This time around, VP Vergara takes on the Professional Schools

Faura Hall, constructed in 1985, is earthquake-proof. It houses several departments of the School of Science and Engineering: the Department of Information Systems and Computer Science (DISCS), the Department of Physics, and the Department of Electronics, Computer, and Communications Engineering (ECCE). It is also where a young John Paul Vergara used to hang out on campus. “It’s funny, but we would hang out in computer labs,” he says. 
 

 

Vergara (B.S. Mathematics/Computer Science ’86) considers it geeky, but this was in the 80s during the advent of personal computers, when such technology was still a luxury and when a small restaurant called Pampanguena still sat between two vulcanizing shops near what is now known as Aurora Flyover. 

 

Much has changed since then. The core curriculum of the Loyola Schools has been altered to accommodate the educational system’s recent shift to K-12, for one. That small restaurant has long since closed. Vergara, aside from teaching in DISCS for over 30 years, has also held various administrative positions: DISCS Chairperson, Vice President for the Loyola Schools, Director of the Strategy and Quality Management Office, and now, Vice President again, this time for the Ateneo Professional Schools (APS).

 

Ateneo’s influence

 

Vergara, who has been in Ateneo since 1982, describes how he was an undergraduate: a B student in the core subjects, but an A student in math and computer science. When asked about his most memorable experience, he recounts the time his math professor, the late Jose Marasigan told his class to go to Senator Benigno Aquino Jr.’s funeral procession. “And we did! We were part of the procession going to Sto. Domingo Church,” he shares. “I remember going to our locker, leaving our things there, and then going, ‘Okay. Let’s go because our math teacher told us to go.’ That’s so interesting!” he says, amused.

 

Dr. Marasigan, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Mathematics, as well as Dr. Mari-Jo Ruiz were some of Vergara’s favorite professors in college. “They taught me calculus and graph theory; all these theoretical courses and I loved it.” He also mentions the late Ramon Reyes, his professor in philosophy. “His course, as with our other Philo courses, though loaded with so much material, taught you how to think; they taught you how to reason. They taught you how to be very rigorous in your arguments.” His passion for his field as well as these professors who have made an impact on him shines through his words.
 

 

As a professor himself, Vergara says of teaching: “It’s an opportunity for you to grow your gifts. After college, I wasn’t really interested in going corporate, although I was very interested in my field—math and computer science. I loved helping my batchmates out when they find the material difficult.” Teaching, for him, was the natural progression after college.

 

Two months shy of assuming office in the Rockwell campus, Vergara still walks the strong, sturdy hallways of Faura today. He talks greatly of his colleagues in DISCS. “It’s nice being in a very dynamic, diverse group,” he says. “If you just look at the different faculty in the department: I’m into data science and theoretical computer science, while someone’s working in Artificial Intelligence for Education. Someone employs IT in social contexts, while someone else tries to figure out and analyze traffic through algorithms and simulation. And then there’s our department Chair Andrei Coronel who’s into computational music. We are all over the place and the discussions are quite interesting. We’re in different areas, but we speak the same language,” he says. 

 

Collaboration and interdisciplinarity 

 

Being in his particular field has had much to do with his “stumbling” into administration. “[People in computer science] tend to like systems. We like collaboration,” he says. “It’s not surprising that we could be good administrators as well. We like to look at and analyze systems but also have the capability to focus on the bottom line goals of an organization.”

 

As VP for the APS, he hopes to follow through with what Dr. Antonette Palma-Angeles, the outgoing Vice President, has started. Most of all, Vergara emphasizes collaboration and interdisciplinarity as key markers of his upcoming term. “The priority area that has been set under Dr. Angeles’ term is health governance,” he says, “and what we’re looking at is a way for the four schools to come together to attain that particular goal.” 

 

The four schools that make up APS—Law, Business, Medicine and Public Health, and Government—have a longstanding tradition of working independently. In a sense, it is counter to collaboration, but Vergara knows that their individual strengths can be fortified when they come together. “You may need to go against tradition and bring in players from other units to get things done. To me, that would be the most challenging aspect of this task. In my experience in the Loyola Schools, what it takes is patience and convincing them that this will make them grow.”

 

“There’s some openness anyway as well as experience,” he clarifies. “The Ateneo Law School and the Graduate School of Business (GSB) are in the same building. It’s a no-brainer that they ought to collaborate—they’re physically close to each other. GSB and the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health (ASMPH) are already collaborating in their programs, as seen in their MD-MBA offering.”
 

 

Beyond strengthening intersections between the four professional schools, Vergara also hopes for more deliberate initiatives involving the Loyola Schools. “There’s some relationships that already exist—Health Science majors go into ASMPH and political science majors enter law or government,” he says. “These are immediate opportunities that we can strengthen further and perhaps formalize.”

 

It’s no surprise then that what Vergara ia looking forward to the most is to get all four schools out of their comfort zones. “I’m excited for them to do things beyond what they’re used to. I’m excited to get them excited as well. If I can get them to work on a few initiatives they’re not familiar with, that will keep them on their toes and also re-inject energy into the schools.”

 

AMDG 2030—a 12-year strategic plan for the Ateneo de Manila University—also comes into play, especially the goals about enhancing Jesuit markers of education as well as broadening Ateneo’s role in building the nation. “We’re probably the top school in terms of making sure that the different disciplines find ways to come together and cooperate. Just look at the way we deliver our core curriculum in the college--you would find students from different fields interacting in the classroom. That would seem like a simple thing but I believe that is what defines us. If we do a version of that in the Professional Schools, I think it comes together better,” he explains. 

 

“The second goal,” he adds, “is something that the Professional Schools is more directly connected with. We can work towards influencing policy in the country in the area of health governance, and that’s consistent with goal number two.” 

 

Descartes, Turing, et al

 

No two days are ever the same for Vergara. “It’s always different. It depends on the day. I have many faces. I teach, I help administration analyze their data. I am also part of a data science startup called Cobena, which I co-founded after I stepped down as VPLS”, he shares. “Because of that, my routine changes from day to day. There would be days when I would go to BGC, where the Cobena office is situated. There would be days when I’d go here [to the Loyola Schools campus] to teach. Towards the evening, I’d play table tennis with [University President] Fr. Jett. On weekends, I’d go home to the house I grew up in, to visit my mom or play badminton with my brothers. Often, I would spend time with my daughter Camille, and her dog, Ignis.”

 

His dream dinner party guests are Alan Turing, the founder of computer science; Rene Descartes, mathematician and philosopher; Edsger Dijkstra, systems scientist and software engineer; and Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts, the pioneers of neural networks. They’d talk about the impact of computing on our notions of knowledge and consciousness. The books on his bedside table—“because I’m a geek,” he says—are about R programming and computational complexity. He unwinds by playing outdated computer games like Plants vs. Zombies or unearthing old research problems. 

 

Vergara is not a guy of sentiment, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t value the opportunity to serve where he’s appointed. He reveals that he doesn’t bring many items to his offices, whether it be in Xavier, Faura, or Rockwell. He’s always incredibly grateful, though. That feeling never goes away. And the song that’s running through his head as he readies himself to serve the APS? It’s none other than “thank u, next,” by Ariana Grande. “The song is about learning from past relationships. With work assignments, the same thing applies. You hope you are able to help and hope you are able to learn. Both you and the office you’re part of, that’s what you could wish for. You both grow, and then you move onto the next thing.”

 

While a lot has changed since the 80s—different dining establishments pepper Katipunan Avenue, less units of Philosophy and English find their way to the core curriculum, and personal computers are no longer as hard to attain as they used to be—John Paul Vergara’s eye for collaboration and interdisciplinarity, sharpened by his love for systems and analysis, will endure as he takes on the Professional Schools, an entire thoroughfare away from Loyola.