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HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE EAST

The beginnings of the University of the East go back to a rented room in Dasmariñas St., Manila, where 110 students took up Certified Public Accountant (CPA) review classes. It was barely two months after Philippine Independence in July 1946.

The group of business educators led by the late Dr. Francisco T. Dalupan, Sr. that initiated the classes made it their objective to help the country then still reeling from the effects of the war. Out of the 110 students, four made it to top places in the CPA board examinations of 1947.

Encouraged by immediate success, Dr. Dalupan and his colleagues opened the Philippine College of Commerce and Business Administration (PCCBA) along R. Papa St., in Sampaloc, Manila, to 350 students in the summer of 1947. The following year, the PCCBA moved to a lot fronting the San Sebastian Cathedral on Azcarraga St. (2219 Claro M. Recto Avenue.)

The graduates of PCCBA immediately dominated the government examinations of the professional practice in accountancy. With this record, the PCCBA was granted permission by government to establish other colleges. In rapid succession, the PCCBA opened the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Education, Graduate School of Business Administration, and the College of Dentistry.

The PCCBA was granted university status by government in July 3, 1950, and was renamed the University of the East with Dr. Dalupan as President and Chairman of the Board. The first members of the Board were Herminigildo B. Reyes, businessman and scholar and former Vice President of the University of the Philippines, Santiago F. dela Cruz, CPA and business executive who later succeeded Dr. Dalupan as President, Jose L. Torres, soldier, businessman and accountant, and Jaime Hernandez, former Secretary of Finance.

The succeeding years were a period of rapid growth for UE. More colleges were opened: College of Law, College of Medicine, and the College of Engineering. The Graduate School of Education was later on fused with the Graduate School of Business Administration. UE moved on to the northern suburban area of Caloocan ( later to become a city). Here, a new campus (then known as UE Tech) was opened on a 5 1/2 hectare lot along Samson Road. UE-Caloocan, now autonomous academically, is headed by a Chancellor. In its eight buildings are housed the colleges of Business Administration, Engineering, Fine Arts, Pre-Dental courses, and Vocational-Technical courses. Its grounds have been used for ROTC and CAT instructions since 1986.

In 1955, UE purchased a one-hectare lot along Aurora Boulevard in Quezon City, where the Instituto de Mujeres stood, for its College of Medicine. Two years later, on May 17, 1987, the college was converted into a foundation and was renamed the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center (UERMMMC), also known as UERM. The UERMMMC is independent of the University of the East.

In 1962, the University of the East purchased a 6,000 square - meter lot across UERM along Aurora Boulevard. This became the Research Center for Sciences, Humanities and Culture, with two buildings, one for the School of Music and Arts and the other for the College of Dentistry and research laboratories. The School of Music and Arts which was transformed into the School of Fine Arts eventually became the College of Fine Arts and was transferred to UE-Caloocan. The College of Dentistry started a gradual move to the UE main campus in Manila in 1988 and completed its transfer in 1991.

Simultaneous with this expansion in facilities was the rapid growth in enrollment. From the original 110 students of the review class in 1946, the student population steadily grew until it reached a high point in 1960 when UE became the First Philippine University to break the 60,000 mark in enrollment. The highest enrollment record was achieved during the first semester of school year 1975-1976 with 67,443 students.

The economic crisis and recession which ravaged the country in the 1980s did not spare UE. The devaluation of the peso, inflation, the cost of wages, faculty-personnel-student strikes affected UE and enrollment declined. This period intensified into a crisis which almost led to the school's being sold to a foreign religious group.

Financial troubles and academic decline continued to burden the University through the eighties prompting Dr. Isidro D. Cariņo, who became President in 1984, to apply very stringent measures. These included personnel reduction, cost-cutting measures and the renting out of school premises and facilities in short-term and long-term commercial leases.

This "commercialization" of facilities, enabled the University to "lurch along" despite mounting debts. It also enabled the Cariņo administration to introduce some innovations like the ladder-type curriculum, a special course for executives and the Computer Institute which later became the College of Computer Studies and Systems.

Dr. Cariņo was later drafted by President Corazon C. Aquino to be Secretary of Education.

A new administration headed by Mr. Panfilo O. Domingo, former President of the Philippine National Bank, took over in June 1990.

The first UE alumnus to become President and then Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the University, Mr. Domingo's heart was first and foremost for the UE student body who mostly come from the middle and lower classes of the population.

Thus, upon his assumption of the leadership of the University, he immediately launched a program of Total Student Care (TSC).

Total Student Care can not be achieved with decrepit facilities, ruined buildings, a demoralized faculty, and an institution hobbled by tremendous debts.

Being a finance and management expert, Mr. Domingo set about curing the financial ills of the University.

He devised a strategy for retiring the short-term debts of the University whose high interest rates of as much as 39% were hobbling the University. He instituted fiscal and operational controls that shut off tremendous leakages. In the five years of the Domingo Administration, the University's loans amounting to P110 Million were reduced to nearly zero. At the same time, Mr. Domingo embarked on a massive rehabilitation scheme both in infrastructure and academics. Among the physically rehabilitated facilities is the University Theater restored at a cost of P 6 Million, and now once more the site of University graduations and cultural presentations.

In 1992, Mr. Domingo drafted Ms. Rosalina S. Cajucom, a UE alumna who had just resigned from the government as Treasurer of the Philippines, to be UE President.

President Cajucom intensified the Total Student Care policy of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer P.O. Domingo and laid down and carried out the details of the reforms conceived by Mr. Domingo.

Under the policy, Ms. Cajucom implemented the following:

1. Review and rationalization of all academic policies and practices and formulation of new policies;
2. Creation of new programs and courses;
3. Upgrading of admission & retention standards;
4. Initiating and emphasizing the teaching of values hand in hand with the teaching of all the academic courses;
5. Creation of the University President's Scholarships (UPS) for financially underprivileged but academically deserving students;
6. Upgrading of salaries of faculty members independent of faculty union demands;
7. Computerization of most, eventually of all the records of the University; (for this purpose, creating the Management Information Systems Department); and
8. Microfilming of students' records so that all still extant records may be preserved.

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