TABLE OF CONTENTS

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EDITORIAL & CARTOON

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ADVISER’S DESK

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CENTENNIAL PRESIDENT

The month of June signaled not only the start of a new academic year, but also the observance of the

month-long centennial anniversary celebration. CELEBRATION KICKS OFF

The university kicked off with the celebration on June 13.

A mass was offered at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral officiated over by Monsignor Roberto Alesna who is a mem-ber of the board of regents.

A parade from the Cathe-dral to the university along Os-meña Blvd. ensued immedi-ately after. Marshalls on motor-bikes led the way, followed by the parade streamer, the board of regents, university officials and the administration and sup-port staff. Giving the long queue of parade participants some up-beat music were the

brass bands from the University of the Visayas (UV), the Philippine Nat’l Police (PNP) and the PNP’s Central Command.

There were five themed floats from the three colleges, Inte-grated Lab School (ILS) and the alumni group. The College of Nursing’s (CN) float was a repre-sentation of the USS Thomas, the ship that carried CNU’s first teach-ers. The College of Arts and Sci-ences’ (CAS) portrayed CNU dur-ing the Japanese regime, while the College of Teacher Educa-tion’s (CTE) embodied the pre-sent CNU. The ILS’ portrayed the future CNU and the alumni float showcased the Centennial Alumni Queen and her court.

“Today, the Administration and the student body unite in embracing CNU’s Herstory,” Theresa Lasquite, Supreme Stu-dent Government (SSG) president told Ang Suga.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and representative Eduardo Gul-las were the guests-of-honor. As soon as they arrived, the opening ceremonies started. Together with them, Dr. Lopez unveiled the Uni-versity Seal upon which was writ-ten the university’s historically-correct founding year: 1902.

A ribbon-cutting before the university’s main gate opened up the institution to the mob outside. On the entrance grounds, three poles stood, two of which bore

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the Japanese flag on the left and the American on the right.

The Star Spangled Banner of the United States of America was sung as the American flag was lowered then cased. The same thing was done for the Japanese flag as the Japanese nat’l anthem was sung by a Japanese lady. Then the Lupang Hinirang was then chanted as the heavens cleared and the Philippine flag, uncased and raised, gloriously swayed. The university hymn was sung as the university and the uni-versity centennial banners rose together on each side of the cen-ter pole.

The centennial fountain was then blessed and inaugurated by Monsignor Alesna. “Water, in the Chinese fung sui, symbolizes pros-perity,” the master of the cere-mony said. Sponsors were then made to throw coins to the foun-tain with wishes of good luck.

Other renovated and newly-erected infrastructures blessed and inaugurated thereafter in-cluded the president's office, the customer care center, university health clinic, centennial stage, the Tandang Sora Nursing Hall, biology, physics and chemistry laboratories, the Eva Macapagal Memorial Arts Center, the Sam-uel MacClintock Hall, the Univer-sity Terraces and the World War II Memorial.

Everyone then gathered around the inner court for the floral offering to the WW II me-morial. The Centennial Peace Bell, a donation that costs $1000, was then rung.

“I hope that CNU will continue to produce servant leaders,” said Cong. Gullas, author of the bill that made Cebu Normal College into a university.

“You can only go from good to great. And CNU has done just that,” Gov. Garcia said in her speech.

“It is a privilege to walk into a memory lane and forecasts CNU’s future a hundred years from now,” Dr. Lopez said. “I’m just a cheer-leader,” he added.

(continued to page 9)

For decades, people believed that CNU was founded June 16, 1925 by the Thomasites as a

part of their plan of open-ing public schools through-out the country. It was also in compliance with Pres. William Mckinley’s procla-mation of “benevolent assimilation” and the pol-icy of attraction. Years back, Dr. Ro-mola Savellon, writer of the university’s history book, already knew that CNU was founded before

the year 1915. In fact, she has been tracing the Cebu Normal School’s (CNS) past and went as far as 1906.

What she knew was eventually sec-onded when a good friend of hers, Jose Quisumbing, brought a photo-copy of pages from

Gregorio Borlaza’s book on the history of Philip- pine Normal University

(PNU). It said that PNU was established in 1901 and a year after,

five tributary normal schools were built to assist it.

And among these Normal schools were those in Vigan in Ilocos Sur, Nueva Ca-ceres in Bicol, Iloilo, Cagayan de Misamis in Mindanao and in Cebu.

In 2001, the idea that CNS was insti-tuted in 1902 was supported by Ms. Aida de la Cerna, university chief librarian. She presented three sources attesting to the real founding date of the CNS when she came back from a conference in Silliman University. In fact, the document that Quisumbing had given Dr. Savellon was the same with that of Ms de la Cerna’s. In the same year, Dr. Savellon presented the findings to Dr. Ester Velasquez, then university president. The historian sug-gested that CNU celebrate her centen-ary the following year in 2002.

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However, there was a significant increase in the number of enrollees that the university had to address, so that Dr. Velasquez failed to entertain the discovery. Moreover, she wanted to verify the information by asking for more legal docu-ments supporting CNS’s es-tablishment.

In 2010, Ms. de la Cerna attended a convention in Manila and met a friend who was about to submit his school’s seal to the National Historical Commission (NHS) for authentication. Ms. de la Cerna seized the opportu-nity and asked her friend to check if CNU had done her share of submitting her seal to NHS. It was later found out that the school failed to do so and for all those years had been a “Kulurum,” as Ms. de la Cerna put it. When she arrived from Manila, she reported it to Dr. Marcelo Lopez, the university presi-dent, and started working on getting the school seal registered.

However, before the seal submission, Dr. Savellon, the seal designer, still had doubts on the school’s founding year which was apparently an important imprint on the seal. Hence, the university sent query to NHC for verification. It didn’t take long for Dr. Ambeth Ocampo, director of NHC that time, to respond. To-gether with his response, he attached the report of the declaration of establish-ment of CNS taken from the Philippine Commission, con-firming that the school was founded in 1902. The report was written by a certain Samuel MacClintock.

(continued to page 8)

(A TALE.. Continued from page 7) It was then found out that Mr.

McClintock was the division su-perintendent of Cebu and at the same time the first principal of CNS in 1902. With him were two young American teachers who helped him manage the fledgling institution.

In 1903, Mr. MacClintock sub-mitted the annual institutional re-port where he indicated the founding date of CNS. Governor General William Howard Taft was furnished a copy of the report as required by the American Gov-ernment.

Upon this discovery in 2010, Dr. Lopez proposed to the board of regents the move of correcting the false notion regarding the school’s founding year. Upon the board’s approval, Dr. Lopez com-missioned Dr. Savellon to rewrite the history of the school and Ms. de la Cerna to do further re-searches and supplementary dig-gings.

Therefore, on the 109th year of CNS, exactly on June 16, 2011, we were celebrating her centen-ary. And never would it be a criminal offense to celebrate a centennial on the 109th year, as Dr. Lopez would put it. On the other hand, the celebration be-came an avenue for honoring and remembering how the school survived through the years.

Indeed, it is never easy to re-write history, but isn’t it a sign of love and loyalty if you correct something that has been taught erroneously? As Dr. Savellon wrote: “This one hundred nine year-old lady was truly a survivor. Her university garments may be new, and sometimes she appears rather awkward in the elegant trappings, but always, she wears them with a touching dignity.”

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A dream scatters around the edges of sleep. Wakefulness, for those who have slept tight, is an enemy. But for those who have

faced nightmares, a blessing. Voila, a rooster calls forth a glorious togtogaok. And it doesn’t choose its listeners.

Dreaming through the… Darkness is a blanket from which we clothe ourselves. Cebu Normal University has had her share of darkness. Her story is recounted in a centennial history book entitled, To Rouse the Dawn, authored by the university historian Dr. Romolla O. Savellon. Now, there will be a coffee table book with lots of pic-tures ready for distribution by the end of this year. Cup of coffee / Flashback news: The manuscript of the book was launched last June 15, 2011 at CNU’s Tandang Sora Hall. It was attended by representatives from the academic community all over Cebu. Pillow / How the book met its au-thor: First on the acknowledge-ments list of the book is the univer-sity president, Dr. Marcelo Lopez, who commissioned the author to write the book. “Dr. Lopez has a very keen sense of history. I told Dr. Ester Velasquez, then university president, about my plan of writing CNU’s history in 2001, with Dr. Jose Quisumbing. Dr. Quisumbing had died, but still there was no book,” Dr. Savellon said. Last year, she faced her mandatory retirement. Only then did Dr. Lopez tell her to write CNU’s history. (As of this interview), “I’ve ex-tended and I like writing. This is not illegal. I’m retired, I’m 65. And we can’t avoid people to talk so we have to hurry this up.” Mattress / The making: It took Dr. Savellon a year to finish the manu-script – a year of 90% fun and 10%

stress. She had to write the manu-script by hand. “One of these days, I’m going to sit down and do some-thing with computers.” It isn’t like the old times, she said. Back then, written manuscripts were handed to publishers while you get back a published book. But now, publishers demand soft copies for them to get your book published. “Right now, no time,” she said over a table stacked with folders, papers and envelopes of pictures.

Don’t get her wrong; writing for her was the fun part. She has writ-ten articles, memographs and books very fast as if discovering new things were like a detective play. “It’s amazing when a hundred years unfold right before your eyes. It’s like a Eureka moment every time you stumble upon old, old people and their stories,” she said with a smile. Some student assis-tants have to do the encoding for her though. (continued to page 10)

Samuel MacClintock

Dr. Romolla Savellon delivers her speech.

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On the same night when Pagsu-gid was aired, the SSG organized a halad-lingaw project.

They started off by serving a boodle fight to the studentry. On the inner court was set four long rows of tables loaded with puso and lechon. Though not even half of the student’s population par-took, those who participated were heard saying, “l ingawa ani oy!” (this is so much fun!) in be-tween mouthfuls. Black plastic bags were attached on table’s ends for proper garbage disposal.

After the film was screened, six bands swayed the crowd into a jumping chorus. Some of the audiece even went up on stage and rocked with the performers.

“We had fun, nalingaw mi sa among gihalad,” (we enjoyed what we offered) said Emerald Lace Reynes, vocalist of Killing Amy band and a fourth year BA Mass Communication student.

However, rock ‘en rollin’ could-n’t last all night. Rain came unin-vited. The audience ran for covers under the Social and Samuel Mac-Clintock (SM) Halls. Mumbles ech-oed through, till a disk jockey saved the moment with his beats. The space above the U-Café was turned into an improvised screen for the projector. There, the contin-ued countdown was reflected. It was a heavy down pour but some students kept dancing inside the halls.

(continued to page 11)

MIHALAD-LINGAW

(Centennial.. Continued from page 7)

The key thing in any underta- king is collaboration. Always work with people better than you.

Normalites and guests came in their party apparel, hundreds and hundreds of them. They proceeded to the inner court and waited.

I was standing in their midst when the inner court grew dark. Somebody on stage spoke and everybody’s attention was shifted to an 18x32 ft. screen leaning against the administra-tive building. A film rolled to life and the crowd

could not be helped from cheering and clapping eleven minutes later. It was deafening to be in that midst.

A man facing his laptop com-puter in some dark corner away from the stage smiled to himself. The film was a success. His film, like the previous ones, was a resound-ing success.

Months earlier, Dr. Leodinito Cañete, chair of the centennial committee, was requested by the university president to come up with a film tracing CNU’s herstory for the past century. The president wanted the film shown on the eve of the university’s one hundred ninth founding day. Dr. Cañete, realizing that he was treading on terrain foreign to him, asked the opinion of the mass communica-tion instructor Januar Yap who in turn recommended the services of an award-winning director: Ruel Dahis Antipuesto.

When Ruel accepted the job, he started shooting even without initial payments yet. The Commis-sion on Audit would not allow gov-ernment funds financing projects that do not necessarily serve gov-

ernmental operations so that the university had to seek private aide. It didn’t offend his pride, however, to be doing a task and not getting paid initially for whatever he may need at the outset, he being a name to be reckoned with in the film-making industry today. As di-rector, his works have received sev-eral nominations and awards from the Gawad CCP, Star Awards, FAMAS, Cinemanila and Urian. These have also been included in various competitions and exhibi-tions in Portugal, UK, Germany, Ko-rea, USA, India and France.

“We tend to forget what we are working for and that is not good. It’s not just about money; this is one of those projects I spent a lot of time with, because CNU’s her-story is reflective to that of Cebu. As I went through it, I came to know more of Cebu’s history,” Ruel would later say.

The good thing about the pro-ject, according to him, was that it didn’t have fussy celebrities in-volved. The university took the lead role, and she was by all means no fussy subject. (continued to page 11)

boodle fight

band and disco

They are always behind by two chapters. Add to that the unavoidable common tragedies of student assistants’ getting sick and parents’ not allowing their children (who happened to be the only hope for typing in the manuscripts) to go to school for fear that something else was up besides the usual student activi-ties.

“I have no permanent secre-tary and poor eyesight.”

The text is typed in, “mga comma nalang, hiwi-hiwi, miss-ing.” She had to go through the whole thing again, the tedious part. “I really cried.”

Sheets / Among all else: “There are a lot of things we did-n’t know about this school. At the moment, we are going around in circles. Though there are a lot of great things like passing the Level IV accreditation for College of Teacher Education (among oth-ers), we are still going around in circles.” Then she shared, “the sad thing in being retired is that we aren’t allowed to attend fac-ulty meetings. I told the Dean, ‘pwede ba muapil sa meeting?’ In those meetings, there were questions raised like ‘What’s CNU noted for?’ Huh. We already had a trademark. In this school’s early years, Cebu Normal School graduates were distinguished for their beautiful English (the subject was the bastion of American teachers), beautiful legible hand-writing (writing was still a subject), expertise in methods of teaching (different methods for every disci-pline: reading, geography, arith-metic – ngilnig), proficiency in content (democratic, non-sexist, non-racist) and studious avoid-ance of corporal punishment. Plus the objective for CNS prod-ucts was to give seminars and training courses by being effec-tive resource speakers.” She said it with such saudade*.

In the 1970s, the school went into decline. In the year 1979, there were only 23 graduates.

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“From then, we worked a little better. 21st century, we are counting graduates by the thou-sands.” But it was unpreventable that we are faced with a lot of problems. In the year 2000, a new university president was to be elected. “One of the candidates (tall fellow) went to canteen ap-proached me, ‘Excuse me Ma’am what three things do you believe this university really need?’ I was surprised, but I an-swered: ‘One, commitment. Two, commitment. Three, commit-ment.’ And I think that’s what the teacher’s need, instead of play-ing politics, eating, talking, criticiz-ing, and all sorts of (insert made face here). If you’re a teacher, teach well. As long as your clothes are neat, it doesn’t mat-ter if your face is ugly.”

Eye cover / Publish or perish: Prior to To Rouse the Dawn, Dr. Savellon had several books pub-lished. She imparted wisdom to many of her colleagues, “I always tell the faculty, publish or perish? Publish or perish?” This book is an offer for the university’s centen-ary. And how it ended was with this bang: Behave like a univer-sity! That was a statement by for-mer Siliman University President and current CHED Commissioner Dr. Angel Alcala during the inau-guration of the university. “The most important factor of a univer-sity is the faculty, all the others are supporting,” Dr. Savellon said. Publish or perish? “A real univer-sity has a university culture. Uni-versity culture means devotion to research.” Publish or perish? “The higher you go up the educational ladder, the simpler the method, the complicated the content, but it seems that we are fixated on strategies.” Publish or perish? “Lecture, doesn’t mean one book, for every lecture, a real professor reads a lot of books to advance the frontiers of knowl-edge – and like an iceberg, only the visible part is given to the stu-dents.” Publish or perish? “You

seize something, and you use your time to study it.” Publish or perish?

Classical music / A hundred years and counting: Stretching the covers, like how the vener-able lady that is our university car-ries her new garments. The history book is well-researched and aca-demically written, said Presiden-tial Assistant Dr. Porponio Lapa. Since there is a scholarly demand for chronicling the history of the Cebu Normal University to serve as a standard reference material for academic scholars and the general public, as University Presi-dent Marcelo Lopez related.

“To rouse the dawn is to awaken the dawn of a student’s intellect; to act as a springboard for his love of learning; to provide a glimmer of the joys, the frustra-tions, the many challenges of life; and to furnish him with a steady base of character through which he can grow into a man of worth.” –Preface, To Rouse the Dawn, R.O. Savellon

Anyhow, sleepers for a hun-dred years or so wouldn't fail to marvel that call - call that would remind them that the light would break soon. Every one of us should be the dawn rouser. * Saudade - Portugese word for longing, nostalgia

(Dawn Rouser.. Continued from page 8)

Dr. Romolla Savellon, author of the CNU History Book

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Januar, the script writer, said that it would need a book to chronicle CNU’s history account by account. Someone had been tasked to get the book done and they were in no way duplicating that. What they wanted was to create an impression, to gener-ate an effect. Their job was to come up with something that would make the university proud.

Being himself a journalist, Januar wrote the script in so jour-nalistic a fashion that it sounded like reportage. The sentences were short and were in harmony with the cinematography. And because it was Her story, they utilized a woman’s voice for the narrator.

The director said he was chal-lenged to come up with really good shots if only to do justice to the crispiness and lyricism of the script. And to add more dimen-sion to the project, he asked some of his friends in the business for a 3-D animation of the pro-posed seven-storey buildings which really wowed the crowd on the premiere night.

“The key thing in any under-taking is collaboration. Always work with people better than you,” Ruel said with a shy smile.

The shots during the war were some of the most striking pack-ages of the film. Ruel said he was challenged to portray the impor-tance of the university edifice during the Japanese regime, she being used as headquarter of the Japanese police that time.

How to create a gruesome aura for the university inspired by her gory past, Ruel found a way. He took suggestive shots of what could have been imprints of the war on the university without ac-tually being certain that they really were. He said that was not cheating, but was getting the job done because somehow, the shots suggested that they were traces of the atrocities of the war.

It took the whole crew nine weeks to shoot the film. Ruel said

(Gi-unsa Pagsugid.. Continued from page 9)

they waited for the completion of the construction of some infra-structures so that they be incor-porated. The waiting was a bit prolonged that even until the very day of the screening, they were still shooting.

One of the more taxing er-rands in film-making was deciding on which music to use on which scene. Ruel said he auditioned hundreds and hundreds of musi-cal pieces for the whole film. Mu-sic helped create emotional tone, making music selection yet another crucial enterprise. Most of the time, he would only need the end part or the chorus or the intro of a musical piece and he will have to listen to them again and again just so he could figure out in what precise moment they were to resonate in our ears.

Upon hearing the wild cheers of the audience, the man facing his laptop computer in some dark corner away from the stage smiled to himself. He was used to successes, but he knew Pagsugid was different. Unlike stories he di-rected which were but products of creative minds, Pagsugid was a story weaved by a century of conflicts and victories of an insti-tution that has grown to become a testimony of the times.

As the director, he knew it was not his story. He knew the cheer-ing were not for him. But he takes pride to have led the crew that told the world Her story. Her story was told the way he wanted it told. And that would be enough a compensation for him. Director Ruel troubleshoots some technicalproblems

(Centennial.. Continued from page 9)

With five minutes before twelve, students ran towards the So- cial Hall for better views. Soon, the counting got lou- der and louder until, when midnight stroke, bright- colored fireworks shot up against the face of the sky. It was still raining and every- one around marveled at the sight of the display in between lightning and thunder. Some en-joyed the rain as the university hymn, whose lyrics was projected on the walls of the u-café, was sung by a myriad of proud voices.

When the fireworks display was over, only a few cared about getting wet. There were groups of soaked buddies having fun on the open inner court. At two in the morning, a total lunar eclipse graced the celebration. Accord-ing to experts, the rareness of the eclipse owed its credit to the fre-quency of its occurrence, which is once in every thirty years. The moon was so close to the earth that it grew larger than the usual lunar or solar eclipses did. Under the heavens, disco lights blared and the party people danced till four in the morning.

There were four policemen, two university guards and some tanods disseminated for security. SSG officers and some volunteers also kept guard. The OSA Dean herself, Dr. Gwendolina Villarante, also made ocular inspections to ensure order and security.

Moreover, students were not allowed to go out of the campus after ten o’clock in the evening unless they were fetched by their parents or guardians. “All these are done to ensure safety,” Las-quite said.

The SM Hall was used as sleep-ing quarters for the students who stayed overnight. On the follow-ing day, June 16, classes were suspended as the university hon-ored the very day of its founda-tion, one hundred nine years ago. (continued to page )

PAGSUGID can be viewed online!! Search CNU Pagsugid on the search

bar of YouTube.