KOICA commits US$3-million to help rehabilitate VSU-Tolosa Campus

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) expressed its strong commitment by allocating US$3-million total fund to rehabilitate the Visayas State University-Tolosa Campus that was totally wrecked by the super typhoon Yolanda on November 8, 2013. This development surfaced after a KOICA Team visited Tacloban City a day after the typhoon, and two weeks later a six-member KOICA Team visited the area where some Korean volunteers were deployed which include the VSU-Tolosa Campus where Miss Juhee (Olive) Kim serves as KOICA Volunteer.

VSU is eco-friendly school in the Philippines

The Visayas State University (VSU) has been named as the Sustainable and Eco-Friendly School in the Philippines (College Category) during the 2013 National Search for Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Schools. The plaque was received by VSU President, Dr. Jose L. Bacusmo, and Dr. Maria Juliet C. Ceniza, former Director of the Institute of Tropical Ecology, on November 20, 2013 during the Awarding Ceremonies held at the 3^rd Floor, Activity Center of SM City-North EDSA, Quezon City. Attached to the award was a cash prize of PhP50,000. Aside from the major award, VSU also bagged the “Meralco Energy Leadership Award” for promoting practices and initiatives in electrical safety, energy efficiency and conservation. It received a plaque of recognition and cash award of PhP20,000.

PCAARRD bestows Tanglaw Award to VSU

The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) accorded the Visayas State University (VSU) the 2013 Tanglaw Award as the Most Outstanding Research Institution throughout the country during the PCAARRD Awarding Ceremonies on November 8, 2013 at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila, CCP Complex, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City. The trophy with a cash award of two million pesos (PhP2,000,000) research grant was received by Dr. Jose L. Bacusmo, VSU President, from Dr. Patricio S. Faylon, PCAARRD Executive Director.

The Tanglaw Award was conferred to VSU for the fourth time because of its significant contributions to the advancement of agriculture, aquatic and natural resources (AANR) research and development in the Philippines.

Super Typhoon “Yolanda” destroys VSU infrastructures and properties

Super Typhoon “Yolanda” hit the VSU Main Campus and its satellite campuses on November 8, 2013 from 5:30 until 9:30 in the morning that destroyed academic buildings, research facilities, staff cottages, dormitories, experimental sites, forest reserves, and other infrastructures. Even the century old trees in the VSU Main Campus were not spared from the devastating wind of Yolanda.

The estimated cost of the damages caused by the super typhoon to the VSU System properties, as revealed by VSU President, Dr. Jose L. Bacusmo, amounted to one hundred fifty million pesos (PhP150,000,000) distributed as follows: VSU-Tolosa – PhP64 million, VSU Main Campus – PhP38 million, VSU-Isabel – PhP33 million, VSU-Alangalang – PhP10 million, and VSU-Villaba – PhP5 million.

After Yolanda: Help shape back dreams

At about 5:30AM on November 8, 2013, Friday, Leyte and the rest of Eastern Visayas felt the wrath of supertyphoon Yolanda, the strongest ever to hit the Philippines this year.

The damage is massive. Trees have been toppled down. Houses damaged. And residences in the coastal areas have been completely washed away.

The scenic view of the Visayas State University in a few hours has changed. While Yolanda left the buildings intact, she fiercely hewed down most of the trees that make up VSU's sceneries. We estimate the infrastructure damage in VSU at about Php 187 million.

However, Yolanda wrought more damage not on our physical facilities, but on our students' dreams.

Bacusmo accepts VSU's award for most eco-friendly school in PH (acceptance message)

November 20, 2013
SM City North EDSA

It is indeed an honor of the Visayas State University to receive this year’s award for the Eco-friendly School. We would like to express our gratitude and thanks to CHED, DENR, Smart Philippines, Nestle Philippines, Meralco and other sponsors of this award. We take the award as an affirmation of our environmental programs and actions in the university such as segregation of trash from collection to disposal, banning one-time use plastic bags, rainforestation, integrated coastal management, tarsier and biodiversity conservation, alternative energy researches and many more.

The Visayas State University has always been a campus blessed with abundance and beauty of nature. The campus of more than a thousand hectares and is strategically located between the green forest of the majestic Mt. Pangasugan in the east and the clear blue waters of the Camotes Sea on the west. In between is a community that considers the campus a paradise, proud of the campus where they live and always declare that VSU does not only mean Visayas State University but also means Very Scenic University.

VSU is PCAARRD’s Tanglaw awardee

After the External Screening Committee (ESC) evaluated the Visayas State University (VSU) as one of the three finalists from among the 18 contenders nationwide for the Tanglaw Award, the Governing Council (GC) acted the ESC recommendation during its meeting on October 3, 2013. The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) proclaimed VSU as the winner in the Search for Tanglaw Award 2013.

VSU’s BS Chemistry graduates register 78.57 passing percentage in 2013 Chemists Licensure Exam

Eleven out of fourteen (78.57%) BS Chemistry graduates of the Visayas State University who took the 2013 Chemists Licensure Examination successfully hurdled the exam given by the Board of Chemistry in Manila on September 17-18. The Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) released the results of the Chemists Licensure Examination on September 20, 2013, two days after the test was conducted.