I think in centuries. But we must try and think about the fundamental problems and issues with which people who run the SOM are grappling. That's why I'm pushing all of you in this thread to think about incentives, options and alternatives -- and to put yourself in the shoes of people who are dedicating their lives to make AdMU's SOM better. Is it as easy to levy judgment like Mr. Borja's if you knew what running a school was really all about? Is it as easy to make off-the-cuff recommendations when you know more about the kind of work that has already been done, the kind of issues and problems that need to be tackled, and the multiple conflicting incentives and constraints that are operative?

I think not. And of course the final challenge to everyone here is: If you think you know what AdMU ought and ought not to do, why not get your hands dirty and move it forward yourself? No? Don't have time? Have other things to do with your life? Prefer to just express opinions in PeX or other fora? Perfectly fine. But at least pause and think carefully about what the issues really are, what's been done, and what needs to be done.

Conviction is the privilege of those in the sidelines. In the meantime, we are working hard at moving the SOM forward. Thank you for your suggestions.

One can infer based on your and rabbaddal's testimony. Much like how US-based scholars study Asia. I also plan to get myself "immersed" for a couple of weeks early next year in a US-based institution. Again, based on your argument, that should suffice for me to draw conclusions.

Couple of weeks? No. Try couple of years. Then draw conclusions. And which US-based institution? There are first-rate institutions in the US but there are also institutions for which the learning experience in Philippine schools is indeed the better choice!


posted by dgz

Hay naku... ang hirap talagang magpatakbo ng institusyong tulad ng Ateneo.

You said it, dgz. But the key point is to try our best to move forward, right?

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by victory


With whom will you be working and in what fashion? Note that the experience may be radically different if you are a student in a Nobel Laureate's MBA class, or if you are his (sorry for the seemingly anti-feminist use of the term -- but a woman has yet to receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences -- more a testament against the institution awarding the prizes than to the actual lack of feminine talent in the profession) research assistant collaborating on a joint paper. Being an exceptionally brilliant researcher and thinker need not mean you are also a fantastic teacher...



I’ll try to enroll in Joseph Stiglitz’s global economy class. Or I might spend my bid points on Bruce Greenwald’s value investing class.

Originally posted by victory

Wouldn't go so far as this, though. There are lots of people in the Philippines with whom you can have an intelligent, stimulating conversation about financial engineering.

Financial engineering as a mathematical science (a subset of OR) rather than as a corporate application? I think the former is what Dr. Marasigan may be driving at. Although financial engineering electives are taught in US (and probably some Pinoy) b-schools, the science and specialization is usually handled by engineering schools. Broadly speaking, the act of un-packaging and re-packaging securities can be construed as financial engineering, but I’m not sure if the science behind the application has really taken off back home. Maybe some Pinoys who studied in US engineering schools would have the technical FE skills, but is it possible for them to use the technical aspect of what they learned back in the Philippines? That’s why I said that over here I would “have to go to the next building” – the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

I think before we even explore the idea of FE, we should first upgrade our program in finance and OR. Doesn’t it make your mouth drool to know that Princeton has its own institute exclusively dedicated to the study of finance?

Originally posted by victory
If you worked in a company that provided great training and development opportunities, did you outstrip your former teachers fairly quickly in terms of your grasp of 'what's really going on' in the business world? Were you aware of the latest developments while your former teachers still taught the same basic lessons from the same old textbooks?

How far do we need to go if we truly want to build a "world-class institution"?

Simple valuation techniques would be good to teach at the undergrad level, that is if the SOM can afford to buy those Harvard cases.

Originally posted by victory


It's made a lot of strides forward, thanks to incredibly dedicated teachers and administrators like Rudy Ang, Darwin Yu, etc. But is this enough? We have a long way to go. And while the most reasonable suggestion may be to consider our limitations first and partner up with 'institutions of similar caliber,' our benchmark should be the best institutions in the world.

I agree. We have to raise the bar. BTW, pls ignore the side comments I made to Oscar01 about Rudy Ang and Dr. Venida.:)

Originally posted by victory

Is it as easy to levy judgment like Mr. Borja's if you knew what running a school was really all about? Is it as easy to make off-the-cuff recommendations when you know more about the kind of work that has already been done, the kind of issues and problems that need to be tackled, and the multiple conflicting incentives and constraints that are operative?

I think not. And of course the final challenge to everyone here is: If you think you know what AdMU ought and ought not to do, why not get your hands dirty and move it forward yourself? No? Don't have time? Have other things to do with your life? Prefer to just express opinions in PeX or other fora? Perfectly fine. But at least pause and think carefully about what the issues really are, what's been done, and what needs to be done.

Conviction is the privilege of those in the sidelines. In the meantime, we are working hard at moving the SOM forward. Thank you for your suggestions.


I think the real underlying concern of many who have shared their opinion in this thread is that the next batches of college applicants will be levying judgement when they decide on what school they want to go to, in the same way that you levied judgement when you chose to attend Wharton rather than another b-school. These are practical decisions that we all have to make in life. Regardless of what's happening inside the SOM, and regardless of who's willing to get his or her hands dirty, the best and the brightest of these applicants will ask whether or not the SOM can provide the best business education for them. And if they think they can find a better management education in another school, then they will go to that other school. The SOM's competition could very well be universities in other countries. It's becoming so much easier for international students to get scholarships and college education loans just by exploiting loopholes in US banking policies. What would then happen to the SOM if it can no longer attract the most promising management students?

Can someone who is not getting his or her hands dirty be of any help to the progress of the SOM? I agree with you that we all do our best based on what we can do. After all, Mr. Wharton didn't get his "hands dirty" when he helped the second-best school in Pennsylvannia (second to Penn State :D ), neither did Doris Duke, JW Kellogg, Alfred Sloan, and Leonard Stern.

[Cobkin]

Originally posted by victory
Not sure what you mean by 'too consumed,' or 'not looking at any more alternatives.' I've been working for AdMU in various fashions as teacher, researcher and administrator for 6 years now, so believe me: Along with several other administrators who have at different times in my life served as teachers and mentors and now colleagues, I've been thinking about and working to achieve many different alternatives. Every month, I ship teaching and research materials from Wharton, HBS and other US b-schools to the Philippines to help our faculty. Every day I e-mail or talk with administrators to help put out little fires and consider options for the future. Whenever I receive requests from industry practitioners about opportunities to teach and 'give back,' I make sure they reach the appropriate decision-makers so that AdMU students can benefit from what they wish to contribute.

Don't ever think I am no longer looking at any more alternatives. Nor that I am levying criticisms or recommendations from the sidelines. I am in the thick of this.
By "too consumed" I meant that perhaps you're not looking at any more alternatives because you're benchmarking the US schools and racking your brains about how the SOM can get from the level that it is in now to the level of the US business schools. That is almost impossible, as there are stages the school has to go through first.
But as you've mentioned in your reply, I see that's not the case. I'm sorry about that, I hope you didn't take offense too much.


We have already worked on this and we've achieved a few things of which we can be proud. AdMU took the lead in establishing working relationships that offer teaching and research exchange programs with a European consortia that provides access to several European universities (how was AdMU able to sponsor Christina Cheng & Joy Pastor's studies in Belgium, Dax Manacsa's studies in Amsterdam and Sandra Seno-Alday's studies in France?). This relationship with European universities sponsored the visits of Dr. Richard Lynch of the University of Sussex, Fr. Jack Mahoney of London Business School, and several other international scholars -- they came and lectured in AdMU and/or conducted research in the Philippines and the Asian region. In 1997 we became part of a consortia of universities spanning the US, Europe, Asia and Australia that provided graduate school level opportunities for study in Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). Lloyd Tanlu was among the first beneficiaries of this program when AdMU sponsored his studies in HKBU in 1997. We've been sending a couple of our young faculty to HKBU every year since then. Our affiliation with Jesuit universities around the world are also a key resource we have yet to tap fully.

You see, what you're suggesting is already on the plate. You reached the same recommendation that SOM administrators have been working on for years. Did you know about these opportunities that are available for SOM faculty?

Is this enough though? The names I mentioned above are I believe pretty much among the better teachers one can find in AdMU, based on teaching ratings. But every single one of them has left AdMU except for Dax Manacsa. Bakit kaya?
These are really good strides, especially, the visiting teachers. One thing, though, I noticed that most of what you said here are about promoting the quality of teaching by basically training the teachers and exposing them to various learning avenues. And you mentioned about the fact that it's difficult to retain them after they got the training they need - I thought this is only rampant in the private IT sector.
What about you also try to implement this at the level of the students? I mean, does the Ateneo have study exchange programs in place with other international schools for undergrads for example? What I'm driving at here is students will get real benefits by being exposed to these other schools and places, academically and culturally. This way, the school may be able to attract and develop better quality students. Maybe, just maybe, if the quality of students is raised into another level (from the already high level that it is now :p ), teachers will be encouraged to stay just a bit longer - as they can gain invaluable learning from their students also. If not, at least this is another avenue that Ateneo can look at to give its students better quality education. Sort of circumventing its problem with a lack of really high quality teachers.


In this thread, perhaps. And I suppose it is my fault for being too Socratic about things and asking questions instead of providing you with more information about the kind of progress AdMU's SOM has made over the years. It's made a lot of strides forward, thanks to incredibly dedicated teachers and administrators like Rudy Ang, Darwin Yu, etc. But is this enough? We have a long way to go. And while the most reasonable suggestion may be to consider our limitations first and partner up with 'institutions of similar caliber,' our benchmark should be the best institutions in the world. We owe our constituents -- students, faculty, administrators... indeed, the Philippines -- nothing less.
Oh, I agree. My suggestion was basically a recognition that the Ateneo cannot do it alone - it's just too short on resources. That's why I was suggesting the affiliation with other "ka level" schools in the region. Well, even before that, maybe with say La Salle and UP. What about the Big 3 (lagot pag may Thomasian na makabasa nito) forming a say, specialist business course with only one class of 30 in each institution, utilizing the top teachers in these three schools? You're saying that the Ateneo can't hold on to top quality teachers. It's likely that La Salle and UP are experiencing the same problem. You can overcome this constraint in some way by cooperating amongst yourselves.

Will I shoot myself in the head in frustration if the SOM does not approach the level of US universities in 5 years? Of course not. I think in centuries. But we must try and think about the fundamental problems and issues with which people who run the SOM are grappling. That's why I'm pushing all of you in this thread to think about incentives, options and alternatives -- and to put yourself in the shoes of people who are dedicating their lives to make AdMU's SOM better. Is it as easy to levy judgment like Mr. Borja's if you knew what running a school was really all about? Is it as easy to make off-the-cuff recommendations when you know more about the kind of work that has already been done, the kind of issues and problems that need to be tackled, and the multiple conflicting incentives and constraints that are operative?

I think not. And of course the final challenge to everyone here is: If you think you know what AdMU ought and ought not to do, why not get your hands dirty and move it forward yourself? No? Don't have time? Have other things to do with your life? Prefer to just express opinions in PeX or other fora? Perfectly fine. But at least pause and think carefully about what the issues really are, what's been done, and what needs to be done.
Well, Mr. Borja took a really negative view of it, but I personally don't blame him too much.
The Ateneo administration, through the years, has not really been known to communicate with the students, you practically have to squeeze information out of them. I think what Mr. Borja wanted was merely to be given the due importance he felt he had as a student of the University.
The thing is, students don't know what's going on in the University. Do they have to know everything? Probably not. But I think they should at least know where the school is headed and what's going on.
Like here you are telling those "who don't have the time to get their hands dirty" to think about the issues first, what needs to be done, and what has been done. But we will only know that if the school communicates to us, won't we? If the school is indeed sincere in soliciting student and alumni opinion with regards to these matters, don't you think it should be communicating to them what is really going on, and what needs to be done?

Conviction is the privilege of those in the sidelines. In the meantime, we are working hard at moving the SOM forward. Thank you for your suggestions.
For as long as the school administrators don't communicate effectively with students and alumni, conviction is the only thing that we can hold on to. And Ateneo will continuously face PR nightmares like that of Mr. Borja's damaging - albeit out of line - circulated e-mail if it doesn't improve on its communication policies.

Couple of weeks? No. Try couple of years. Then draw conclusions. And which US-based institution? There are first-rate institutions in the US but there are also institutions for which the learning experience in Philippine schools is indeed the better choice!
Nah, I'm already happy to have the two-week opportunity. What's your take on the University of Maryland?

[victory]

posted by Cobkin

And Ateneo will continuously face PR nightmares like that of Mr. Borja's damaging - albeit out of line - circulated e-mail if it doesn't improve on its communication policies.

Completely agree. AdMU's administrators could have done a little bit more to involve stakeholders in the process, although they did have their hands tied behind their back for several months since they could not say anything until the deal had been finalized. A little bit of thoughtfulness about how to introduce the idea to stakeholders via various communication channels could have made the situation much better.

Nah, I'm already happy to have the two-week opportunity. What's your take on the University of Maryland?

Which department or program?

Cobkin, no offense taken at all. As I said in my earlier post, thanks a bunch for taking the time to think about these things and post your reflections. Your posts are well thought out, well argued, and I appreciate your taking a stand given what you know and what you think might be best for AdMU. That's a lot more than I can say for many other characters here in PeX!

BTW, if you are turning 27 sometime soon, are we from the same batch (1996 AdMU)? Perhaps you are one batch younger than rabbaddal and I?

[Oscar01]

Originally posted by Cobkin
Well, Mr. Borja took a really negative view of it, but I personally don't blame him too much.
The Ateneo administration, through the years, has not really been known to communicate with the students, you practically have to squeeze information out of them. I think what Mr. Borja wanted was merely to be given the due importance he felt he had as a student of the University.
Probably depends on which department, but since when did the opinion of one student become a "PR nightmare"?

I'd imagine, for example, that the Ateneo impeaching its own student council president or it censoring The Vagina Monologues could better "PR nightmares" but one letter?

I've hardly heard anything negative come out of that, except for a lively exchange of opinions.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by Cobkin

What's your take on the University of Maryland?

University of Maryland - College Park has one of the best Computer Science and Engineering graduate degree programs in the world. It's one of those less famous but extremely good institutions in science and technology, in the same league w/ Rensellear, Tufts, and Rutgers.

[Cobkin]

Originally posted by victory
Which department or program?
I'm taking a two-week seminar equivalent to two electives for my MBA at the R. H. Smith School.

BTW, if you are turning 27 sometime soon, are we from the same batch (1996 AdMU)? Perhaps you are one batch younger than rabbaddal and I?
Yup, I'm one of the many anonymous graduates of 96. :)

[Cobkin]

Originally posted by Oscar01

Probably depends on which department, but since when did the opinion of one student become a "PR nightmare"?

I'd imagine, for example, that the Ateneo impeaching its own student council president or it censoring The Vagina Monologues could better "PR nightmares" but one letter?

I've hardly heard anything negative come out of that, except for a lively exchange of opinions.

I don't know the extent of it, but it was directly quoted by Samonte-Pescayo in inq7money.net and was alluded to by some inquirer columnist (Chanco, I think).

And it wasn't only Borja. The inquirer columnist also talked about some "prominent alumni" who protested the move.

[Cobkin]

Originally posted by rabbaddal


University of Maryland - College Park has one of the best Computer Science and Engineering graduate degree programs in the world. It's one of those less famous but extremely good institutions in science and technology, in the same league w/ Rensellear, Tufts, and Rutgers.

So I heard. However, I'm so full of CS already that I don't want anything more to do with it (at least for now). They're also claiming to have one of the best "Technical MBAs", whatever that means.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by Cobkin
They're also claiming to have one of the best "Technical MBAs", whatever that means.

Whatever that means indeed. Probably bec. you can take IT electives? I'm not so sure. It's not clear what their synergies are bet. business and technology. An MBA is first and foremost a business course. Carnegie-Mellon has an MS E-Commerce program where the synergies are clearer and formalized. Here's the website:

http://www.ecom.cmu.edu/

[Ithacxa]

Just to add a little more spice into this conversation: I have just found out that normal Faculty development contracts here in Ateneo require funded faculty members to render 3 years worth of service per P150,000 they receive from the school. Supposed a lowly assistant instructor like myself were taking an MBA or PhD in the US, for which Ateneo gave me $20,000. ((What will $20,000 finance? A semester's tuition and fees and living expenses? But that's a different discussion altogether.) That means that at the current exchange rate of P50/$1, I would be receiving P1m, and would be thus REQUIRED to render TWENTY years of service to the School. Twenty years for $20,000.00!!!! It would have been much, much, much more acceptable for me to render 20 years of service if they a) made me an honorary Jesuit, and b) paid for EVERYTHING ELSE including the funeral expenses of my entire family! And of course, those of you who have worked in the US know how much more easily $20,000 is earned post an MBA or Phd. This is simply and utterly ridiculous!

I don't really know when the P200m from Gokongwei will help, but if the admin does not do anything to change this requirement, no one will be left behind. No one will be crazy enough to.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by Ithacxa
Just to add a little more spice into this conversation: I have just found out that normal Faculty development contracts here in Ateneo require funded faculty members to render 3 years worth of service per P150,000 they receive from the school. Supposed a lowly assistant instructor like myself were taking an MBA or PhD in the US, for which Ateneo gave me $20,000. ((What will $20,000 finance? A semester's tuition and fees and living expenses? But that's a different discussion altogether.) That means that at the current exchange rate of P50/$1, I would be receiving P1m, and would be thus REQUIRED to render TWENTY years of service to the School. Twenty years for $20,000.00!!!! It would have been much, much, much more acceptable for me to render 20 years of service if they a) made me an honorary Jesuit, and b) paid for EVERYTHING ELSE including the funeral expenses of my entire family! And of course, those of you who have worked in the US know how much more easily $20,000 is earned post an MBA or Phd. This is simply and utterly ridiculous!

I don't really know when the P200m from Gokongwei will help, but if the admin does not do anything to change this requirement, no one will be left behind. No one will be crazy enough to.

This is a good twist. Should the SOM in particular, and the Ateneo in general, concentrate on developing faculty members organically but also require them to return the favor in the form of X number of years of service, or should it just focus on hiring professors who already hold advanced degrees and have produced a significant amount of professional work? Either alternative will cost a lot of money.

[Ali]

Hi guys. Sali ako.

To the best of my knowledge, in practice, the Ateneo de Manila's faculty development program does not shoulder the cost of foreign study. If they did, then victory would have received that grant long ago. What they shoulder is the cost of deloading, study at the Ateneo de Manila, some thesis produciton expenses, and (I hear) in rare cases, the cost of foreign travel. They don't even subsidize the cost of testing (GRE, GMAT, TOEFL) and applications to foreign institutions. And last I checked, they didn't even cover the cost of studying in other local schools (like AIM, UP, and La Salle).

Thus, grants from FacDev rarely exceed P150,000. In fact, I think that's the nominal maximum already. Of course the situation's far from ideal, but the Ateneo simply cannot afford to send its faculty abroad on its own resources. Even the SOM's 200 million pesos will not go a long way in funding graduate studies abroad, considering all the other needs of the school. $20,000 a semester's a conservative estimate. Mabuti na lang, karamihan ng mga Atenista abroad, may scholarship o fellowship.

Personally, I feel a 'compromise' is in order. The Ateneo can't afford to send teachers abroad, but I feel the FacDev program should more zealously assist faculty in securing foreign aid (for studies and research both here and abroad) and opportunities for foreign study.

They've begun to do this, in some way, but honestly, Dr. Angeles's office (The Office of the Academic Vice President) has been a more staunch advocate of mining foreign opportunities than the FacDev program. And La Salle is simply better at this game that we are. Parang basketball. I hear they actually send people on junkets all over the world just to beg for funding and all that jazz.

Simply gathering, archiving, mining, and disemminating information about opportunities abroad would already be invaluable to many faculty members. Centralizing and subsidizing the various assessment instruments is another thing that will go a long, long, way. This should be easy, since I think the Ateneo actually handles the TOEFL, GRE, and GMAT testing center in Makati. Di ba, common sense na lang halos?

And what of overseas support organizations for Ateneo Faculty in Graduate School?

victory shops for students for Wharton right? Why can't the Ateneo send greengrocers to help seek out new life and boldly go where no one has gone before, parang Star Trek. Heck, we don't even have to send people out on junkets. We can just pick out resource persons in the various schools abroad to send home course catalogs/news of openings and opportunities, and maybe talk to people in high places about our little school in Loyola Heights. I know a lot of our faculty members abroad already do this. But the effort should be coordinated.

Regarding the SOM's faculty acquisition policy, last night, at the Grand Management Engineering Reunion®, Dean Manny Velasco's speech leaned more towards acquiring 'experienced hires' rather than faculty development. Of course, he also spoke of the planned 5-year ladderized BS/MS programs which should increase the number of faculty with graduate degrees in the future.

Hayan, mahaba na iyan. Ituloy ang talakayan.

[Ithacxa]

"Dean Manny Velasco's speech leaned more towards acquiring 'experienced hires' rather than faculty development. Of course, he also spoke of the planned 5-year ladderized BS/MS programs which should increase the number of faculty with graduate degrees in the future. "

Is that so? This is very disconcerting to say the least! Is this what we who have devoted ourselves to the school get for all that we have done? If this is the case, then it was nice knowing Ateneo.........

[Ali]

Well, it's a common sentiment among young Ateneo faculty that the school isn't taking enough care of them. I've felt that way at times.

It's really a problem. The Ateneo keeps losing talented young people all the time. But I don't really know what we can do about it...

Hay...

[Hannibal]

Originally posted by Ali
Regarding the SOM's faculty acquisition policy, last night, at the Grand Management Engineering Reunion®, Dean Manny Velasco's speech leaned more towards acquiring 'experienced hires' rather than faculty development. Of course, he also spoke of the planned 5-year ladderized BS/MS programs which should increase the number of faculty with graduate degrees in the future.

Hayan, mahaba na iyan. Ituloy ang talakayan.

How was the Grand Reunion? Was it well attended? Who were the "key" people there?

As one of the more ancient ME alumni, I'm interested in finding out what other developments are in store for the SOM. I've been living in the USA for more than a decade and I'm very eager to find out what's happening in our beloved Ateneo.

Thanks.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by Ithacxa
"Dean Manny Velasco's speech leaned more towards acquiring 'experienced hires' rather than faculty development. Of course, he also spoke of the planned 5-year ladderized BS/MS programs which should increase the number of faculty with graduate degrees in the future. "

Is that so? This is very disconcerting to say the least! Is this what we who have devoted ourselves to the school get for all that we have done? If this is the case, then it was nice knowing Ateneo.........

Ithacxa: If there's any consolation, most US schools require faculty to have Phd degrees and have done prior research before he/she is hired by the school for a faculty position. This is not just a practice in the top-tier schools but even mid-tier and lower-tier universities. The logic behind it is that if the prospective faculty member is any good, then he/she should be capable and resourceful enough to secure his/her own fellowships and grants (aka. manage one's own career).

I'm not sure I agree w/ this, but this seems to be the practice in the free and open market. I know of some former Ateneo schoolmates who have secured their own grants/fellowships so they could earn their MS and Phds in US schools like San Jose State and U of Cincinnati while working as RAs. They discovered these fellowships on their own while browsing the internet and wrote to the schools that they were interested in.

Ali is right. There has to be a coordinating effort to let prospects know what's out there simply bec. there's lots of fellowship opportunities out there that can be searched. For example, while searching for scholarships for a friend, I found out that the New School here in NY offers many scholarships in the arts, humanities, and social sciences where international students can qualify for. I also have 3 friends from UP who were able to obtain MS Eco scholarships at the Nat'l University of Singapore very easily just bec. they were able to dig it up in the web.

[rabbaddal]

double post

[victory]

posted by Ithacxa

Is that so? This is very disconcerting to say the least! Is this what we who have devoted ourselves to the school get for all that we have done? If this is the case, then it was nice knowing Ateneo.........



posted by rabbaddal

Ithacxa: If there's any consolation, most US schools require faculty to have Phd degrees and have done prior research before he/she is hired by the school for a faculty position. This is not just a practice in the top-tier schools but even mid-tier and lower-tier universities. The logic behind it is that if the prospective faculty member is any good, then he/she should be capable and resourceful enough to secure his/her own fellowships and grants (aka. manage one's own career).

Rabbaddal, I am not sure if your post helped assure Ithacxa that going back to Ateneo after he gets his MBA and Ph.D. (and I can assure you that Ithacxa will be getting his MBA soon at a top-ranked business school in the US) is a good option. After all, if the "practice in the free and open market" requires scholars/researchers to exercise initiative, manage their careers proactively, and secure grants for themselves -- then why should any scholar or researcher go back to AdMU's SOM? Why not go to US schools that "demand the same high standards of initiative and resourcefulness" and yet offer (much) higher compensation rates and the promise of interacting with the best minds in the fields of business and economics?

Ali, as for the BS/MS track that Dean Manny Velasco has mentioned (which he has been mentioning this since the start of his three year term, by the way -- how long does it really take to get a program off the ground, CHED approvals notwithstanding?), why should this not equally result in our graduates being even more "marketable" for industry? Why should the students who obtain BS/MS degrees stay in AdMU to teach?

At saka sino ang magtuturo ng MS degrees sa SOM? Enumerate the SOM faculty who are at the cutting edge of their fields: Accounting? Finance? Marketing? Operations? Strategy? Undergraduate level stuff, sure. But masteral level stuff? The kind that will really open doors for future Ph.D. programs for these scholars?

Maybe if they ask for help from the Economics Department.

Ithacxa -- I have one advice for you: DON'T sign any contracts! :lol:


posted by Ali

victory shops for students for Wharton right? Why can't the Ateneo send greengrocers to help seek out new life and boldly go where no one has gone before, parang Star Trek. Heck, we don't even have to send people out on junkets. We can just pick out resource persons in the various schools abroad to send home course catalogs/news of openings and opportunities, and maybe talk to people in high places about our little school in Loyola Heights. I know a lot of our faculty members abroad already do this. But the effort should be coordinated.

The more correct term is "victory travels back to the Philippines at his own expense to tell students and faculty about opportunities for graduate level studies in Wharton, and helps organize events -- again at his own expense -- so that other Filipinos studying in Harvard, MIT, etc. can share their experiences" -- whether these same students and young faculty actually qualify for graduate schools in the US when they do apply is another matter altogether. victory also ships back application materials and brochures and asks SOM faculty to display them at prominent places around the office so that information can be disseminated (is this being done, Ithacxa?). victory has helped scores of his batchmates and other Filipinos who went through the process of applying to graduate schools in the US, reading through their essays, giving them advice on how to best prepare for the GMAT and how to choose recommenders -- services being offered these days by "MBA consultants" in the Philippines for a fee. victory also asks people who are in US grad schools if they might be interested in teaching short modules of courses in the SOM if they will be in town for a few weeks or a few months; if they wish to "team-teach" a class with a current SOM faculty member, that would be workable too: The faculty member can lay down the theoretical foundations and the practitioner/MBA graduate can update SOM students about the latest concepts and tools being used in the real world. victory also puts young faculty like Ithacxa in touch with AdMU administrators so that they can establish mentoring relationships that can open doors to future graduate school opportunities. victory reminds young faculty about Fulbright scholarship deadlines every mid-May, about resources in the Thomas Jefferson National Library and the Philippine-American Educational Foundation, about the AT&T Leadership Award, the NAFSA ASAAP grant, and dozens of other fellowships for international students taking up business: victory may even be able to point you out to some grants that might defray your costs of education, rabbaddal. victory and his wife also taught two elective courses in AdMU last year, on an accelerated basis (6 hours a week for a 3-unit course) because they had to be back in the US before the semester started. They also did it for free (and this when they had summer internship opportunities in US firms), and donated their would-be pay back to AdMU. Wow. Cool. Hanep. Man for others kuno. Pero hindi pa rin True Atenean. :lol:

Dami pang ibang ginagawa ni victory; he doesn't ask for any kind of thanks, doesn't receive any kind of remuneration from AdMU aside from a few hello's and e-mails here and there from old friends. I think victory is "resourceful and entrepreneurial enough to manage his own career;" he's done fairly well for himself. He does this out of pure, unbridled, unapologetic self-interest: because he loves AdMU as an institution and what it stands for.

But sooner or later, baka mapagod na siya. Baka mapuno na si Ithacxa. Baka si Ali ay magkaroon na ng asawa at anak, at kailanganing kumita ng suweldo na mas malaki ng kaunti sa binibigay sa kanya ngayon sa Ateneo.

Now tell me -- who will cast the first stone and say Ithacxa, Ali and victory were "not noble enough" or that they "sold out" if they choose to leave AdMU to work elsewhere? Who will come up with grand recommendations about how to improve the SOM? Who will come up with sweeping statements about how funding efforts like the JGSOM naming was a "sell out" move?

Who will cast the first stone?

If Ithacxa, a person I believe to be a "serious scholar of business," ends up finishing his MBA and Ph.D. in the US and accepts an academic appointment in a US university, was he "not enough of a man for others" because he did not choose to stay in AdMU? Or was AdMU not enough of an "institution for others" for Ithacxa? :)

Ali, glad to know you attended the Grand Management Engineering Reunion. Impressed ka ba?

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by victory

Rabbaddal, I am not sure if your post helped assure Ithacxa that going back to Ateneo after he gets his MBA and Ph.D. (and I can assure you that Ithacxa will be getting his MBA soon at a top-ranked business school in the US) is a good option. After all, if the "practice in the free and open market" requires scholars/researchers to exercise initiative, manage their careers proactively, and secure grants for themselves -- then why should any scholar or researcher go back to AdMU's SOM? Why not go to US schools that "demand the same high standards of initiative and resourcefulness" and yet offer (much) higher compensation rates and the promise of interacting with the best minds in the fields of business and economics?



That's just the practice over here. People who want a career in the academe take responsibility for their own career development. Anyway, all I wanted to say was that there are many fellowships out there that one can apply for on his own and many resourceful people have dug up and availed of these fellowships. Of course, the more popular among these would be the Fulbright, Jefferson, Ford, etc., but there are other fellowships out there that are not so publicly known. Even some of my schoolmates and friends were able to secure their own fellowships in different schools in the US, Europe, and Asia simply because it can be done. I don't know why a scholar who was able to build up his own career would want to go back and work for the ADMU, but I do know that there are some like Mr. Calasanz, Venida, Garcia et al who have. So somewhere, somehow, there must be a reason. And as you said - don't sign any contract. The only other option must be for the person to hack it out himself and leave it up to him whether or not to work for the ADMU.

Originally posted by Ali
victory shops for students for Wharton right? Why can't the Ateneo send greengrocers to help seek out new life and boldly go where no one has gone before, parang Star Trek. Heck, we don't even have to send people out on junkets. We can just pick out resource persons in the various schools abroad to send home course catalogs/news of openings and opportunities, and maybe talk to people in high places about our little school in Loyola Heights. I know a lot of our faculty members abroad already do this. But the effort should be coordinated.


Ateneo used to have some of this clout in Fordham University since Fr. O'Hare, Fordham President, used to be an ADMU faculty member and if I'm not mistaken, an ADZU president. That's how some fellowships in Political Economy, Social Sciences, and Philo were opened to ADMU grads. However, Fr. O'Hare is about to retire this year and it's not sure if ADMU will have the same connections in Fordham as it had when he was around.

[Ithacxa]

1. "Ithacxa: If there's any consolation, most US schools require faculty to have Phd degrees and have done prior research before he/she is hired by the school for a faculty position. This is not just a practice in the top-tier schools but even mid-tier and lower-tier universities. The logic behind it is that if the prospective faculty member is any good, then he/she should be capable and resourceful enough to secure his/her own fellowships and grants (aka. manage one's own career)."

No disagreement there with me - no institution could call itself world-class if it did not possess the intellectual horsepower that the PhDs in their respesctive fields provided.

However, that's not what I feel is the real issue, the one that made me go out of my usually-lurking state. For me, this is the issue: the administration needs to be extra careful about how the SOM will build itself up in becoming a world-class academic institution. If it wants to have capable PhDs to run the SOM today, it can hire them with relative ease by pirating them from other institutions, and that would boost the School's reputation and prestige. But the downside to that is that these people may not necessarily share in the Vision and Mission of the Institution. A true story I heard from another School in the LS is that there was this new PhD hire who was quoted as having said that it was alright for their department to hire lackluster teachers to deliver their higher-level courses because anyway, the students would somehow compensate for his/her relative weakness in delivery. When I heard this, I got shocked because Kura personalis is at the core of Ateneo pedagogy - in marketing terms, our means at product differentiation. If we cannot have excellent, dedicated teachers present in the School teaching these all-important courses, then how can we lay claim to the phrase "academic excellence?" What are we calling the Ateneo? And yet, strangely enough, such individuals exist. Do you honestly want those people to run the SOM? Hopefully not.

On the other hand, having to develop homegrown PhDs takes a very long time to do, and there is a risk that those sent abroad will not come back. But the returns are immense - Excellent faculty members who share in the Ateneo spirit and tradition. Ultimately, I hope they think this matter through carefully.

On my end, I have repeatedly told the administration that I was serious about doing both research and teaching. And for the love of God, how else could anyone think otherwise? While others were busy enriching themselves and enjoying their lives with reckless abandon, I made a choice to stay in Ateneo. I cannot even begin to tell you all that I have had to bear with in silence. Is this all that I get? Being told that I am not good enough to be given a faculty development grant? Obviously, there has been a serious oversight somewhere.

2. "Ali is right. There has to be a coordinating effort to let prospects know what's out there simply bec. there's lots of fellowship opportunities out there that can be searched. For example, while searching for scholarships for a friend, I found out that the New School here in NY offers many scholarships in the arts, humanities, and social sciences where international students can qualify for. I also have 3 friends from UP who were able to obtain MS Eco scholarships at the Nat'l University of Singapore very easily just bec. they were able to dig it up in the web."

Coordination efforts take place more on a personal level than on an institutional level. A faculty member gets to know of a program not through formal channels, but through informal, personal ones. Until very recently, no one from the Ateneo has actually spoken with me to EXPLICITLY ask me about how I would like my academic career to progress. Of course, I had known that I wanted a master's degree that would have eventually graduate to a PhD. But no one at that time ever got in touch with me and told me about the difference between an MBA and an MA in Economics or an MS in Financial Engineering or an MS in Applied Mathematics. The Department chair was either too busy or did not know the difference himself. No offense to them, but diba trabaho nila yun? Truly enough, as so many others have done, I scanned through so many websites until I finally found the one that I felt would best prepare me for my future.

You ask me how easy it is to surf the web? The better question to ask is this: If surfing the web has been so easy, then why hasn't the administration done anything?

Ang haba na nito. Anyway, even if you don't sympathize or understand us teachers in the Ateneo and why we seem to grumble so much, just try to hear our side out. I am not making any of this up. This is an actual view from "Ground Zero."

[Ali]

I was unimpressed by the reunion, because I (and many of my friends) felt that they squandered the opportunity. Granted, it was the first ever M.E. Reunion, so there are growing pains. But it certainly wasn't that grand. Good lang. And quite fun.

Despite being in the School of Humanities, not Gokongwei, the concerns here are very similar to mine, and just reading the questioning and grumbling here is consoling, in a way.

Random notes lang muna...
You ask me how easy it is to surf the web? The better question to ask is this: If surfing the web has been so easy, then why hasn't the administration done anything?
They haven't done anything simply because they haven't. Granted, specific, individually-tailored search for opportunities is not something we ought to expect of the Ateneo, but I think it shouldn't be too hard to point people in the right direction.
Ali, as for the BS/MS track that Dean Manny Velasco has mentioned (which he has been mentioning this since the start of his three year term, by the way -- how long does it really take to get a program off the ground, CHED approvals notwithstanding?), why should this not equally result in our graduates being even more "marketable" for industry? Why should the students who obtain BS/MS degrees stay in AdMU to teach?

The Philosophy department took a year to get its modified programs up and running. That includes a total revamp of our Ph.D program. (Which is, in terms of content, one of the best non-Japanese Ph.D programs in Asia. Logistics is another matter...) Our AB/MA is still at least 4+2 years, though, because it's a thesis program. But a terminal 5-year AB/MA is possible given the current framework

The School of Science and Engineering has its BS/MS programs in place.

Management's been very vocal about its BS/MS. But they simply don't have the graduate faculty to pull it off yet. Last I heard, they were going to outsource the grad subjects from the School of Science and Engineering, and the Ateneo Advanced Information Technology Institute in Rockwell.

Dami pang ibang ginagawa ni victory; he doesn't ask for any kind of thanks, doesn't receive any kind of remuneration from AdMU aside from a few hello's and e-mails here and there from old friends. I think victory is "resourceful and entrepreneurial enough to manage his own career;" he's done fairly well for himself. He does this out of pure, unbridled, unapologetic self-interest: because he loves AdMU as an institution and what it stands for.

But sooner or later, baka mapagod na siya. Baka mapuno na si Ithacxa. Baka si Ali ay magkaroon na ng asawa at anak, at kailanganing kumita ng suweldo na mas malaki ng kaunti sa binibigay sa kanya ngayon sa Ateneo.

Now tell me -- who will cast the first stone and say Ithacxa, Ali and victory were "not noble enough" or that they "sold out" if they choose to leave AdMU to work elsewhere? Who will come up with grand recommendations about how to improve the SOM? Who will come up with sweeping statements about how funding efforts like the JGSOM naming was a "sell out" move?

victory, thanks for saving us the trouble of having to praise you to the highest heavens. We are fortunate to stand in your presence and bask in your radiance.

:handsdown: :handsdown: :handsdown:

Back to topic.

Pero totoo naman na nabubuhay ang Ateneo nang dahil sa kawanggawa ng iilan. I mean, look at all the iconic/institutional faculty members of the Ateneo. They're not there because the Ateneo has taken good care of them and shepherded their development. On the contrary, they're there despite all the trouble they've been given through the years. In fact, many of the faculty I admire received their Ph.D's much later than expected, because their active membership in the Ateneo faculty made study difficult.

Aside lang. Personal ito. These past few years, I've had to take odd jobs just to support teaching and studies. And honestly, the Ateneo has become a luxury I could ill afford.

Now, an insane few, present company included, relish this brand of self-inflicted punishment. Right now, victory is happy with his sense of nobility, a few emails, and a few taps on the back. Well, so am I. So are a lot of teachers at the Ateneo.

But this kind of behavior is neither sustainable nor healthy. Especially not in an institution which hopes to be at the forefront of service and excellence in a quickly changing world.

More often than not, many of our very best graduates forego a career in education simply because they could not afford to teach. And those who take the plunge too often find themselves with far more than they ever bargained for.

I'm all for masochistic magnanimous nobility, mind you. That's what makes us happy. But what will put food on the table? What will ensure an exemplary degree of intergrity and competence in the academe? What will ensure that the Ateneo will become a significant force in Philippine development? Not email and pats on the back, that's for sure.

[victory]

posted by Ali

victory, thanks for saving us the trouble of having to praise you to the highest heavens. We are fortunate to stand in your presence and bask in your radiance.

But a radiance that only mirrors back the Light and true honour (with a "u," in line with true English) of being able to interact with True Ateneans and awesome singers like you, Ali.

Thanks for sharing your personal situation, too. I am not so sure if I would classify my own motivations and intentions under the mantle of "nobility" -- a concept often abused by those who would rather be served by others. I am awed, however, by exactly those people who fit your description of being "iconic and institutional faculty" in AdMU -- people in the SOM like Rudy Ang and Darwin Yu, for starters. Hence my fairly sharp reaction against people who quickly preach sweeping judgments without having seen through the eyes nor done the work that people like Rudy and Darwin have tried to do.

Ithacxa put it best:

Anyway, even if you don't sympathize or understand us teachers in the Ateneo and why we seem to grumble so much, just try to hear our side out. I am not making any of this up. This is an actual view from "Ground Zero."

[Lek-Lek]

Originally posted by Ithacxa
"Dean Manny Velasco's speech leaned more towards acquiring 'experienced hires' rather than faculty development. Of course, he also spoke of the planned 5-year ladderized BS/MS programs which should increase the number of faculty with graduate degrees in the future. "

Is that so? This is very disconcerting to say the least! Is this what we who have devoted ourselves to the school get for all that we have done? If this is the case, then it was nice knowing Ateneo.........

Parang I know you. Ikaw ba 'to? :)

[Ali]

Socialization muna.

Kuwentuhan kita minsan victory, pag medyo nag-settle down na ang lahat. Pang-telenovela ang buhay ko ngayon, eh.

Mabuti pa yata, mag-recording artist na lang ako. Sabi mo naman awesome singer ako.

Come to think of it, recording artist na nga pala ako... Japayuki na lang.

I must confess na hindi ko pa rin alam kung sino sina rabbadal at Itacxa. Am I totally clueless?

Lek-Lek, akala ko magtuturo ka. What you up to?

Back to our regular programming...

[Oscar01]

How was the grand ME reunion anyway? I couldn't make it because I had to go out of town, but I never heard another word about it from my ME batch.

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by Ithacxa
1.
You ask me how easy it is to surf the web? The better question to ask is this: If surfing the web has been so easy, then why hasn't the administration done anything?



Magandang tanong ito. Why is it ordinary Makati-based employees and part-time tutors/TAs were able to secure grants and fellowships abroad? Why is it all I had to do was walk into the New School campus and get a lot of fellowship info. in Econ for my friend? I don't know.

Why hasn't the admin done anything about it? I'm not sure if they have or have not. I don't know. Maybe that's why those who do manage to secure grants had to do it on their own.

BTW, if you're trying to secure a full scholarship for an MBA program, medyo mahirap makahanap compared to an MS in Physics, Math, or Econ. Victory would be the best person to ask.

Here's one website for MBA scholarships that I discovered through surfing the web, if you don't mind studying in Asia:

http://www.bschool.nus.edu.sg/

Under the MBA program, hover over "admissions" and click on "financial aid and scholarship".

The APEC scholarship, for which all ASEAN citizens qualify for, is available not only in NUS but other Asian b-schools as well such as Nanyang and the Int'l U of Japan (IUJ).

There is also an NUS-specific scholarship called the NUS Graduate Scholarship for ASEAN Nationals.

The ADB also supports MBA scholarships in Asia. Here's some ADB scholarship info from the IUJ website:

http://www.iuj.ac.jp/web/iuj_section.cfm?category=0204

[mrquick]

if JGSM is final, then kelan ang construction?

just asking.

[Ithacxa]

The faculty will be moving into the JGSOM building by the first weekend of July. A few days after, the students will be able to use the classrooms there. The actual room assignments are still being ironed out, though. Just wait and see.

[rabbaddal]

Those interested may wish to attend this highly recommended event...


When you're confronted with a crisis, doesn't business planning often feel like trying to find your way in the dark?

Let some of the most outstanding leaders of our business community help shed light on your situation by sharing with you their stories of how they have been able to carve out successes in situations where others may have given up; how they have been able to find opportunities even in the midst of crisis.

Learn from the expert line-up of top business leaders and industry experts in Thriving in Times of Crisis, the first business leaderhip forum by the John Gokongwei School of Management:

Rene J. Buenaventura
President Equitable PCI Bank
Moving Forward with Resilience and Strength

Eduardo L. David
Chairman Hambrecht & Quist Philippines, Inc.
Betting on the Future: Identifying Tomorrow's Market Winners

Rufino de la Rosa
President
Chowking Foods Corporation
The Turn Around King: How our Team Transformed Chowking into a Market Winner

Lance Gokongwei
President and COO
JG Summit Holdings, Inc.
Turning Crisis into Opportunity: How Cebu Pacific Survived the Crash of Flight 387

Sec. Mar Roxas
Secretary Department of Trade and Industry
Philippines, Inc.: Still Open for Business

Bienvenido Tantoco III
CEO Rustan's Supercenters, Inc.
A Bull in a Bear Economy: The Shopwise Success Story Thriving in Times of Crisis

18 October 2002, Friday
8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Hotel Intercontinental Ballroom, Makati

Seminar Fee: P 4,000.00*
*Register before October 4 and avail of the Early Bird Rate of P
3,600.00

For inquiries, please contact the Business Leadership Forum Secretariat at

Telephone: (02) 899-5950
Fax: (02) 890-5012
E-mail: jgsomforum@admu.edu.ph


RENE BUENAVENTURA, President of Equitable PCI Bank, will talk about the steps that the bank is taking to put the past behind it and to aggressively break new ground within the banking industry.

EDUARDO DAVID, Chairman of Hambrecht & Quist Philippines, Inc., will show us that business opportunities abound even in the midst of our economic crisis, helping us identify the medium-sized companies that will be tomorrow's market winners.

RUFINO DE LA ROSA, President of Chowking Foods Corporation, will talk about how their team successfully halted consecutive years of sales decline, to turn Chowking into today's fastest-growing major quick-service restaurant.

LANCE GOKONGWEI, President of JG Summit Holdings, Inc., will talk about how Cebu Pacific managed the fallout from the crash of Flight 387, successfully turning crisis into opportunity.

Secretary MAR ROXAS, of the Department of Trade and Industry, will talk about the growth sectors and areas of opportunity in the Philippines, even in the midst of the current economic crisis.

BIENVENIDO TANTOCO III, CEO of Rustan's Supercenters, Inc., will share the Shopwise success story and tell us what had led him to decide to expand their business aggressively at a time when others were tightening their belts.

[Exterminator]

Manila Bulletin 11/13/2002
Ateneo forges partnership to mold business leaders


The Ateneo de Manila University and business taipan John Gokongwei Jr. through the newly inaugurated Ateneo JG School of Management, have forged a partnership in molding the youth to be the business leaders for the next generation.


Ateneo’s track record and reputation from forming technically excellent business graduates with a strong moral compass fit perfectly with the aspirations of the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation to make a major contribution to the continued growth of the Philippine economy. Thus, the School seeks to continue this distinctive contribution to business and industry by educating and shaping future leaders.


Businessman John Gokongwei serves as an inspiration for the youth through his exemplary rags to riches story. The six decades of trading soap, thread and candles on a bicycle has now grown into a large and diversified conglomerate of companies.


Francesca Theresa Godino, a Management Engineering student enrolled at the School says it is the only university offering B.S. Management Engineering, which is highly quantitative and analytical course. She also has a double major in AB Economics. “I wanted to have a solid foundation in business particularly in operations, production and marketing which will enable me to become an effective manager and entrepreneur someday,” she relates. “The M.E. program, aside from providing the right subjects, trains the students to become critical and logical through the rigorous training, and also instills discipline and proper work ethics.”


The Ateneo JG School of Management hopes to raise the bar of excellence in business education through specially designed academic programs, student scholarships, faculty development, research and outreach programs.


Conrado Balboa, is enrolled in the BS Management program majoring in Legal Management. For a young person of 18 years, he has a broad perspective in looking forward to the future. He says, “The Ateneo JG SOM does not only deliver quality training and education, it furthers the development of the total human person, caters to a broad spectrum of students’ needs, makes one imbibe competency coupled with the right outlook.” These are all necessary ingredients for one who intends to be a future leader in the business community.


Giovanna Teresa De La Cruz, another Legal Management major, says, “My Uncle advised me that the best area for a lawyer would be in a corporate setting. Since L.M. offers business subjects, I felt it was the right course to be in as a preparation for the business world in general.”

[rabbaddal]

Greetings alumni!

The Ateneo Management Association (AMA) is one of the official student arms of the Ateneo de Manila University’s John Gokongwei School of Management (JG SOM), and is the home organization of BS Management and BS Management-Honors students.

AMA would like to invite Atenean entrepreneurs to participate in this year’s AMA Exposition entitled “In Focus: Ventures and Visions” to be held in the Ateneo campus from September 15 to 20, 2003, open from 9:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. The exhibit will feature various alumni and will showcase the businesses they have established.

As part of the School of Management Week, the Entrepreneurial Expo provides an opportunity for the whole Ateneo community to commend and recognize the ingenuity and creativity of the Ateneo alumni who have excelled in business and have made their alma mater proud. More than just a display of promising businesses, the Expo at the same time allows the younger generation of Ateneans to have the alumni as models for their own business ventures, in the process motivating the students to develop and utilize their entrepreneurial skills.

We are inviting all of you to be part of this event, as we believe that you could serve as an inspiration to today’s generation of young entrepreneurs.

As such, we hope to be able to set an interview with all interested parties to discuss the details. Please contact Claire Alonzo at clairealonzo@yahoo.com or Quino Reyes at philrey@pacific.net.ph before August 20,2003.

On behalf of the Ateneo Management Association,

The Alumni Affairs Office

[alikishi]

I dont know why the Alumni Affairs Office is doing this for AMA

[rabbaddal]

Originally posted by alikishi
I dont know why the Alumni Affairs Office is doing this for AMA

alikishi,

As per the announcement, AMA is inviting alumni entrepreneurs to participate in the expo. Since the alumni office is the main point of contact for the alumni community, then it is in the best position to invite alumni entrepreneurs, not to mention that they also own the general alumni database.

Anyway, the main contacts - Claire and Quino - are AMA members. The alumni office was only used to forward the invite.