“I’ve heard of you,” said a pleasantly surprised Silliman University President Ben S. Malayang III when he realized it was MSU-IIT Prof. Alquine Roy F. Taculin who was seated in front of him.
“You’re supposed to be a very good dean!” Malayang told the 35 year-old former dean of the Institute’s School of Computer Studies who was there last August to benchmark at Silliman’s alumni office.
Taculin was just designated acting director of the Office for Alumni Relations and Placement (OARP) last August 1, and he wasted no time to gather ideas at Silliman when he heard IIT’s Office of Publication and Information (OPI) was going there.
“Benchmarking at big universities is one of the first things that we should be doing,” Taculin said as he admitted the Silliman visit would not be his only trip to other schools for the year.
Taculin said there was a need for MSU-IIT to observe and learn as much as it could from others on how to engage their own alumni, especially now when the Institute had only recently created its own Endowment Fund Management Office (EFMO) that would rely – in a big way – on the support of IIT graduates.
Needless to say, Taculin also heads the EFMO, having been hand-picked in June by Chancellor Sukarno D. Tanggol to fill the post after his deanship ended.
Tanggol has especially been vocal about the establishment of the endowment fund to give MSU-IIT an option in capital to be utilized for its expansion needs and to further its operating process.
Now that the EFMO is there, Taculin’s job is to attract investments and donations from donors and both IIT employees and alumni.
The key, according to Taculin, is to use the resources at the OARP to “re-engage” IIT’s alumni and eventually get them interested enough to contribute to the development of their alma mater, as is the case for other big universities.
“Our alumni’s impression of IIT is not good; they have become disinterested in us,” he said with concern.
The EFMO was created this year via Board of Regents Resolution No. 20. The committee who made the proposal was spearheaded by Taculin’s predecessor at the OARP, Dr. Rhodora S.N. Englis, who has since gone on Sabbatical leave.
As endowment fund manager, Taculin is tasked primarily to organize fund-raising activities and to prepare investment plans and the endowment fund portfolio that will be presented to prospective donors.
He will also be occupied with the creation and maintenance of the endowment fund website, as well as in the production of campaign materials such as brochures and flyers that will have to be given out.
“We are still prioritizing which tasks to do, but formulating marketing strategies is definitely up there,” Taculin said.
These efforts at developing action plans include those for the OARP where Taculin is also busy organizing alumni data for easy retrieval, enhancing internal operations, and working on rebranding the office and the services it offers.
A big part of theses services is alumni placement, which Taculin wants to give a big makeover with the establishment of a one-stop shop full of job openings.
As both endowment fund manager and alumni office director, Taculin may soon have to clone himself, save for the fact that the two roles are related.
“It’s just the issue of getting more personnel to help me operate that I’m still struggling with,” he revealed while confessing to paying the one month salary of a staff member whose job order contract was never approved due to budgetary constraints, but whose services he really needed.
Taculin clearly has the vision and the inclination to give his all for the attainment of that vision that make people – the Silliman University President included – sit up and notice.
And it should be safe to say that with Taculin at the helm of both the EFMO and the OARP, all IITians will soon be moved to re-establish links and finally fulfill their duties to their alma mater.
Up for reinstatement as faculty of the College of Arts and Social Sciences after earning his doctorate degree in political science from Monash University in Australia, Prof. Darwin Manubag is poised to fill the vacant Director for Extension post of the Institute this October 1, 2016.
Manubag’s designation comes in the heels of the issuance yesterday of Special Order No. 1802-IIT, which assigns him to the job as acting director until the end of the year.
Manubag went to Monash University through a scholarship under the Institute’s Academic Personnel Development Program.
Manubag was recommended to the post by Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension Dr. Jinky B. Bornales who cited his active involvement in different externally-funded researches and extension projects.
Manubag’s experience “will greatly help in enhancing the profile of the Department of Extension of the OVCRE, and in the implementation of our institutionalized extension program – WE CARE,” Bornales wrote to the Chancellor on September 15, 2016.
WE CARE is an acronym for Wellness (health sanitation); Education (literacy); Capability-building; Alternative livelihood; Rehabilitation (of the environment); Entrepreneurial development.
As acting director, Manubag takes over control of the Department of Extension, one of the main departments of the OVCRE.
The Department of Extension is dedicated to the promotion, development, and conduct of community outreach programs and extension services within and outside the surrounding areas of the MSU-IIT campus.
Manubag will take on the role of leading the Institute’s efforts in delivering effective and responsive extension services that will enable the people to improve the quality of their lives through sustainable development. (RGO)
Up for reinstatement as faculty of the College of Arts and Social Sciences after earning his doctorate degree in political science from Monash University in Australia, Prof. Darwin Manubag is poised to fill the vacant Director for Extension post of the Institute this October 1, 2016.
Manubag’s designation comes in the heels of the issuance yesterday of Special Order No. 1802-IIT, which assigns him to the job as acting director until the end of the year.
Manubag went to Monash University through a scholarship under the Institute’s Academic Personnel Development Program.
Manubag was recommended to the post by Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension Dr. Jinky B. Bornales who cited his active involvement in different externally-funded researches and extension projects.
Manubag’s experience “will greatly help in enhancing the profile of the Department of Extension of the OVCRE, and in the implementation of our institutionalized extension program – WE CARE,” Bornales wrote to the Chancellor on September 15, 2016.
WE CARE is an acronym for Wellness (health sanitation); Education (literacy); Capability-building; Alternative livelihood; Rehabilitation (of the environment); Entrepreneurial development.
As acting director, Manubag takes over control of the Department of Extension, one of the main departments of the OVCRE.
The Department of Extension is dedicated to the promotion, development, and conduct of community outreach programs and extension services within and outside the surrounding areas of the MSU-IIT campus.
Manubag will take on the role of leading the Institute’s efforts in delivering effective and responsive extension services that will enable the people to improve the quality of their lives through sustainable development. (RGO)
Former Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics (CSM) Dr. Ferdinand P. Jamil is now the new acting director of MSU-IIT’s Premier Research Institute of Sciences and Mathematics (PRISM).
According to Special Order No. 1778-IIT issued today, Jamil’s designation as PRISM acting director covers the period September 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016.
The PRISM, which is already in the final phase of its construction, is the MSU-IIT building that will house all of the research laboratories of CSM and the College of Engineering and Technology (COE&T), as well as other state-of-the-art research equipment and facilities of the Institute.
According to the current CSM Dean, Dr. Mark Nolan Confessor, part of Jamil’s duties as PRISM acting director is to supervise the transfer of the various laboratories and equipment for research from the CSM and the COE&T.
Confessor said that Jamil, who sits in the Technical Coordinating Panel overseeing the construction of the building, was instrumental in initiating “the many meetings that led to the BOR approval of the PRISM mandate (vision, mission, and structure).”
“As acting director, Jamil will focus on the attainment of the PRISM implementing rules and regulations,” Confessor said.
Jamil is a faculty member of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. -RGO