(Homily delivered by Fr. Dionisio M. Miranda, SVD, President of the University of San Carlos, on the occasion of Graduation 2010, on Friday and Saturday, 19 and 20 March 2010, at the Rudolf Rahmann Cultural Center, USC South Campus.)

PURSUING GLOBAL STANDARDS
CELEBRATING MILESTONES, EXPANDING HORIZONS

Years from now you will look back to this event, and find it framed by a double theme.  The more prominent has to be the 445th commencement exercise itself of the University of San Carlos, themed as “Pursuing Global Standards.”  The other theme is “Celebrating Milestones, Expanding Horizons,” and refers to the 75 years of SVD missionary presence and activity at the University of San Carlos.  Your graduation and the SVD anniversary are both intersected by globalization, even if one proceeds from a secular angle, whereas the other is religious in perspective.

Those who are familiar with the educational landscape of the RP know that it has long been in crisis.  In fact beginning this year, some of the degrees we are conferring on you will be valid only in the Philippines – for domestic consumption only, and not of export quality since they are no longer acceptable in Europe and possibly other countries of the West. For example, those who receive engineering degrees today should know that they are only worth a technician’s or technologist’s equivalent outside the Philippines.  We are paying today the price of extended temporizing by our educational leaders and national politicians. 

As early as 2008 I signalled that condition in my choice of theme for this administration’s administrative triennium: “Calibrating Vision, Grounding Mission.”  The first year of that program was spent on housekeeping (such as making the urgent corrections, and implementing delayed decisions, notably that of migration).  The second year essayed a re-grounding (which is the spirit of the Directional Matrix and Operational Planning, still ongoing because not yet inclusive of the ethical and spiritual dimensions).  The final stretch aims at Revisioning (or a fresh search for what we want to be and how we can best serve the county and church in the second decade of the new millennium).  

That Revisioning has been overtaken by the Philippine Main Education Highway of 2008, a comprehensive and systematic attempt finally to implement the educational reform that was recognized nearly half a century ago.  Bologna Process, Washington Accord and Apec Convention are three of many buzz-words for the process that has not exactly derailed but redirected USC’s search for excellence and relevance.  I find no solace in being proven right or in insisting that we do a reality check through our theme, Pursuing Global Standards.  The reality is that the Philippines has a subpar curriculum by the standards of Bologna, Washington, and Apec; it is the tail-ender in research among all Asean countries; it is still debating whether and how to do CES when globally schools have accepted this as a necessary and integral part of education. 

Housekeeping means we must take a closer look at basic education in order to cascade as much knowledge and competencies will equip every high school graduate to take his place in society as Filipino citizen and participate in its polity.  Next we will have to radically redesign the proposed two years of pre-specialization between BED and college.  (I am referring to the first two years of college in the Philippines, which is rated as only the final years of secondary education in the rest of the world.) 

The Education Highway envision streaming undergraduate students into either a globally competitive curriculum, or into a skills development program attuned to our own domestic development agenda.   In–between there will be a fairly large population of students who still have to be classified in terms of career path since they will either be white-collar vocational or blue-collar technician.  This mass of ladderized programs has no fixed structure or organization at the moment; initial labels run from an Institute for Engineering and Technology to Junior College for the liberal and entrepreneurial tracks.   

The Apec Convention offers some hope of catching up with our Asean neighbours, but only if we seize every opportunity within the next five years.  As soon as 2015 we should have reengineered our systems so that USC graduates will be ready to compete with other Asians in the emerging Asean economic community, whether as scholar, academic or professional.  By 2020 “open borders” means that employment will only be determined on the basis of qualification, experience and merit.  So Revisioning aims at looking beyond our undergraduate degrees into university in  its original senses - as a select community of the brightest scholars and intellectual professors who will dedicate themselves to the academic quests for knowledge and search after truth, of expanding science through research and of producing innovative technology through experimentation.

75 years is a good occasion to review our mission in the field of education.  For us at USC liberal education differentiates itself from functional education by integrating within its learning the question of the meaning of life and its purpose.  On the other hand, self-examination is ingrained into religious life, which is a continual examination of where one stands before God and the call received to serve one’s brothers and sisters.  For the SVD  these are summed up in three simple elements. (a) Mission is witness to the Kingdom.  (b) People-wise it is dialogue with four types of partners: faith-seekers, other faiths, other cultures, the marginalized.  (c) Method-wise it is prophetic dialogue – its engagement with every groups is marked by a characteristic dimension.  It is animated by the mission of God and animating to mission with God; it is engaging with the Word as found speaking in and through the Scriptures; it is seeking avenues in the world of today’s means of social communication, and it is including always the search for justice, peace and integrity of creation. 

In the course of the Directional Matrix and Operational Planning we have begun to discuss not only the SVD spirituality but also our USC ethics.  For some ethics consists of nothing more than some notional familiarity with their professional code of conduct.  In our view of education ethics and morality have broader and deeper foundations – both have to do with our very understanding of our own humanity and the totality of our relationships.  Systematically some approaches are norm ethics (principle, rules-based), virtue ethics (character and wisdom-based), and consequentialist ethics (results-based). 

The scriptural readings of March 19, solemnity of Joseph, husband of Mary, highlight similar approaches, but from a theological perspective. In the Gospel there is the ethics of the law (norm ethics demanded the denunciation of Mary and her stoning to death as adulteress) in contrast to the ethics of righteousness (the virtue ethics of Joseph, whose inner goodness drove him to alternative measures).  In the first reading there is a very unique type of ethics, akin to modern personalist or existentialist ethics, but more familiarly known as the ethics of the covenant, where God engages His people on the basis of promise, and binds Himself to His promise even when His partners have become unfaithful.  The promise represents God’s truthfulness and faithfulness to who and what God is.  Joseph mirrors the righteousness of God such that if we feel we cannot match God’s level, we can still approximate it by adopting Joseph as model.

The scriptural readings of Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent, also highlight the importance of ethics and morality.  I am reminded of a remark of Fr. De los Reyes, our Director for Scholarship, alumni and Placement, about a meeting he attended with industry leaders in Cebu.  When he asked them for the single most important quality they were looking for in fresh graduates their answer did not have to do primarily with skills, but with attitudes.  A good attitude is key, and it is based on a sense of self that is defined by one’s ethos and spirituality.  A profession can be built on rock or it can be built on sand.  You can build up character slowly but once it is set, is difficult to change; professions you can always change; and the modern world in fact will demand that you shift various competencies.  Who you are as a human being will always be more important than what you do.  The two have always been as different as rock to sand. 

USC education aims at the formation of a special type of character.  Simply stated, at the minimum USC aims at producing ethical and moral graduates; at the maximum we hope that we will also have raised the questions of spirituality preparatory to embracing religion as a value.  That is the reason we have always framed educational events as religious events as well. Theologically every celebration for the Christian must be framed in terms of the paschal mystery.  Even in Lent the gospel of Jesus is that glory is indeed at hand, but only to those who will take up their cross and follow him.   Two final thoughts.

a) Celebrating Milestones. We SVDs will look back at the past 75 years for milestones to celebrate. What have we achieved in those years, as founders and sustainers, as administrators and academics, as scholars and scientists, as pastors and missionaries?  Young as you are, you may also want to project to when you will be 75, and be able to look back at the milestones which today are only dreams.

b) Expanding Horizons. Where is the Spirit leading all of us next?   We can see globalization events with dread as “handwriting on the wall.”  But we can also face them with hope, as “signs of the times” and opportunities for growth.  The choice is as much yours as it is ours. 

Congratulations to you on today’s milestone, and to your parents, your teachers, your friends, the staff – everyone in short who shares your joy and sense of achievement today. May your horizons continue to expand in your pursuit of global standards.  And may God shepherd you on your journey so that the work he has begun in you he may also bring  to completion.