[Delivered at the Gala Night marking the Golden Anniversary of the founding of the UP School of Economics, 8 February 2015, Bahay ng Alumni]
I first want to thank UPSEAA for the Distinguished Alumnus Award. I know that for every one of us recipients of this award, there are dozens whose quiet heroism and dedication more than deserve the award. If I were to name one, my vote goes to the UPSEAA Board itself for exemplary service to alma mater over the years and for managing the Golden Jubilee Festivities with supreme aplomb and clockwork efficiency. You are an inspiration!
Looking forward to the next fifty years, what UPSE do we want to see? My ruminations will come under three headings: (1) Public Engagement, (2) Academic Excellence and (3) Teaching.
Public engagement. Over the years we have built up a reputation for thoughtful engagement in policy issues. Our prudence and caution in this space has resulted in singular gravitas accorded our pronouncements by the public. The public’s appreciation of the UPSE DNA is best characterized by Jaime Zobel de Ayala’s paean to the UPSE DNA: “the rigor of the thinking and the clarity of the logic.” This is a path we want to continue on although and happily, we now have company in this once forlorn path – other groups partly by our tuition have imbibed the “dismal science perspective” and have become engaged. The Foundation for Academic Freedom (FEF) position on MRT/LRT fee increase which went against the populist tide is an example. To stay ahead of the curve, we have to cultivate our comparative advantage: a UPSE faculty that is not just keenly aware but even more importantly actively engaged in the discourse over the enduring and emerging canons of our discipline.
Academic stature. Personally, my hopes for the academic UPSE are modest: (1) At least 80% of the tenured faculty members in the next 2 decades should score at least 3 in the h-index: not at all a perfect index but only in this way will we earn a seat at the table of the Asian academic elites; it means a faculty deep in the vowels of research; (2) to this end, UPSE should deepen its commitment to performance-based funding and reward for members of the faculty whose temperaments thrive either in the painstaking torture of data or in the painstaking torture of Hamiltonians until they confess their secrets about social reality. In other words, UPSE should become even more the ideal ”thinkspace” for those whose curiosities are piqued by puzzles beyond the behest of funders; (3) In the past, UPSE has lost faculty unhappy with its financial provenance. In future, UPSE should lose faculty only because they fail to meet its (UPSE’s) stringent academic and ethical standards.
We have, however, to be realistic and recognize external constraints to our ambitions. We live in a community first of Pamantasan ng Pilipinas and then of the larger Pilipinas. The performance of the Philippine economy in the global league tables in the past have hampered our own prospects; (2) the performance of the Pamantasan ng Pilipinas in the educational world league tables will also figure in our own stature in the world. As in the past, we should continue to be engaged in the transformation and growth of these communities.
On teaching. That the UPSE faculty maintains a romance with creative thinking should be a given; it should however maintain on the side a romance with the tuition of its harvests. In UPSE, we did not and in future shall never tolerate the neglect of our tutees on the pretext of more important involvements. There are none such. Our tuition is the precious pipeline for the propagation of our DNA and to a better future.
In the past I have as a mark of endearment referred to UPSE as “Camelot”. The roots of this imagery goes back to the 80’s when UPSE stood as a forlorn and even maligned contrarian in the University campus: it stood for the market economics when the most swore by the Socialist command economy. We were labeled the imperialist running dogs, stooges of the hated World Bank and IMF and even jukebox economists. Nonetheless, as Pepe repeatedly observed, “we were outnumbered, but were never outgunned.” If we were on trial, we pleaded guilty only to “rigor of logic and clarity of thinking.” UPSE like Camelot was a beacon of light then; UPSE will be a Camelot thence.
Let me end with a reference once more to Camelot. In the dying moments of the musical “Camelot” , the worn-down King Arthur breaks into a dark lament: “Once there was (a fleeting wisp of glory called) Camelot.” Camelot the rampart has since passed into the realm of folklore. But Camelot the idea survives. For there is a New Round Table; around it sit new Galahads ready to sally forth in search of the New Holy Grail – the Holy Grail of a land healed and in full flower. You are the new Galahads. You will carry the fragrance of honor and excellence into battle, the battle with the despond of a withered land. And when you are spent and haggard from the fray, Camelot will be here to comfort and renew you. With apologies to Loerner and Lowe, we declare: “Once again there is Camelot.”
Thank you.
“Don’t let it be forgot That once there was a spot
For one brief shining moment that was known
As Camelot.”
“Don’t let it be unbeknown’st to no one
That once again there is a spot
For one endless shining moment
that is known as Camelot.”
