Posted by The WORD in Other Words by Fr Eugene Docoy SVD (Philippines) for Friday 18th Week in Ordinary Time
Since the recent past, our country has experienced difficult challenges in all fronts of life. Prices of commodities continue to rise; inflation rate remains very high; cases of human rights violations persist; and the rift between the Church and State has become deeper and more painful.
At the University of San Carlos, where I work as chaplain, we continue to grapple with difficulties brought about by the government-instituted academic reform. We are experiencing deep financial loses, displacements of faculty members and dissatisfaction from the ranks of staff and employees. There seems to be an Exodus in Education.
We recall the experience of the chosen people –leaving the life of captivity in Egypt, lingering in the dessert, and finally the arrival in the Promised Land. The university, just like the Israelites, has decided to leave the old educational system bringing with it the difficult challenges of reforms never experienced before. The university has to continue to be relevant, globally competitive and responsive to the demands of quality education. To do this, it has to carry out reforms that require commitment, dedication, hard work, and resilience.
Fortunately, the university is blessed with not only talented and dedicated key personnel but people with a heart for others. Everyone, from the President to faculty and staff, seems to have pooled all their talents and sense of sacrifice together to lead the crossing of the red sea and living in the dessert of reforms. They carry the heavy load of making the university not only afloat but maintain its status as the premier school in southern Philippines. They deny themselves and take up their crosses to follow the Lord.
