Physical and virtual space. Tan wants to expand the physical spaces in the college, by improving classrooms, facilities and public spaces for the students.
He also hopes that the transfer of the College of Science to their new buildings at the National Science Complex will free up the pavilions at the back of Palma Hall and allow the CSSP’s faculty and students to move in.
“Our spaces should allow faculty, students and non-academic personnel to live out what we preach, so expect to see greener, safer and healthier environments for all our constituents,” he says.
The College of Science, which has called Palma Hall home for years, is about to move to the newly constructed National Science Complex along CP Garcia Avenue.
Tan also hopes to make the internet available and free for the college, subject to guidelines that will not just enable but empower the students and faculty to use the access wisely and productively.
“The college should offer portals for this smart navigation, so we don't end up just as users or consumers but as producers of information and knowledge,” Tan emphasized.
Academic space. Beyond the physical and cyberspaces, Tan said that the college needs the scholarly and academic space for intellectual and professional movement.
One way to achieve this is by encouraging more exchanges among the departments, between junior and senior faculty, between students and faculty and between faculty and non-academic personnel. According to Tan, this will allow the CSSP to “move to a more fair system of mentoring and peer support.”
Another way is to make use of the college’s existing ties and interaction with other academic units, particularly through the Revised General Education Program, where many of the GE subjects are found in the CSSP.
“We are a hub for the university with so many GE subjects being taught, but we have not maximized the potentials for interaction with other units in Diliman and other UP campuses,” Tan iterates.
With the help of the newest crop of faculty and a very proactive student council, he is hopeful that these goals will be achieved in the next three years.
Tan finished his doctor of veterinary medicine at UP Diliman in 1977 and got licensed that same year. Five years after he earned his masters’ degree in Anthropology at Texas A&M University in the USA. In 1996 he earned his doctorate in Medical Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam.
He has been with the University since 2002, first as head of the Medical Anthropology Section at the UP College of Medicine, and then as an affiliate faculty of its Bioethics Program. He has served as an affiliate faculty in both the Tri-College Program (since 2006) and the College of Science (since 2007). Tan has also been writing a twice-a-week column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer since 1997.
Tan has received won several awards, some of which are the Takashi Fujii Award for Originality in Social Science Research presented by the International Federation of Social Science Organizations, the Catholic Mass Media Award for Best Opinion Column (2007 and 2009), the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas (Award for Best Writing in English from the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas or Union of Writers in the Philippines) in 2006 and the Best Column on Children Award from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Philippine Press Institute (2005 and 2006).
He will be serving as Dean until 2013.
