Monday, September 22, 2008 A fresh perspective By Jenara Regis Newman
FOR Fr. Dionesio Marcelo Miranda, SVD, being the president of the University of San Carlos (USC) has been, in his words, “a steep learning curve.
You always learn something at every turn. I try to understand the school, how it works and functions, what are its strengths and weaknesses. My agenda is to reinforce its strengths and carry them forward, and to address the weaknesses and supplement the gaps. It is an old institution. I can’t bring anything novel; but maybe a freshness of perspective and a different emphasis on priorities.”
Baguio-born Fr. Miranda is not new in Cebu. He first came to Cebu in 1969 when he taught for a year at the USC Boys High School and at the same time, he took up BSE and BSEED units in USC. He also took up some units in guidance in that school the following school year.
He came back to USC as professor in 1986 and as guest professor in 1989. He served as member of the university’s board of trustees in 1987-1996. He is again with the board of trustees (starting 2003 up to 2009).
Fr. Miranda served as vice chairman and committee chairman on Catholicity, from 2003-2006, and at the same time served as a trustee of the Holy Name University in Tagbilaran. In 2007, he was with the board’s committee on long-range planning.
He earned both his licentiate and doctorate in moral theology, minor in pastorals, at the Accademia Alfonsiana in Rome, graduating summa cum laude.
Fr. Miranda also took up a bioethics training course at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, in 1997 and in 2003.
Bioethics, he explains, is the discipline “that studies the moral issues related to modern researches in biotechnology.” This explains why he is chairman of the ethics committee of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, and member of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Office of Bioethics.
A linguist, Fr. Miranda is fluent in English, Pilipino, Italian, Spanish, German and French and knows enough Latin, Dutch and Portuguese to understand them when he reads them.
It is important, he says, to learn also the culture behind languages to learn them better.
He has also written six books, the last of which, Kaloob ni Kristo, won the Gintong Aklat award of the National Book Development Association of the Philippines in 2004.
Fr. Miranda brings all these qualifications, plus his wealth of experience in the teaching profession in SVD and other schools, and his pastoral work and travels to his role now as USC president for a three-year term.
His priority is to “emphasize research a bit, to make it more relevant to the region, to be more contextual, that is, adapted to local conditions.
“So far, the emphasis in USC has been that of a teaching school. It is research that develops new knowledge and insights, and trying make these applicable to daily life.”
New knowledge and insights—these will surely help carry USC, “an old institution,” forward in an age of fast-changing technology.
