Br. Bernard Oca FSC, President
Good morning, dearest students, faculty, and partners in the Lasallian Mission. Though our Provost and SVP have already greeted you, I wish to do so personally and without any deepfakery — welcome to Academic Year 2025-26 on our Jubilee Year as a University.
For 30 years now, DLSU has carried the tagline “The Future Begins Here”. We were certainly very mindful of this promise when we announced at the beginning of our Jubilee Strategic Planning cycle, that De La Salle University is “Here for the Future”.
The question as ever of course remains: what kind of future? Those of us who have been around long enough will know that universities have faced a version of this existential question roughly once every decade.
Do you remember when higher education (and life in general) was to be transformed by microcomputing in the 1980s? Then, by the Internet, when access to the WorldWide Web arrived here at DLSU in March of 1994? Remember the early 2000s when globalization was going to simultaneously empower us with greater choice, but also permanently fracture the basis of our societies? How about the 2010s when the Fourth Industrial Revolution was heralded, and suddenly all traditional disciplines were to be remade with the advent of biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence?
Just as then, we are today deluged in equal measure by a parade of threats and assurances. I don’t know who has the harder task making sense of all this: the 18-year-old about to make probably the most consequential decision of her or his young life, the parents or guardians who have to help weigh options and invest accordingly… or university leaders who bear these responsibilities to families and society.
Thanks be to God then, that we have not been alone in this work. Throughout more than three centuries, the global Lasallian family has received more than a generous measure of grace and inspiration from the Holy Spirit. Last year, I marked a personal Jubilee of 50 years as a De La Salle Brother, and the act of renewing vows in the presence of so many friends and partners has become a sacred memory.
But it is also a sacred moment every time I stand outside the South Gate in the early morning or late afternoon to greet you, our dear students, faculty, and staff, and to wish you well that day. Or send you off to your homes with “Ingat sa pag-uwi” as a blessing.
I hope it does not startle you too much when I do. If I have never had a chance to express this to you publicly, let me do so now, on our Jubilee year: I am very grateful for your presence and your work at this moment in DLSU’s history.
Now, if the Lord has planted a seed of gratitude in your hearts as well, then let us respond by recommitting ourselves to our educational philosophy at DLSU — a philosophy that springs from timeless and enduring Lasallian values: a Spirit of Faith, Zeal for Service, and Communion in Mission.
As faculty and staff or a learning community, with gratitude for all we have experienced together these past years, all the sacrifices and successes, let us recommit to Teaching Minds. Let us put all our effort, without counting the cost, toward developing knowledge and understanding
among our students. Let us gently but steadfastly awaken them to their responsibilities:to self, family, society, to our planet, and above all to our Creator. Let us use every tool at our disposal to sharpen their creative and critical faculties, so that their hope is nurtured, and their dreams provide them with the strength to take on all of life’s challenges.
Let us not forget our work of Touching Hearts as well. We all know from unfolding events and from decades of scandal what happens when hearts are numbed and corroded. Let a more critical understanding of the world result in an overflow of compassion, empathy, and zeal to build a just, humane, and loving society. Let our ears attune to the call of the poor, the vulnerable, and those on the margins, and let our eyes see them as co-designers of a shared and sustainable future.
Let us not allow ourselves to be victims of greed and power, and let us rise from the floods of corruption and stem the tide of temptations. May our students follow the example of the former DOTR secretary who was recently appointed at the helm of DPWH and not be like the district engineer of Bulacan of the same department.
Let us ensure we orient our learners’ hearts toward eternity, which billions in currency or social media clout cannot purchase.
Our work as educators culminates in Transforming Lives. It is not the work of individuals; the Lasallian way is to labor together and by association, so that our students go into the world ready to be competent professionals, engaged citizens, and yes, prophetic leaders, who will not hesitate to give of themselves, because they know what it is like to receive grace from others.
We have had a very memorable and impactful first five decades as a university. It’s been a great run. Our milestones in learning, research and innovation, and social engagement have been recognized not just within our country, but across the region and in the wider world
So let us step into our next 50 years with fortitude for the future. That is, with a continuing humility and courage to improve ourselves.
In AY21-22, in the middle of a global pandemic, we somehow found ourselves welcoming a record first-year intake. That cohort has since more or less graduated. Yet despite falling short of our admittedly ambitious enrollment targets these past few years, we have found ourselves with a permanently enlarged student — and therefore faculty and staff — population. Our community is larger than it has ever been, by whatever measure.
Your presence represents a depth of talent and potential that has not been available to previous generations of Lasallians.
Yet talent and potential remain dormant and unfulfilled unless they are properly cultivated and deployed. This is the error we cannot afford to make as we reach an important crossroads. To an individual, 50 years may represent the entire arc of a career, of a life even. But to an institution, 50 years mean mere adolescence. De La Salle University is just getting started.
It’s why for the last year and a half, as soon as we finished cascading the Jubilee Strategy to each of our over 115 departments, units, and offices, we have been quietly but steadily running a program to upgrade DLSU’s organizational capabilities — our collective ability to get things done, despite disruptions and limited resources.
By now most of our academic and support offices have been initiated into the tools, practices and routines of performance management. I know it has been by turns disorienting and difficult: having to choose three Jubilee Objectives, formulating department-level strategies, then matching them to outcomes and key indicators, tracking them using a visual board, meeting weekly to review progress — all while attending to the daily demands of life and work in 2025.
It was always going to be this way — thus we are grateful for partners who have been there before and are prepared to accompany us. The most fundamental improvements in life always require effort more than they require resources — a willingness to pour oneself out for others, for causes larger than oneself. It’s why humility remains the most powerful of all virtues, and why the Lasallian Mission has always depended on the humble, more than the talented, or the successful, or the privileged.
Gratitude for the past, fortitude for the future. Let these virtues guide our steps this year. Let them be the reason we say “yes, let’s improve ourselves together.” Let’s do educational innovation excellently. Let’s fulfill the promise of hybrid learning. Let’s lead in the ethical application of AI in higher ed. Let’s provide first-rate service at DLSU by getting better organized and being willing to learn new things. Let’s use the tools and routines of high-performing teams to get the most out of our talents.
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Bilang huling pagpugay sa ating nakaraan, at pagharap sa ating kinabukasan, nais kong ipamahagi ang naging bilin ni Br. Hyacinth Gabriel Connon FSC noong Pebrero ng 1975, nang inihandog sa kanya ng kanyang kaibigan na si Dr. Juan L. Manuel, Kalihim ng Edukasyon, ang charter na nagdedeklarang Pamantasan na ang dating De La Salle College. Si Br. Gabriel ang unang Pangulo ng DLSU, at bagama’t sa Ingles niya unang binigkas ito, minarapat kong ibahagi siya sa Filipino, dahil si Br. Gabriel ay kinikilala ring unang Pilipinong Pangulo ng DLSU — ipinagkaloob sa kanya ng Kongreso ang pagkamamamayang Filipino noong 1970.
Heto ang kanyang bilin: “Lahat tayo ay maaaring magkaroon ng tiyak na kasiyahan at pagmamalaki na ang ating institusyon ay kinikilala, di lamang sa katunayan, kung di ngayon sa pangalan, bilang isang Pamantasan.
Higit kailanman, dapat nating ipamalas ang ating sarili bilang isang institusyong pang-edukasyon na may kalidad, isang Pamantasan ng kahusayan. Ngayon na tinatawag tayong De La Salle University, isa sa ating pinakamahalagang prioridad ay ang manatiling isang paaralan na de-kalidad.”
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Dear faculty, staff, and students, in my heart, I know that two generations from now, if we persevere in faith, if we joyfully serve, if we lead and are led in communion, our successors will look back to this time, with the same gratitude we today extend to our forebears.
Then they will gird themselves up, as we do now, to meet the challenges of their time. And the Lasallian Mission, begun over three centuries ago with the heroic yes of a faithful man, will have refreshed itself yet again, impactful, life-affirming, and evergreen.
Dr. Robert Roleda, Provost
Good morning and once again welcome to the University General Assembly for AY25-26. A special welcome to our Golden Jubilee batch of 4395 first-year students and to our 53 new faculty.
This new academic year marks a significant milestone for our Laguna campus. Our AY25-26 frosh intake of YY means that for the first time, there are over one thousand undergraduate students at our Laguna campus. This is about the same number of college students here at Taft the year DLSU became a University.
As Provost, I wish to take a few minutes to highlight the most significant developments of the previous year in DLSU academics, and sketch out future directions as we enter the second half of our Jubilee Strategic Plan cycle.
We are a community of over 27,000 students and over 1,200 faculty by headcount. This represents a substantial capability to deliver excellent learning, research, and social impact.
STRATCOM has done its usual excellent summary of achievements by our faculty, our researchers and our students in videos you have seen around campus all week. I would like to draw special attention to three of our most significant breakthroughs this past year.
First is undoubtedly the rollout of Challenge-Based Learning or CBL at the School of Innovation and Sustainability in Laguna. As some of you may remember, this was first conceptualized for possible adoption at DLSU in 2019. Challenge-Based Learning, as implemented in institutions like Tec de Monterrey in Mexico, and those within the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) is a model for delivering undergraduate programs that emphasizes hands-on, collaborative, and multi-disciplinary approaches to solving real-world challenges.
Five years later, we are officially able to offer this new learning experience to 67 undergraduates taking Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and Bachelor of Science in Information Technology.
Challenge-Based Learning is a very promising and practical way to live out our Lasallian Reflection Framework of Masid-Danas, Suri-Nilay, at Taya-Kilos. We look forward to the prototypes, working models, even startups that will emerge from collaboration between our student groups, and their faculty and industry advisers, as they grapple with society’s biggest challenges.
Special thanks are due Dr. Arnulfo Azcarraga and Dr. Raymund Sison of the Society of Fellows for incepting the idea, to Dr. Gil Nonato Santos and Dr. Jonathan Dungca who persevered with the design and implementation, and to the leadership and faculty of our Colleges of Computer Studies and Business that have helped DLSU take yet another important step in educational innovation.
Next, I would cite DLSU’s Policy on Generative Artificial Intelligence, which comes into effect this AY25-26.
Our Policy on Generative AI culminates over a year’s work of consulting, deliberating, and balancing the opportunities and threats to learning. I think it is a very enlightened example of how to responsibly use powerful technologies by leading with solid principles (i.e., transparency, disclosure, accountability, human agency, critical engagement) and defining guidelines collaboratively.
Just as importantly, the Policy seeks to be comprehensible, using language that is as clear and simple as possible, providing examples and best practices. Thank you to the leadership of Dr. Thomas James Tiam-lee and all who were involved in crafting DLSU’s Generative AI Policy.
Finally I would like to highlight significant developments toward our Jubilee Goal 2 — Impact. Our aspiration is to generate new sources of national growth from a green knowledge ecosystem, and this means combining our formidable intellectual resources with the capabilities of industry and government.
The Philippines knowledge ecosystem is far from developed, and academe-industry linkages tend to reflect this. But a few weeks ago on July 30, following years of preparation, part of our Laguna Campus was declared by the national government via Proclamation No. 985 as a Knowledge, Innovation, Science and Technology (KIST) Ecozone.
The De La Salle University Innovation Hub will now serve as a gathering point for industry locators. Together we shall undertake research, skills development, R&D commercialization and technopreneurship, enabled by the special grants and privileges made available by the Special Economic Zone Act of 1995.
As the new academic year begins, it gives us a chance to review our institutional strategies and incorporate necessary course corrections. Many developments and opportunities have arisen since AY2023 when we launched our Jubilee Strategy.
Despite a need to once again be extra prudent with our resources this year, we find our three Jubilee Goals remain valid and relevant.
But I find it useful to introduce a new version of Goal Zero, as a way of reaffirming DLSU’s paramount commitment to the education of the youth entrusted in our care.
Goal Zero shall be owned by the Office of the Provost. We define it as Core — Excellent educational innovation and a first-rate student experience to expand DLSU’s reach.
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We shall measure success by three Objectives:
Excellent Educational Innovation. That is, by 2027, at least 80 percent of undergraduate courses will integrate AI-enabled, experiential learning, and Education for Sustainable Development all at 49 percent classroom utilization, with student satisfaction ratings above 4.3 out of 5.0.
Student Experience. By 2027, achieve at least a 30 percent reduction in reported student complaints related to bureaucratic processes and IT/digital platform downtimes, implement 100 percent compliance with PWD accessibility standards across campus facilities, and expand tailored support services so that at least 85 percent of students report satisfaction in annual student experience surveys.
New Growth. By 2027, at least 10 percent of total enrollment will come from non-traditional sources and new markets.
Each of these has featured in discussions within previous DLSU strategic planning cycles. What is different is our commitment to set SMART Objectives for them, to be very deliberate and use data to formulate strategies, and to bring a project management approach to our initiatives and go further in realizing outcomes than we have done before.
The education ecosystem is evolving at a much faster pace than we are used to. Technological advancements are challenging the very models for delivering education, while at the same time presenting unique opportunities.
Our approach to all of this disruption is to be clear-eyed about our priorities: whether dealing with hybrid delivery or generative AI or microcredentialing, or further changes to the Senior High School or General Education curriculum, we must be prepared to deliver excellently.
Rather than seeing hybrid delivery as just a way for faculty and students to save on commuting time, (or worse, an excuse not to hold classes), let us invest effort in fulfilling the promise of this and other new modalities.
Let us see them as opportunities to expand the reach of the Lasallian Mission, helping as many different types of students, from different places and with different needs, access quality Lasallian education. Let us learn valuable lessons from our partners such as Arizona State University, and bring our ingenuity to localize solutions.
It affirms the same message Br. Bernie shared last year, when he encouraged us to take a sober and mature attitude toward global university rankings. Again, rankings are neither gospel truth nor are they part of a global conspiracy to corporatize education. The mature response when presented with new developments or new technologies is neither to obsess over them nor reject them out of hand, but to engage — to study them, highlight those elements most consistent with DLSU’s Mission, and use them to benchmark and improve our work.
As we look forward to DLSU’s next 50 years, it is obvious we cannot predict the future. But if we bring our talents, our goodwill toward each other, and our willingness to serve, I am certain God will help DLSU create the future.
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Ms. Kai Shan Fernandez, Senior Vice President
Good morning everyone.
Happy new academic year 25-26 on behalf of all offices that make up DLSU’s support services.
I would like to begin by looking back and highlighting a few of the most impactful work our units carried out this past year. Recognizing them will in turn provide a platform for us to look to the future and propose a new service model for DLSU.
First and likely most visible among accomplishments on the service side are the newly completed campus infrastructure projects at the Laguna campus, namely, the Enrique K. Razon, Jr. Hall, the adjacent University Hall, Research Pods, Semi-Olympic Swimming Pool, electric vehicle charging station, and the refurbished John Gokongwei Jr. Innovation Center.
Back here in Manila, the initial 4-storey Phase 1 of St. Mutien Marie Hall was inaugurated last February. Among the newly renovated spaces include classrooms, microteaching and medical physics laboratories and workspaces of HR, Counseling and Psychological Services, Angelo King Institute and LCIDWell. Today, we also experienced first hand the depth and resonance of the newly installed pipe organ here at the Chapel of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
As significant though less visible is our complete switch-over to 100 percent renewable energy for all eligible buildings at the Manila and Laguna campuses. This development is DLSU’s contribution to mitigate climate change and long-term reduction of energy costs.
Next is the launch of Archers Hub, DLSU’s new Student Life Cycle management system. Last September 1, this new platform started to cater to the admission processes of Senior High, Undergraduate and Graduate applicants for AY 2026-27 intake. In the second phase, its future functionalities will accompany our students throughout their entire stay at DLSU, including enrollment, student academic record management, online payment services, scholarship management, and all the way to graduation-related processes. Our gratitude extends to the Provost, who stood as the executive sponsor of this project.
We continue to improve our IT infrastructure, information system security and expand our network services, along with the phased replacement of desktops, projectors and televisions in classrooms, laboratories and other learning spaces.
Third are the documented improvements to our procurement system, which we identified as an urgent priority at the very beginning of our Jubilee Strategy cycle in 2023.
We are pleased to report that the average turnaround times have improved from across all three classes of products and services. In AY22-23, the average turnaround time for Biddable Items was around 85 days. Over the last three years, it has shortened to just 28 days. For Customized Items, it was once nearly 50 days, today it is 23 days on average. Regular Items used to take over 40 days to procure, today, the average is closer to two weeks, or 15 days.
These improvements have come as a result of in-house initiatives within the Supply Chain Management Office, our digitalization efforts via Projects BITUIN and SULONG that laid the groundwork and provided lessons for our current Project ASCENCION, as well as policy changes approved by the President’s Council. We shall continue to work on bringing averages down and competently facilitate the needs of the entire DLSU community.
University outcomes related to holistic healthcare of students and employees by the Health Services Office, Lasallian Center for Inclusion, Diversity and Well-being, and the Counseling and Psychological Services has been recognized through a 5-Star Rating in the AUN Healthy University Rating System for the past two academic years.
Finally, on behalf of the Vice-President for Finance, I would cite the recent implementation of Outcomes-Based Budgeting as a major step forward in being able to program and deploy our resources effectively.
We are well aware that it required adjustment and quick learning from all unit heads. We are very grateful for your collective effort, and are encouraged by the initial submissions. Whether it’s a period of windfall enrollment or favorable economic conditions, it is important to be clear about our spending plans.
The sooner it becomes part of our normal practice to propose projects that deliver concrete outcomes — and not just default to the same activities with vague results — the better we will steward our resources and make them count.
Now, looking forward to the new academic year, I would like to share some thoughts on a service model for DLSU that we can all agree on and build.
It is based on a daily reality we face — there are more of us who require on-campus and remote services. We have limited means to simply keep hiring staff. Yet we all wish to keep service levels country-best, as DLSU is known to be.
It will be possible to reconcile these objectives and constraints, but only if we can agree on a Lasallian model of service that combines two elements:
First, we must invest in enhancing our in-house capabilities for delivering service. This must be built through a combination of training, redeployment, even re-crafting of staff job functions, to replace the obsolete ones as a result of digitization and flexible work arrangement. We can and must do this, not just so that we can deliver a first-rate student experience, but also for our offices to get work done more promptly and effectively.
There is, however, an equally important element to the model, and it involves us and our counterpart responsibilities as clients: we must all be willing to do more self-service.
This means learning to do more basic tasks independently, relying less on staff to do them for us, so that they may be deployed toward higher-value activities. Enhancing our staff’s capabilities to deliver excellent service will be difficult if we do not also relieve them of more basic tasks.
One good example is ordinary audio-visual or computer equipment. In 2025, it is reasonable to expect that we ought to be able to switch on and operate TV monitors, projectors and similar basic paraphernalia, without too much personal assistance.
But of course, help will always be available to our genuinely disadvantaged members.
But a service model for DLSU can only work if we are willing to build on the spirit of CLAYGO (Clean As You Go), introduced close to 30 years ago. It means that we take every effort to take care of things for ourselves, for the sake of lessening the burden on others.
It may take more knowledge to operate equipment than it would to deposit our used plates and utensils at a designated spot, but what is important is the willingness to adjust for the sake of others.
And as with CLAYGO, we want our expectations of service level delivery to be consistent with the values and leadership traits we wish to develop within our students. We want them to be prepared to do more things without too much supervision or assistance; we want them to be a blessing and not a burden to their future colleagues.
Lastly, moving forward, efficiency in utilization of all resources, whether physical, economic, organizational, tangible or intangible will be of significant consideration in policy- and decision-making processes. You will be surprised to learn that classroom utilization in the past trimester is only at 49%. What does this piece of data connote? We don’t have a shortage in classrooms; it is not the reason behind the adoption of hybrid learning mode. Prospectively, there would be efforts to streamline and make optimal use of classroom time and resources.
So let us model these behaviors in the way we design and implement our service arrangements, beginning this academic year.
We will need both elements: build a model of service delivery good for the long term and cooperation across all ranks, in order to be reflective of a modern and progressive institutional culture. Thank you.
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