20/09/2026
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ππβπ πππ πππππππππ. Students may never see the Board of Regents at work. They may not know what was discussed or which resolutions were approved. But they feel the results. The degree they pursue, the classrooms and laboratories they use, and many of the opportunities they receive can all trace their way back to decisions made by the Board.
The Board of Regents, or BOR, is the highest governing and policy-making body of ISUFST. The University Code places the governance of ISUFST in its hands, while the University President manages the institution according to the policies and directions it establishes.
That sounds formal, but the Boardβs role becomes clearer when we look at ordinary university life.
Suppose a college wants to offer a new degree program. The idea may begin with faculty members who see a need in the community or recognize a new employment opportunity for students. The proposal goes through study, consultation, curriculum development, and review by the proper academic bodies. Eventually, it reaches the Board for appropriate action.
Once approved, a program stops being an idea and becomes a promise. The University must provide the teachers, facilities, equipment, funding, and learning experience that students will depend on for years.
The same goes for buildings, research centers, offices, curricula, appointments, partnerships, and policies. The Board does not run the Universityβs daily work, but some of the decisions it makes today may still be felt by students and employees years from now.
IT HELPS DEFINE WHO WE ARE
A university tells us who it is through its choicesβwhat it supports, what it studies, whom it serves, and what it protects when money and resources are limited.
ISUFSTβs roots remain firmly connected to fisheries, science, technology, agriculture, and coastal and rural communities. But those roots do not prevent growth. They provide a foundation as the University responds to new learners, fields, and opportunities.
The Board helps guide that growth.
It must consider whether a proposed program is consistent with the Universityβs mandate. It must ask whether expansion will strengthen ISUFST or simply make it bigger. It must help the University move forward without forgetting the communities and purposes that shaped it.
The question before the Board is often larger than whether a particular proposal is allowed. The deeper question is whether that proposal helps ISUFST become the kind of university it promises to be.
It decides what must come first
Like any public institution, ISUFST has many needs but limited resources.
Students may need better internet access, updated laboratories, safer buildings, reliable transportation, more learning spaces, and stronger support services. Faculty members may need research funds, scholarships, training, equipment, and permanent positions. Offices may need additional personnel and improved systems. Campuses may have repairs that cannot be postponed.
All these needs may be valid. Unfortunately, not all of them can be funded at the same time.
This is one of the Boardβs most difficult responsibilities. It must help determine which needs are most urgent, which projects will produce the greatest benefit, and which commitments the University can sustain.
A budget may look like a table filled with figures, but every line affects people. Funding a laboratory may improve the training of an entire group of students. Approving a scholarship may allow someone to remain in school. Filling a vacant position may ease the workload of an office struggling to serve hundreds of clients. Repairing a building may protect the safety of everyone who uses it.
For this reason, deciding priorities is never merely an exercise in accounting. It is also a decision about whose needs will be addressed now and whose may have to wait.
ISUFST needs a Board willing to think boldly about its future, but also willing to ask hard questions. Not every good idea is automatically ready for approval. Sometimes it needs better evidence, more consultation, clearer planning, or a more realistic budget.
IT TURNS PLANS INTO REAL COMMITMENTS
A university can produce impressive plans. What matters is whether those plans change anything on the ground.
A research-driven ISUFST must invest in researchers and the systems that support them. Meaningful internationalization should create actual opportunities, not merely agreements and photographs.
Sustainability should also be something people can seeβin how campuses are built, resources are used, students are taught, research is done, and communities are served.
The Board helps make those promises real. Through policies, budgets, approvals, and oversight, it connects what ISUFST hopes to become with what it is willing to support.
It protects academic quality
The Board also has an important role in protecting the quality of education offered by ISUFST. Under the University Code, it acts on curricula, instructional programs, admission and graduation policies, and other academic matters endorsed through the proper channels.
The Board does not replace the expertise of faculty members, curriculum developers, deans, and the Academic Council. These groups do the detailed academic work. The Board provides the final level of institutional accountability.
Before a program is approved, the University must be able to answer practical questions. Do we have qualified teachers? Are the laboratories and learning resources adequate? Is there a real need for the program? Can it meet government standards? Can the University sustain it after the excitement of launching it has passed?
These questions matter because every graduate carries the ISUFST name. When that graduate enters a classroom, laboratory, government office, fishing community, company, research center, or workplace abroad, people will form judgments about the University through the quality of that personβs preparation.
Academic approval is therefore more than a signature. It is a promise to students and their families.
It helps choose the people who lead
Policies do not implement themselves. Institutions move through people.
One of the Board's most important responsibilities is choosing the University President and acting on appointments or designations that require its confirmation. After all, who leads often influences where the University goes.
And leadership cannot be measured by credentials alone. A person may have impressive degrees and years of experience, but leadership also requires integrity, sound judgment, empathy, and the ability to bring people together. The right leader can help people grow. The wrong one can quickly drain the energy from even a good team.
That is why the Board must consider not only what a person has achieved, but also how that person leads. Accountability matters, but so do trust, support, and enough authority to get the work done.
The Board and the administration should not compete with each other. They have different but connected responsibilities. The Board sets policy and provides oversight. The President and the administration manage the University and carry out those policies. The relationship works best when there is honesty, respect, clear reporting, and a shared concern for ISUFST.
It brings different voices into one room
Different people sit around the Board table for a reason. They come from higher education, government, agriculture, science and technology, faculty, students, alumni, and the private sector.
No single person knows the whole ISUFST story.
As of September 2026, that mix of voices is reflected in the people who make up and represent the ISUFST Board of Regents. The people around the Board table come from different sectors. Hon. Ricmar P. Aquino, Commissioner of the Commission on Higher Education, serves as Chairperson, while University President Nordy D. Siason Jr., Ed.D., CESO VI, is Vice-Chairperson.
The Board includes Hon. Joel Villanueva, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education, represented by Hon. Lemuel T. Fernandez; and Hon. Jude A. Acidre, TINGOG Party-list Representative and Chairperson of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education, represented by Hon. Ferjenel G. Biron.
Also serving are Regent Arecio A. Casing Jr., Regional Director of DepDev Region VI; Regent Dennis R. Arpia, Regional Director of DA Region VI; Regent Rowen R. Gelonga, CESO II, Regional Director of DOST Region VI; Regent Edmer D. Bernardo, President of the Federated Faculty Association; Regent Carlito V. Delfin, President of the Federated Alumni Association; Regent Gerel A. Depositario, President of the Federated College Supreme Student Council; and private-sector representatives Regent Peter John Raymund Pacheco and Regent Fidel P. Salcedo. Mrs. Jessa Mae P. Nacion serves as ISUFST Acting Board Secretary.
Behind that formal roster are people looking at ISUFST from different places. Faculty see the classroom. Students experience policies firsthand. Alumni see the University from the world beyond graduation. Government and private-sector representatives bring concerns from the region, communities, workplaces, and industry.
They may disagree, and sometimes they should. A difficult question asked before approval can save the University from a much more difficult problem later.
But representation only works when people listen, speak up, and remain connected to those they represent.
IT SAFEGUARDS PUBLIC TRUST
ISUFST is a public university. Every peso spent and every major decision made therefore carries a public responsibility.
That means evidence matters. Accurate reports matter. Fair processes matter. Due process matters. And rules should remain rules whoever happens to be involved.
Some discussions rightly need privacy. But confidentiality should protect people and legitimate concerns, not become a curtain behind which important decisions disappear.
People will sometimes disagree with the Board. That is part of university life. What matters is that even those who disagree can still say: the process was fair, the facts were considered, and the decision was honestly explained.
It keeps ISUFST moving without losing its roots
ISUFST needs continuity. Research programs, infrastructure projects, academic reforms, and community partnerships often require several years to produce results. The University cannot abandon its direction every time a new trend appears.
But continuity should not become resistance to change.
Technology advances. Industries change. New professions emerge. Students learn differently. Communities face new environmental and economic pressures. The University must respond or risk becoming disconnected from the people it serves.
The Board must help ISUFST balance these realities. It should preserve programs and traditions that remain valuable while allowing outdated systems to be improved or replaced.
For ISUFST, this means continuing to honor its roots in fisheries and community development while expanding responsibly into other disciplines. Its history should serve as a foundation, not a fence.
Its decisions are eventually felt by people
Board meetings may involve thick documents, formal motions, financial tables, and carefully worded resolutions. But every decision eventually reaches someone.
It reaches the student waiting for a scholarship, the teacher requesting research support, the employee hoping for a permanent position, and the community expecting an extension project. It reaches the graduate whose qualification must be respected by employers. It reaches the parent who trusted ISUFST with a childβs education.
Most members of the University community may never sit inside the Board room. Still, they experience its decisions in their classes, workloads, facilities, opportunities, and daily encounters with the institution.
That is why the Board must never become distant from ordinary University life. Papers and policies are necessary, but the people behind them matter more.
It holds the University in trust
The Board of Regents does not own ISUFST. Its members hold the University in trust for the Filipino people and for generations who will study and work here long after the present Board has completed its term.
A classroom built today may still be serving students decades from now. A degree program approved this year may shape a profession or industry in the future. A decision affecting the environment may leave consequences for students who have not yet been born.
The Board must therefore look beyond the urgency of the next meeting. It must ask whether todayβs decisions will leave ISUFST stronger, fairer, more credible, and better prepared for the future.
In the end, the Board helps the University answer three simple but important questions: Who are we? What matters most to us? Where do we want to go?
The answers will not be found in one resolution. They will be seen in the pattern of choices the Board makesβthe programs it approves, the priorities it funds, the leaders it confirms, the standards it protects, and the voices it chooses to hear.
When the Board performs its role with wisdom, honesty, courage, and concern for people, it does more than govern ISUFST. It helps the University understand itself and build a future worthy of the communities it serves. (Herman Lagon | PAMMCO)
