Engineer Antonio Lapingcao Jr., University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) vice president for administration, (5th from left) and Teresita Ponce, USPF chairman of the board, (2nd from left) lead the ground-breaking ceremony of the new solar-powered building project in the USPF Lahug campus in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City. The activity was held on July 8.
CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON
USP’s P86M project is first solar-powered building of a university in Cebu
The growth in economy in Central Visayas, specifically in Cebu, has also created an impact in the education sector with more families now being able to send their children to college and increasing the student population of Cebu’s schools, particularly its universities.
This development also spurred school owners to build more infrastructure to accommodate the increase in students enrolling in their schools.
One university is investing in a P2-billion mixed use project, which includes a call center facility that will be manned by their students.
Another university is constructing a P170-million building which is primed to become a startup hub for their students.
For University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF), the university is constructing an P86 million academic building, which will also be a first in Cebu.
“It will be the first solar-powered building of a university in Cebu,” said Engineer Antonio Lapingcao Jr., USPF vice president for administration in an interview with Cebu Daily News.
This will be a four-storey building with 30 classrooms that will be for pharmacy, accounting, and a graduate school of Law students.
“It will only be a four-storey building because more than that then we will be required to put elevators,” Lapingcao said.
He also described the building, which will be built in a 5,304 sq.m. lot, as an academic building, showcasing what the USPF is today — a mixture of the old and the new system.
According to the school’s website, the USPF has been a university for 60 years and an academic institution for 90 years.
“The building will show what the new USPF is today — from a simple and reserved type of university to a contemporary one,” he said.
He said that this would mean that we combined the old and the new system and created a new one that would fit our students needs coming in and going out of the school.
The building will have modern type of amenities like “learning” commons in the library and a canteen, which will be patterned after the old ways — an economy type of canteen with cup shelves.
Lapingcao cited the increasing number of students in the university as one of the reasons for the school management investing in another building.
“We are doing this to show our appreciation that they enrolled in our humble type of university,” he said.
He said that the university, including the Mabini campus, has a student population of 5,000 plus this year, which is an increase to last year’s 4,000 plus students.
He also said that one of the reasons of the school’s increasing population is that they welcome anybody who enrolls in the school.
He said the school has been known to be a “tapunan ng mga badlungon,” or school outcasts.
But, he said, the beauty of that is that they (other schools) see it as a weakness, and we see it as a strength.
He said that we respect our students and not focus on the scriptures of their faith or the scars of their past.
He said seeing them graduate from the school is good enough for them (school officials).
He said that we are making it as a school that is the student’s home away from home.
For the new building, which broke ground last Saturday, July 8, Lapingcao said the building would be completed in 18 months.