De La Salle University
De La Salle University, also referred to as DLSU, De La Salle or La Salle, is a private Catholic research university run by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools with its main campus on Taft Avenue, Malate, Manila, Philippines. It was established by the Christian Brothers in 1911 as De La Salle College in Nozaleda Street, Paco, Manila with Blimond Pierre Eilenbecker FSC serving as director, and is the first De La Salle school in the Philippines. The college was granted university status on February 19, 1975, and is the oldest constituent of De La Salle Philippines, a network of 16 educational institutions, established in 2006 replacing the De La Salle University System.
The institution started as an exclusive all-boys elementary and high school. In 1920, it began offering a two-year Associate in Arts Commerce program, which was later discontinued in 1931 in favor of a Bachelor of Science in Commerce program. The patron saint of the university is St. John Baptist de La Salle, the Vatican's patron saint for those who work in education.
De La Salle University has been cited by the Philippine Commission on Higher Education as a Center of Excellence in 14 of its programs and a Center of Development in five. The university is among 40 institutions granted autonomous status by CHED as of 2010. It is the first of only two institutions granted the highest-level accreditation by the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities. The university is a member of the ASEAN University Network and International Association of Universities as well as the local South Manila Inter-Institutional Consortium.
History
was one of the last Southeast Asian countries in which the De La Salle Christian Brothers established themselves. The De La Salle Christian Brothers had established several De La Salle schools in British and French Southeast Asian colonial territories a century before settling in the new American colony. Initially, the De La Salle Brothers were reluctant in establishing a school in the Philippines due to the Americans' insistence that the first school should only educate the children of the ruling Filipino elite. The Americans instructed the Christian Brothers to Americanize future Filipino leaders through their Catholic Lasallian education. The American demand ran contrary to the original spiritual teachings and charism of St. John Baptist de La Salle, the Vatican's patron saint of Christian educators whose main religious vocation was to "Teach Minds, Touch Hearts and Transform Lives" while providing tuition-free education to the poor. The De La Salle Christian Brothers eventually agreed to establish a school in Manila, conceding that the "upper-class children of the ruling elite families also needed good Catholic moral and spiritual training."De La Salle University traces its founding roots to Manila Archbishop Jeremiah James Harty. Harty, an alumnus of a Christian Brother–Lasallian school in St. Louis, Missouri, believed that the establishment of a De La Salle school in Manila would be instrumental in preempting the spread of Protestantism in the Philippines through the arrival of the Thomasites and American Protestant church missions. His request was endorsed in 1907 by Pope Pius X. An envoy of the De La Salle Christian Brothers arrived in 1910. Together with Manila Archbishop Harty, the Christian Brothers searched for a suitable campus location. A property in Nozaleda Street, Paco, Manila was purchased for this purpose.
Early history
De La Salle College was established by nine De La Salle Christian Brothers. Three, Blimond Pierre Eilenbecker, Aloysius Gonzaga McGiverin, and Augusto Correge, arrived on March 10, 1911, and the remaining six, Ptolomee Louis Duffaux, Goslin Camillus Henri, D. Joseph, Celba John Lynam, Imar William Reale, and Martin, on May 13. De La Salle College formally opened on June 16, 1911, with 125 students. By July 10, the number of students reached 175.On February 12, 1912, the college was incorporated under the sole ownership of the college director, Br. Eilenbecker. In March 1912, four more Brothers arrived, Wilfrid, Basilian Coin, Dorotheus Joseph, and Egbert Xavier Kelly. The college was permitted to confer high school diplomas in the same year. It received a charter from the Governor-General of the Philippines, allowing the college to confer associate degrees in commerce. It started offering the degree as a two-year program in 1920. Brothers Donatian Felix, V. Andrew, Albinus Peter, Flavius Leo, Alphonsus Henry, Felix and David King were sent to the school to teach various subjects from 1917 to 1929.
The college had 425 students by 1921. Due to the lack of space on the original Nozaleda Campus in Paco, Manila, it moved to 2401 Taft Avenue in Malate, its present location. Brother Acisclus Michael FSC was able to secure a lot at the southernmost boundary of Manila. In 1931, the college discontinued its two-year commerce program in favor of a three-year Bachelor of Science in Commerce program, which was approved a year earlier.
World War II
During the Second World War, the American De La Salle Christian Brothers were interred in the Japanese Los Baños Internment Camp for the duration of the three-year Japanese occupation of the Philippines while the other non-American Brothers were allowed to stay on and continue to teach at the Taft Campus.Initially, the De La Salle campus served as a secret shelter for several displaced civilians, nearby families, wounded soldiers, and some Filipino guerrilla freedom fighters at the beginning of the Japanese occupation. However, it was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army and made into military defense quarters on January 2, 1942. Several bombings severely damaged the DLSC campus. Despite this, classes continued during the Japanese occupation. During this time, several Lasallians set their sports rivalries aside to share their De La Salle College classrooms with students from various neighboring schools in and around Manila. The DLSC high school classes were later transferred to its neighbor St. Scholastica's College, Manila in 1943.
Classes were eventually discontinued at the De La Salle campus by the end of 1944. On February 1, 1945, as the war was coming to a close, retreating Japanese forces ordered the occupants of the DLSC and the surrounding vicinity to vacate the college. However, Br. Egbert Xavier Kelly FSC refused the order to vacate. On February 7, 1945, he was abducted by Japanese soldiers and was believed to have been tortured and killed. On February 12, shortly after noon, 20 Japanese soldiers forcibly entered the DLSC campus and massacred 16 of the 17 De La Salle Brothers residing in the chapel of the campus, along with 25 other residents. Only one Brother and 21 others survived.
Post–war period
Classes resumed in July 1945 with a class of incoming freshmen that was composed of 60 high school graduates. One year later, the College of Commerce reopened with its three-year BS Commerce program extended to a four-year program.The High School Department of De La Salle College on Taft Avenue, Manila, was dissolved in 1968 and transferred to La Salle Green Hills on Ortigas Avenue, Mandaluyong, which was then a part of Rizal province.
The College of Commerce, together with Ateneo de Manila University, gave birth to the Asian Institute of Management in the same year with assistance from the Ford Foundation and Harvard University. Several other units were established in the following years.
During the Martial Law era
The school continued to change even as the nation went through the difficulties of the Marcos dictatorship era. It became co-educational in 1973. On February 19, 1975, De La Salle College was granted university status and became known as De La Salle University. Since 2008, it has referred to itself as De La Salle University, its registered name in the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission. The Grade School Department was deprecated in 1978.In 1981, De La Salle University shifted from the traditional semestral academic calendar to a trimestral one. Prior to this, students were referred to as Lasallites, but this was replaced with Lasallian, the present term.
In comparison to other schools in the capital, where massive protests were typical, the De La Salle campus was relatively quiet during the First Quarter Storm and Martial Law years. However, there were some constituents who were active in the resistance against the Marcos dictatorship, even in its early years. At one point, soldiers went into the campus hunting for student activist William Chua, who was forced to hide in the trunk of a sympathetic faculty member's car. Outside of the campus, a number of alumni actively resisted the regime, such as prominent businessman and De La Salle high school alumnus Alfonso Yuchengco, who became an important part of the Light-A-Fire Movement.
The broader student population became more active in protests against the authoritarian regime in 1983, becoming part of what was called the "middle force opposition" that grew across the nation after the Assassination of Ninoy Aquino. A particular leader during this time was Immanuel "Imo" Obispo, a student activist who was a junior when he was killed under mysterious circumstances in October 1984.
Chua, Yuchengco, and Obispo are all honored at the Philippines' Bantayog ng mga Bayani memorial, which honors the martyrs and heroes of the resistance against the authoritarian regime of Ferdinand Marcos.