Campus Renewal Plan to Give UPV Cebu a New Look

UP Views Publication Date: [January 2007 Issue]

A major overhaul is now eyed for UPVCebu College’s landscape as UPVisayas officials discussed last October 18, 2006 the UPVCC Campus Renewal Plan.

This intends to make the college “more responsive to the needs of the region.” UP Pres. Emerlinda Roman’s advisers for infrastructure, Prof. Mary Ann Espina and Dean Christopher Espina of the UP Diliman College of Architecture, conceptualized the design and layout.

New infrastructures and facilities as well as “quality” programs for students will be some of the features once the said plan will be realized.

A Graduate Studies building with an estimated cost of P500,000 will rise behind the Administration Building. The present Arts and Sciences Building, meanwhile, is now under renovation, and will be used for its original purpose as a dormitory.A gymnasium, campus
hotel and shopping center are also included. A proposed underground, if not an overpass, will also let students pass with ease from the Administration Building towards the Sugbu Cultural Center and other buildings across the street.

“The UPVCC Development Plan (or Campus Renewal Plan) is a lifetime plan. The way to achieve these physical and development plans is through the cooperation of the whole UPV Cebu community with the coordination and support of the government and also of the people that will invest and believe in us,” Dean Enrique Avila stated.

However, before the physical plans will be put up, Dean Avila stressed that the academic programs should first be enhanced: “The various course divisions of UPV Cebu should have good faculty and it should offer unique programs in the region.” Furthermore, he said that the academic programs should be strengthened and developed so that they will go together with the proposed facilities and infrastructures.

As of now, the college plans to set up a foundation so that resource generation for funding
this development project will not solely depend on the government. The foundation will also be the source of the money needed to relocate informal settlers in Barangay Camputhaw.

Student Council chairperson Karlo Mikhail Mongaya, member of the UPV Cebu Development and Renovation Committee, said that there are two phases in the plan: (1) renovation and renewal and (2) construction.

He estimated that by 2018, UPVCC “will coequal other UP units,” which means that it will be known as UP Cebu, and not just as a branch of UPVisayas.

Mongaya confirmed that there would be a student consultation regarding the UPV Cebu Campus Renewal Plan this January. (Katrina Coloso & Al Marie Padayogdog; UPVCC Info Volunteers)