Peace Reigns USM

Nesting on the Mindanao archipelago are prestigious and soaring state universities, academic institutions, and learning centers all with the same aim, all vying for academic excellence and nobility. But one stands higher, with its goals surpassing those of the labeled ones with aspirations that go beyond educational standards, but surges out for peace and progress within the entirety of its denomination; The University of Southern Mindanao. Firmly rooted on the green plains of North Cotabato, USM is the melting pot of the region. USM is a thousand-acre campus of academic excellence judging from the intellectually constructed curriculum it has that serves as a well-equipped foundation of learning acquisition of every student enrolled in the academe. Not only the curriculum is there to back up the pulsating idea that USM is a center of academic excellence, for it is indeed an arena of educational programs which bring it to greater heights and levels of learning. USM is a home to brilliant minds and ideas, with its accomplishments and agenda even extending on neighboring communities, towns and municipalities. Because of that the campus has been a place where the merging and solidarity of thoughts of many ethnic denominations happen. A blend of different cultures mix at USM, all co-exist with each other smoothly because the university promotes and values respect above all virtues. But this truthful thought begun to vanished when some of the Faculty and Staff and also some of the Students of the University held a Protests against the School’s President that made the University stands in a very crucial situation. Rallyists padlocked several buildings inside the campus as part of their continuing protest on the re-appointment of the schools’ president. They even locked the main gate of the school. They crashed the gates and have prevented the students from taking the midterm exams, they also used big trucks to prevent vehicles and students from entering the campus, and they harass some students who are having their midterm exams. What then? Where is the so called peace that University Of Southern Mindanao had? Some students at that time are hopeless; it even affects the population of the school, which some students decided to transfer to another school. The problem is becoming worst. With these at hand, the call for us to be cohesive is louder now than ever. Indeed, USM survived this colossal dilemma because of the students, faculties and staff and parents’ contributions in any way, even though the problem at hand is much greater than us; it even is much greater than the constitution where we belong. There may be conflicts and instabilities in the campus and in the milieu it stands in but those were just tests on its foundation. It has faced threats, staggered on its quest for function under a war-confronted surrounding, but the University’s banner is still raised, from until now and it’s still pressing on, because an institution as great would not settle for just being a prestigious and competent center of academic excellence. The advantage of having coped up problems and garnered peace within its midst also makes its ripe for progress. It strives not only to nurture brains and human potentials, but to serve and uplift a community; its community, with the participation of all the people who belong to this constitution. The University may have flaws in its functions, it may have lapses and inevitable misgivings, but the fact that it’s still and always want peace and unity of all creation. The University of Southern Mindanao is the same ground, the same arena where now exemplary people once studied and was part of. It’s still the same campus which has been a witness to the transformation of the society around it – an ideal ground for learning acquisition, human resource development and a bridge for the always sought-out social change. The home for peace and progress. Peace reigns University of Southern Mindanao.