University benches, tables now open to naming rights

Beginning the third term of AY 2013-2014, the University has developed a new scheme to generate support for its activities—the sale of tambayan spots around campus.

Donors to the University may opt to have one or several of these tambayan spots named after them, or after an organization or company they represent. These spots include the individual wooden benches lined up at SJ walk, the Marian Quadrangle, and in the paths leading to the North gate and South gate, as well as the grouped concrete tables and benches along SJ Walk, Miguel Walk and Velasco building.

The donations pooled from the acquisition of the benches and tables will be primarily used to fund scholarships, particularly the University’s Vaugirard Scholarship Program, which saw its first batch of scholars in AY 2012-2013. The scholarship covers tuition and miscellaneous fees and allots a P10,000 monthly stipend to each scholar, and is awarded to 50 students from Philippine public high schools every academic year.

Fifty percent of the amount that will be collected from the donations will be used to cover the schooling of the currently enrolled Vaugirard scholars. The other half of the amount will be divided between the maintenance of the property which the donor had chosen to be named, and the Lasallian Legacy Fund, an endowment fund wherein interest is plowed back into the activities of the University, particularly those in relation to scholarships and the sustenance of scholars’ needs.

“[The] naming rights are a way of acknowledging donors and benefactors who are loyal and committed to the Lasallian Mission,” tells Br. Ricky Laguda, FSC, University President and Chancellor, “They are being acknowledged for their commitment to make education more accessible in the form of scholarships.”

The amount of the donation to the University needed in order for the donor to qualify for the naming rights range from P60,000 to P210,000 for the wooden benches, and from P165,000 to P330,000 for the concrete benches and tables. Ownership of the named property will remain under the University, and the donor/s will not have any exclusive rights over the property.

The Advancement and Alumni Affairs Office (AAAO) under Miriam Valero is the office in charge of sourcing support and funding for the scholars. According to Valero, if all the benches and tables will be named to a donor, an estimated P34 million can be raised, which will be enough to cover the Vaugirard scholars’ tuition, fees and stipend for two years.

Also open to naming rights are the discussion rooms in the library (Learning Commons) in the Henry Sy, Sr. Hall, following a donation of at least P1 million. Funds collected here are also coursed through the AAAO but are allotted to the general funds for scholarship, instead of it being specific to the Vaugirard Scholarship program.

Laguda explains, “We have limited this to benches and discussion rooms for this term. We may expand this once we review this on a trimester basis.”