Vargas and The University of the Philippines
Vargas was among the first to partake of education offered by the Americans, graduating as valedictorian from high school in 1909, a year after the University of the Philippines was founded. He entered UP in 1910, finishing his Bachelor of Arts in 1911 and his Bachelor of Laws in 1914 as class valedictorian. To support his studies, he worked, first as a student assistant in the Department of English and then as a researcher in the Legislative Reference Division of the Philippine Assembly.
In the University, he served as assistant editor of the College Folio, forerunner of the Philippine Collegian. He first gained national prominence through a stirring editorial "The Philosophy of the Filipino Peasant," published in the College Folio in October 1910 and reprinted in the Philippines Free Press. Vargas wrote on the tragic perversion of the religious faith of the Filipino peasant, an exposition which provoked the ire of some elements of the Catholic clergy. He portrayed a gloomy picture of the life of the Filipino peasant, detailing in rather uncomplimentary terms, the objectionable character traits which have been the result of long years of colonial conditioning, abject poverty, and superstition. But what he really wanted to do was to liberate the ignorant peasant through education -- and to make him ambitious, hardworking, thoughtful, and enlightened.
Vargas was a loyal UP alumnus. In 1936, he was voted Most Distinguished UP Alumnus, along with Manuel A. Roxas. From 1961-1965, he was a member of the Board of Regents. As a fitting tribute to the University he loved so well, Vargas donated to the UP his Filipiniana and art collection -- for the benefit of generations of Filipinos whom he wished would know and treasure their cultural heritage. In gratitude, the University conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws degree on him in 1978.
Vargas held the UP in highest regard and thought of the institution as a most important instrument in leading the country to a bright future. Listen to his words:
What is the University of the Philippines?
The University of the Philippines is here at last. The dream of the first builders of Philippine education, the long cherished desire of the Filipino people, has bee reached. The fact is significant. The Government has finally fully realized the need of such an institution; it now devolves upon our people to make it a success. The University not only constitutes the highest and best of the splendid educational system implanted by the United States in these Islands—a system that has been taken as a model by neighboring countries—but is moreover destined to become one of the most potent factors in the shaping of future Filipino nationality; for it will be the gathering point of all Filipinos seeking and deserving higher education. It will be the forge in which will be beaten out and tempered the future leaders of the race. To-day there are but a handful of students; to-morrow there will be a crowd.
The University as a meeting place of diverse provincial students all interested in the various departments of human learning and resolutely working for the building up of their country, means much to the Filipino people. Here are the differences of tribe, dialect, and place are obliterated by the community of aim worked out in common understanding. Higher ideals and broader views are infused, and the studious early learn to appreciate the benefits of a common tongue. The Filipino student is given a chance to develop his capacities beyond the ordinary course. In science, in philosophy, in letters, he may specialize. His usefulness is forcibly drawn out. The realization of what he would be best for is informed within him. Not only that, but something else also: his sympathies are widened,—the Visayan learns to love the Tagalo, the Tagalo the Ilocano, and so on around the circle. Mutual appreciation is evolved; so that the Filipinos may some day be able to act unitedly and intelligently on their problems of national importance.
When the present leaders of our people shall have passed away and new ones shall have taken their places, it will be seen that the University of the Philippines contributed no small amount to their number. For those only who shall have had the ability and the energy to pursue their studies to the end can hope to prosecute their studies to the end can hope to prosecute larger duties later. You ask for practical preparation. Where is there better preparation given than here? The University graduate in law, medicine, agriculture, and letters will met hard tasks. Indeed, the grasp on human affairs that is necessary to success is first acquired during student life, not merely from the study of the thoughts and deeds of those who have claimed a place in history, but principally from the vicissitudes and fortunes of the student body. Those who have edited folios, run college classes, and won debates in the Junior Philippine Commission will be prepared for the same kind of problems outside.
Last and consequently, the University of the Philippines is going to be the most effective agent in the so-called Filipinization of the Government service, and ultimately in the construction a complete real self-government. In fact, it is the institution of the Board of Regents to qualify as many Filipinos as possible to fill the places no held exclusively by Americans. The College of Engineering is expected to turn out men who may be capable of taking charge of the many public improvements that are rapidly transforming the Islands; the College of Medicine, to prepare provincial health officers and useful physicians; the College of Agriculture, to produce agricultural experts and conspicuous model farmers; the College of Liberal Arts, to provide an intelligent body of people for miscellaneous tasks such as high-school teachers, supervisors, superintendents, directors of education; in a word, the chief function of the University of the Philippines is to train the Filipinos into an enlightened, prosperous, and successful self-governing people.
Once more, what is the University of the Philippines? The University of the Philippines is the greatest and best gift of the American nation to this our land,—an institution wherein the Filipinos may learn to unite themselves homogenous nation wherefrom shall come the future leader-saviors of our country; whereby we may gain, slowly but surely, the much talked of self-dependent, national existence.
—George B. Vargas.
College Folio, October 1910
Vol. 1, No.1, pp.19-21