Cagayan State University

The University's essential vision is to make the Cagayan State University a catalyst for change in improving individuals' and communities' lives by educating for the best. The one-liner vision succinctly captures the profound meaning and ultimate purpose of the University's collective efforts and educational directions. Cagayan State University is committed to transforming people's and communities' lives through high-quality instruction and innovative research development, production, and extension.
The Cagayan State University, a credible and distinguished center of higher education in Northern Luzon, is committed to improving the lives of people and communities by providing advanced instruction in the arts, agriculture, and natural sciences as well as in technological and professional fields through its strong quality of instruction and innovations in research, resource mobilization, and extension. CSU contributes primarily to President Aquino's Social Contract to the Filipino people by providing quality education and training through instruction, research, extension, and production.
Students shall not be denied admission to the University because of race, age, sex, socio-economic status, religion, political affiliation, or ideological conviction provided he is physically and mentally fit.
Cross-registration shall be defined as simultaneous registration with a semester or summer in more than one college within the University, or another provided that for courses offered and accredited in the academic program of the student offered by the different colleges of the University, the permission of the Mother College to register shall be secured. Cross-registration in another college outside the University may be allowed. The other college is accredited within the University and subject to the University's prior permission through the Dean of the Mother College and the Registrar. Conditions for cross-registration are conflicted in schedule and non-offering of the subject. Non-graduating students are allowed to cross-register in colleges outside the University provided that cross-registration is limited to basic subjects only except for graduating students who may enroll insignificant subjects in accredited schools.
While the University was formed from pre-existing institutions that were mainly agricultural and technical, its Charter, Presidential Decree No. 1436, made it exceedingly clear that it was the intendment of the law that the University was to provide "better service in professional and technical training in the arts, sciences, humanities, and technology and the conduct of scientific research and technological studies." Without a doubt, then and by express legislative mandate, the University would not be an agricultural, fisheries, or technological University. These remain vital and highly crucial concerns of CSU - a "comprehensive university," a university as that term is understood in the academic world.
Academics of note were the first university officials, headed by Dr. Manuel Corpus from the University of the Philippines, and Dr. Joselito Jara. They did a doctorate in educational philosophy from the University of Maryland as Vice-President for Academic Affairs. The officials of the pre-existing colleges that were consolidated into the University were designated as "Campus Deans" and continued to supervise their respective campuses. It was a genuinely enlightened decision of the Board of Regents to authorize the opening of a College of Medicine - the very first in the Region, and an agreement with what was then the Cagayan Valley Regional Hospital (now the Cagayan Valley Medical Center) made the latter the training hospital of the College of Medicine. The first dean was a nationally recognized neurologist-psychologist, Dr. Gilberto Gamez of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Santo Tomas.
Soon after, other professional courses followed: Medical Technology, Engineering, and Liberal Arts courses. Guided by what the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has identified as priority courses of the Region, the University has always offered degree programs in the "hard sciences" - mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology - although, especially regarding chemistry and physics, these have not been popular programs at all. But CSU now has a competent and highly credible corps of professors in these very disciplines.
Dr. Armando Cortes, then Campus Dean of the Aparri Campus, succeeded Dr. Manuel Corpus as University President. It was the Bureau of Higher Education under the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports, that superintended state universities and colleges. Prof. Monserrat Babaran was the Vice-President for Academic Affairs. Together, President Cortes and Prof. Babaran devised a classification and promotion scheme that would subsequently be adopted as a National Compensation Circular, to morph later into National Budget Circular No. 461.
Fr. Ranhilio Aquino, who then just finished his term as Vice-Dean of the Graduate School of the University of Santo Tomas and was Executive Vice-President of the Lyceum of Aparri for several years, was designated Vice-President for Academic Affairs. He supervised the accreditation of different CSU programs with the Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities of the Philippines. He instituted a system for the re-training and "re-tooling" of professors of agriculture and fisheries who no longer had enough students to teach to enable them to teach subjects of their interest. Some programs of the University were awarded the Center of Excellence status, others, Center of Development, aside from higher levels of accreditation.
The Board of Regents authorized the operation of a College of Law, offering the degree Bachelor of Laws, the second law school to open in Tuguegarao City - in fact, in Cagayan. After President Cortes, Dr. Eleuterio de Leon was designated by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chair Esther Garcia as OIC, Office of the President, a position he held for three years. It was then that authority was bestowed on Campus Executive Officers who were tasked to manage their campuses on behalf of the Central Administration.
The College of Medicine earned recognition as the 10th leading school of medicine in the Philippines owing to creditable performance in the licensure examination. It was quite a feat! Quality medical education was available in the province at the astoundingly low cost of hardly over twenty-five thousand per semester. The Graduate School was recognized and respected. Leaders and executives of higher education institutions in the Region trooped to CSU to earn their advanced degrees. Law flourished under the deanship of Attorney Leticia Aquino, who upped Bar passing levels and obtained authority from the Legal Education Board to offer the degree Juris Doctor.