MSU at 50: Integrating People and Building Societies through Quality Education in a Culture of Peace
Mindanao 11:48:00 AM
Fifty years have come and gone like colors in a spectrum of light. Countless generations of world-class warriors have answered the calls of global demands. These warriors were once bounded by cultures, beliefs and religions but integrated themselves into the existence of a relevant national living. The concept of education and learning being embraced by humanity is the impetus of these warriors in enlightening their minds and directing their lives in building societies not just for themselves but also for anyone who may coexist with them in the future. The plow used in cultivating the land that sustains the civilization that Mindanao State University possesses has been passed to various frontrunners and is now on the hands of a man who dreams for the perpetuity of the foundations laid down by a promised oneness. It is in this plow that all hopes, dreams and support of those warriors are parted with in such a hope that maybe one of these days, the pot of gold for MSU will be found. The MSUans are the warriors and life is the battlefield. And for its 50th year, a culture of peace is MSU's golden battlecry.
Not all universities in the Philippines are established to aim a systematic quality general education with a focus on cultural consciousness and moral integrity. This boilerplate separates MSU from the others. A peculiar attribute vested on this institution is to become a premier university which will provide the manpower resources of businesses and industries in the country by educating the Moro, Christian and Lumad youth of MINSUPALA to be the prime movers in uplifting the supraregion from its plight like having the poorest municipalities and provinces in the country. This special mandate could have been smooth since then if only the painful history isn't engraved in millions of hearts chained by untold horrors and if only the tug-of-war between clashing ideals and differences has peace as its arbitrator. From this irony emanates the persistence of MSU to be the machinery, amidst a war-shaken land, to put the youth as inputs, to process them in a hollistic manner, and to bring them out in the open as well-rounded outputs ready to do what they are made for. This is the 50-year old challenge accepted by MSU's founding fathers and still remains to be the challenge of anyone who accepts that the starting point of their lives is in any single point in MINSUPALA. This, in its very delicate sense, is the MSU challenge.
As melting pot of the south, MSU has been in a struggle to integrate the people within its territory. In classrooms and even in dormitories, tradition has it that all the tri-people get equal rights with which they unnoticeably part with one another the knowledge of the culture and the world they are born with. It is in this socio-cultural integration unique in MSU that a building of sophisticated society lived by conscious and aware people becomes more meaningfully responsive and productive. It can be everywhere indeed that we learn things from other people historically different from us and thank them for the lessons we can ever treasure for a lifetime.
The current builder of the MSUan civilization is its current president Dr. Macapado A. Muslim. He is the man who faces big problems first-hand but sees to it that quality education should be top of campus priorities. Despite budget cuts, he sought to allocate the funds to meet the basic academic requirements of MSU. He has developed numerous infrastractures for the welfare of the students and their studies. His administration still spawns topnotchers and exemplary board exam performances. He is the man whom students trust their future with and fortunately, MSU should be thankful that those skilled hands of him deserve the battle's forefront.
It is still the culture of peace that will be the turning point of all the realizations of MSU's aspirations and an end to itself. Without peace, quality education is partially achievable and it will take much time to integrate people and thus to build socities is to defy gravity. We know that Mindanao has two warring personas within her with different battlecries but anchored on the same sentiment. The years have left sorrowful footprints and history has written lessons suffice for us to learn. It will all just depend on the way we will heal those wounds and finally pick a paper inside our pot of gold which says, "You can take an MSUan out of MSU, but you can never take MSU out from the believing heart of an MSUan".#
