Reflecting on UPV’s gifts

An essay by Chancellor Clement Camposano

I graduated from UPV in 1986 with a double major in Political Science and History.

U.P. Visayas was generous with its challenges, which formed me in no small way. The ability to persevere, to stay the course and hold steady in the face of daunting odds, to be bold and daring when the occasion calls for it, to find your own voice in the midst of all the noise, and mental clarity too within the confused mass of conflicting views -- these are all UPV’s gifts. Gifts we can only hope to pass on to kindred souls who come after us.

It was also in U.P. Visayas that I developed a fascination with ideas. Those early and wild stirrings led to an academic career that now spans three decades. The way the intellect was valued and celebrated, not just in lively classes but in animated conversations and endless disputations, was exhilarating. We feasted on ideology, speculated tirelessly, and blasphemed constantly. I did not end up in academia by chance. This was not the fruit of some random decision, or a prolonged lapse of judgment. My ending up where I am is part of a trajectory set in the late 70s to the mid-80s. In that little corner where one had Aquinas for breakfast and Burke for lunch, all while nursing a nasty hangover. To be so taken by certain notions and to enter the arena of intellectual combat on their behalf, our scared egos to be soothed by beer and wayward banter afterwards --- what a trip.

I’m not done yet but thank you, UPV, for setting me up for this life-journey. Invoking Gilroy, I say salamat guid for both my roots and my route. My duty at the moment is to care for you and I shall discharge it with a mix of reverence for a much-loved institution, and excitement for the possibilities whose rumblings we sometimes feel beneath our feet.