Cafeteria Releases Green Advisory
The Silliman University Cafeteria will strictly regulate the use of plastics effective January 2010.
A “Green Advisory” was released December 11 containing five measures that the Cafeteria will observe by next year in packing food items. As early as this month, the Cafeteria has already significantly reduced its regular requisition for plastic bags to 10 percent.
Under the new arrangement, customers are encouraged to bring their own plastic bags or other packaging alternatives for bulk purchases. The Cafeteria will no longer distribute plastic bags for free; customers needing plastic bags will have to purchase them at the counter.
Paper bags will be used for packing dried items. Plastics will still be used for wet items but the Cafeteria will not allow doubling of plastics.
Regulars who do take-outs comprise the bulk of the Cafeteria’s customers who are recipients of plastics. To help them eliminate plastics, and avoid the long queue, they are given an option under the new arrangement to order ahead of time and leave their canisters with the Cafeteria. They can pick up their orders by lunchtime from a separate counter.
The advisory explained that the new arrangement supports the University’s efforts at institutionalizing eco-friendly practices on campus.
“This initiative is aimed at developing environmental consciousness within the University’s internal and external constituencies and inspiring a lifestyle change towards sustainable development,” the Advisory added.
It admitted that customers will experience inconvenience at the start but noted that the resistance will be temporary. “It is our hope, however, that over time, you will find our new system of doing things in the Cafeteria encouraging of your respective approaches to greening your lifestyle."
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Human Rights Day Celebration Calls for Renewed Peace Talks
A series of activities in celebration of Human Rights Day was organized by the Justice and Peace Center (JPC) of the Divinity School from December 2 to 10.
Themed “Human Rights: a Process and a Goal of Peace”, this year’s celebration particularly called on government to renew the peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), on top of the need to address other concerns on rights and peace.
A petition was circulated among members of the Silliman community encouraging support for Secretary Annabelle Abaya, newly-appointed head of the Office of the Presidential Adviser to the Peace Process for her efforts towards peace talks.
In statement issued to the public, the Center cited why the peace talks is necessary especially for the communities in the hinterlands where “farmers eke out a living growing food crops and planting palay.”
“Far from city centers, they need access to social services such as better health care, education and feeding programs, and support in improving their livelihood and agricultural plots. But these services and support systems are greatly hampered for as long as government and the NDFP peace negotiations are stalled,” the statement explained.
Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, former head of the government’s Peace Panel with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, echoed this concern during his lecture on “Peace Talks and Human Security as a Framework Towards Development” on December 8 at the Silliman Hall. (Silliman on Air Coordinator Rev. Callum Tabada interviewed Gen. Garcia prior to his lecture. To listen to the interview, click this link: http://sillimanonair.blogspot.com/2009/12/dec-8-2009-interview-with-lt-gen.html.)
On December 10, Mr. Arturo Felix Catarata, Legislative Officer of the House Committee on Human Rights, represented Rep. Lorenzo Tañada, Chair of the House Committee on Human Rights, in the talk on the human rights situation in the Philippines. Discussed was the Anti-Torture Law (RA 9745) which was passed in November and penalizes “state actors” who commit acts of torture.
Other activities lined up for the celebration included a training on peace mediation among pastors, workshops on crafting community peace agenda in community organizations, and setting up a human rights booth at the College of Arts and Sciences grounds by the JPC and the Amnesty International-Dumaguete Group.
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Alumnus Funds Professorial Chair of Business Administration
An Outstanding Sillimanian in the field of medicine has donated USD25,000 to Silliman University through the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA) to establish the Professional Chair of Business Administration Fund.
Dr. Eusebio Kho, who received the Outstanding Sillimanian Award in 1989, made the donation, with his wife, Mrs. Grace Casas Lim-Kho, as his way of giving back to his Alma Mater for a Christian education that has led to the success of their professional lives.
The Khos have always been generous to Silliman University. Prior to this new professorial chair, they have, among others, endowed a Chair and Professorship of Surgery at the Silliman University Medical School.
To be known as the “Grace Casas-Lim and Eusebio C. Kho, M.D. Professorial Chair for Business Administration”, the grant will be awarded to a faculty member who has demonstrated “academic excellence and scholarship, leadership, moral character, and a strong commitment to teaching, research, and service.”
Dr. Kho graduated valedictorian from the Silliman University High School in 1952, and later completed Pre-Med from the University “With Highest Honors” in 1955. He finished his degree in medicine from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine.
A successful medical doctor, Dr. Kho has received numerous awards, among them, the Twenty Outstanding Filipinos Abroad Award, which he received in Washington, DC, in 2008.
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USAID Taps SBE for Tudlo Mindanao
The Elementary Department of the Silliman University School of Basic Education (SBE) was selected as the laboratory school for the Tudlo Mindanao project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and facilitated by the United States Peace Corps Philippines.
Tudlo Mindanao brought teachers from Mindanao together with Peace Corps Volunteers and selected SBE faculty for concentrated trainings in English, teaching methodologies and project design management.
One of the speakers for the teaching methodology workshop was Prof. Mary Ann Temprosa, SBE Associate Director for the Elementary Department.
As the laboratory school, Silliman’s Elementary Department hosted in late October the 40 elementary teachers from Mindanao after their trainings in a local hotel. The teachers demonstrated their teaching skills before pupils of the Elementary Department.
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