PHILIPPINES: UP's First Woman President Prepares to Step Down

The University of the Philippines (UP) has just announced that it is now looking for nominees to succeed Dr. Emerlinda Roman, the premier state university's ninetenth president and the first woman to hold the office. Apart from being UP's first woman president, Roman also has the distinction of being the university's "centennial president" as the institution celebrated its centennial in 2008.

'It took almost a hundred years'

"It took the University almost a hundred years to decide that the time had come for a woman to occupy the University's top post. It would seem that, although it was believed that a woman was 'good enough' to be vice president or even chancellor, the University was better led by a man. The irony of this is not lost on UP's women students or the women faculty members, who outnumber the men in our campuses," Dr. Roman said before the Civil Service Commission in 2006.

"For women to be truly equal to men, we need structural changes. More importantly, we need attitude changes. And we are all aware that attitudes can only be changed through education," she added.

BOR convenes Search Committee

As Roman's term will end on February 9, 2011, the UP Board of Regents (BOR) convened in June this year and constituted itself into the Search Committee. Composed of all the Regents, the Committee will prepare a list of nominees from among whom the Board will make its final choice.

"Any outstanding Filipino known to possess integrity, stature in the academic profession, a national and international reputation as a scholar, and proven administrative capability may be nominated by any person, group, or organization both from within or outside the University System," the UP Secretariat explained in a press release.

The Search Committee is set to hold fora and dialogues in the various UP campuses in September and October this year. Nominees will be asked to present their vision and programs to the Board on November 8, and a new president is expected to be elected when the Board convenes at its 1,262nd meeting on November 26.