Three professorial chairs were established recently for the UP Centennial Celebrations, courtesy of two alumni and a pharmaceutical company, all honoring UP alumni who have contributed much to the University and the country.

On November 29, 2007, Dr. Jaime C. Laya, former dean of the UP College of Business Administration (CBA) and former Minister of Education, turned over to the University an amount to establish the Alice Sandoval Laya Centennial Professorial chair at the CBA. UP President Emerlinda R. Roman and UP Diliman Chancellor Sergio S. Cao were on hand to receive the grant on behalf of UP.

Alice Sandoval Laya, wife of Dr. Laya, was an alumna of the CBA (Accounting 1959) and a successful banker and entrepreneur. A dedicated wife and mother, she spent the latter part of her life supporting impoverished people in Boac, Marinduque. She would be remembered as “the generous friend who would support organizations for the handicapped,” according to the CBA.

She died in the 1990 earthquake in Baguio where she was attending a seminar for NGOs sponsored by USAID.

On December 13, United Laboratories Inc. (UNILAB) gave a grant to the University to establish the Dr. Conrado S. Dayrit Centennial Professorial Chair in Medicine and Basic Sciences. The late Dr. Dayrit was honored for his significant contributions in the fields of medicine, pharmacology, biology, biotechnology, chemistry, botany, and zoology.

The signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the professorial chair was led by UNILAB’s top management and members of the Dayrit family, headed by Milagros M. Dayrit, widow of Dr. Dayrit. Receiving the donors were President Roman and Chancellors Ramon Arcadio of UP Manila (UPM) and Luis Rey Velasco of UP Los Baños.

On January 11, the Teresa Ancheta Aquino Centennial Professorial Chair in Nursing was formally established at the Executive House in UP Diliman. Present at the signing of the MOA were donor Prof. Belinda A. Aquino. President Roman and UPM College of Nursing Dean Dr. Josefina A. Tuazon received the donation.

Prof. Aquino talked about her mother’s painful childhood and her struggle to attain an education, which enabled her to be among the first batch of nursing students in UP’s Nursing School. She proudly added that her mother had been a part of the Nurses’ Strike of 1916 which led to reforms and the Filipinization of nursing as a modern profession.

Prof. Belinda A. Aquino, a Ford Foundation Fellow, served as UP Vice President for Public Affairs from 1989 to 1991, and taught at the Department of Political Science and the College of Public Administration. At present, she is the director of the Center for Philippine Studies at the University of Hawaii Manoa.

An amount of at least US$ 30,000 is needed to establish a Centennial Professorial Chair. Chairs are deemed vital in augmenting the incomes of deserving UP faculty members.

From the UP Newsletter website