MALOLOS CITY –The safety and well-being of some 30,000 students of the Bulacan State University is a top priority concern of the city government, Mayor Christian D. Natividad assured newly-elected BSU president Dr. Teody C. San Andres on Monday.
Natividad received a courtesy call from San Andres at the Malolos City Hall over the weekend as part the BSU president’s tribute tour to local government units in the province hosting the university’s campuses.
Malolos is home to the main campus of BSU, adjacent to the Bulacan Provincial Capitol, where a daytime population of 25,000 to 30,000 students roam the city from early morning to 9 in the evening.
The other campuses of BSU are located in the City of San Jose Del Monte (Sarmiento Campus); Hagonoy Campus; Bustos Campus; Bulakan (Meneses Campus); and the newly-inaugurated San Rafael Campus along the Plaridel Bypass Road.
To date, BSU has some 50,000 students overall, one of the largest enrolments among state colleges and universities (SUCs) outside Metro Manila.
It started as the Bulacan Trade School from 1904 to 1953 and was transformed into the Bulacan National Trade School from 1953 to 1957.
Later, when the student population reached some 2,000 in the early ‘60s, it became known as the Bulacan College of Arts and Trade from 1965 to 1993.
On December 30, 1993, then-President Fidel V. Ramos signed Republic Act 7665, the law converting the BCAT into the Bulacan State University through a House Bill authored by the late Congressman Teodulo Natividad of the 1st District of Bulacan.
Dr. San Andres, a resident of Brgy. Culianin, Plaridel, will serve as the university’s fourth president and will serve for four years.
He was selected by the BSU-Board of Regents chaired by Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) commissioner Ronald Adamat apart from two other presidential candidates, Dr. Reynold Campo and Dr. Marwin Dela Cruz.
Prior to his election, San Andres served the university as the executive vice president and as concurrent dean of the BSU Graduate School. He obtained his doctorate degree from the Philippine Normal University (PNU) in Manila.
San Andres told Manila Standard that he wants to immediately address the lack of classrooms which students and professors at the BSU main campus have complained about, which has led to late evening classes for a number of college departments.
