| University of San Carlos | |
|---|---|
| Unibersidad ng San Carlos | |
| Latin: Universitas Sancti Caroli | |
| Motto | Scientia Virtus Devotio |
| Motto in English | "Witness to the Word" "Knowledge Valor Piety" |
| Established | August 1, 1595 |
| Type | Private, Catholic |
| Chairman | Dr. Conchita L. Manabat |
| President | Fr. Dionisio M. Miranda, SVD |
| Location | Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines |
| Campus | Urban |
| Nickname | Carolinians, USC Warriors |
| Website | www.usc.edu.ph |
The University of San Carlos is a Roman Catholic university governed by the Society of the Divine Word since 1935 in Cebu City. It offers pre-elementary and basic education as well as undergraduate and graduate courses, and a broad spectrum of academic programs through its eight colleges.
It consists of four campuses in different areas of Metro Cebu – the Main Campus along P. del Rosario St., the Talamban Campus (a.k.a TC – Technological Center) along Gov. M. Cuenco Ave., the North Campus (formerly the Boys High) along Gen. Maxilom Ave., and the South Campus (formerly the Girls High) along corners J. Alcantara St. (P. del Rosario Ext.) and V. Rama Avenue.
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San Carlos makes the claim of tracing its roots to the Colegio de San Idelfonso founded by the Spanish Jesuits fathers Antonio Sedeno, Pedro Chirino and Antonio Pereira on August 1, 1595. It was closed in 1769 at the expulsion of the Jesuits. In 1783, the initiative of the Bishop Mateo Joaquin de Arevalo opened the Colegio-Seminario de San Carlos. In 1852, the management of the college was entrusted to the Dominican fathers, replaced in 1867 by the Vincentian Fathers then, in 1935, the Societas Verbi Divini or the Society of the Divine Word (SVD). The Second World War led to the interruption of the courses in 1941 because several buildings suffered various amounts of destruction. The buildings reopened as repairs were made over the course of 1945 and 1946. The Colegio de San Carlos was granted its university charter in 1948. The University was named after St. Charles Borromeo.[1]
However, this position is contested by some scholars. According to Fr. Aloysius Cartagenas, a professor at the Seminario Mayor de San Carlos of Cebu, “following Church tradition, the foundation event and date of University of San Carlos should be the decree of Bishop Romualdo Jimeno on 15 May 1867 (turning over the seminary to the Congregation of the Missions) and the first day of classes in the history of what is now USC is 1 July 1867, the day P. Jose Casarramona welcomed the first lay students to attend classes at the Seminario de San Carlos.” Thus, he says that San Carlos cannot claim to have descended from the Colegio de San Ildefonso founded by the Jesuits in 1595, despite taking over the latter’s facilities when the Jesuits were expelled by Spanish authorities in 1769. According to him there is “no visible and clear link” between Colegio de San Ildefonso and USC. San Carlos was specifically for the training of diocesan priests, and it simply took over the facility of the former, a Jesuit central house with an attached day school.
In 1924, San Carlos split into two under a Vatican decree that seminaries should only be for priestly training. In the 1930s, the San Carlos college moved to a different location, P. Del Rosario Street, while the seminary remained at Martires Street. The Society of the Divine Word took over the college in 1935. It became a university in 1948. The seminary, meanwhile, was returned to diocesan control in 1998.
The Second World War saw the closure and occupation of CSC by Japanese troops. And shortly before Liberation, in 1944, bombs from US planes fell on San Carlos, almost reducing the school to rubbles. San Carlos became a university in 1948, three years after it reopened.
Following Communist persecution of the foreign clergy in China in 1949, the University of San Carlos would benefit from the migration of SVD priest-scholars to the Philippines. This accidental émigré culture in USC spawned pioneering research in anthropology, physics, engineering, philosophy, and other fields, here in the Philippines. This would have tremendous impact on the nation’s Post-War reconstruction.
Rapid expansion of the University during the 60s under the leadership of foreign priest-academicians came with the decade’s wave of militant nationalism, which culminated in calls for the Filipinization of the administration of all Catholic schools in the country. In 1970, Fr. Amante Castillo became the first Filipino president of USC.
The University of San Carlos (USC) is a non-stock, non-profit Catholic educational institution. It is governed by a 10-member Board of Trustees which is vested with the powers of the USC Corporation. The Board elects the President, who is the chief executive officer of the University, and appoints the Vice-Presidents, College Deans, Department Chairs, Directors, Principals, and other major officers of the University Administration.
Attached to the Office of the President are the University Cabinet, the University Chaplain, the Legal Counsel, the Director of the Office of International Linkages, the Director of the Human Resource Management Office, the Coordinator for Information Resource Management, the Presidential Assistant for Planning and Development, and the Assistant to the President for Alumni and External Affairs..
In the exercise of duties and powers, the President is assisted by three Vice-Presidents: The Vice-President for Academic Affairs, the Vice-President for Administration, and the Vice-President for Finance. Together, they constitute the University Cabinet.
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