71 UP frontline service staff attend international seminar on diversity, equity, and inclusion hosted by OIL Diliman

by Laureen Theresa Lioanag and Noelle Rivera

*2019 Promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Seminar participants and resource speakers (1st row starting from 3rd person from the left:*
*Asst. Prof. Ronel Laranjo, Dr. Hiroyuki Konuma, Dr. Imee Su Martinez, Noelle Rivera) strike a UP Fight pose in front of the University Hotel*

On 14 November 2019, Thursday, Dr. Imee Su Martinez, Office of International Linkages Diliman (OIL Diliman) Director welcomed 71 frontline service staff of the University of the Philippines to the first Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Seminar (PDEIS). Martinez recognized the attendees, comprised mostly of administrative staff, as the “spine of the University” and provided an overview to UP Diliman’s internationalization strategies to kick off the capacity building seminar on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The one-day-seminar held at SR 104, University Hotel, University of the Philippines Diliman, featured home-grown and international experts in the fields of social sciences and internationalization in higher education.

Topics covered in the seminar include the reality of culture shock experienced by international faculty and students entering the university, the use of local concepts like kapwa in international communications, the current and best practices in internationalization in HEIs, global human resource development through regional programs, and the role which Filipino language and culture can play in internationalization and glocalization of education.

*A participant earnestly jots down notes during the presentation of Ms. Claudine Faye Tecson on the Phsycosocial Adjustments and Sociocultural Adaptations of Internationalization.*

All the presentations emphasized the critical role that staff play in delivering honor and excellence across and beyond the archipelago. Experts recognized that empowered and informed staff can serve as a catalyst in internationalization in the level of academic units and offices due to the nature of their work. In order to empower staff, the seminar also featured tools and skills which participants may employ in their work in order to respond to the inevitable internationalization in higher education.

*Asst. Prof. Reginaldo Cruz of the Department of Anthropology explaining pahiwatig as part of his presentation entitled,*
*“Pagpapahiwatig sa Kapwa: Using local concepts in the context of international communications.”*

*Asst. Prof. Ronel Laranjo shares his experience with internationalization in his presentation entitled,*
*“Ang Papel ng Wika at Kulturang Filipino sa Internasyonalisasyon at Glokalisasyon sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas.”*

Asst. Prof. Reginaldo Cruz of the Department of Anthropology, Asst. Prof. Ronel Laranjo of Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature, Claudine Faye Tecson of UPD Psychosocial Services, and Noelle Rivera of OIL Diliman served as local resource speakers. Completing the lineup of experts were international resource speakers, Dr. Hiroyuki Konuma, former Director of Meiji University-ASEAN Center and Dr. Nakao Nomura of University of Tsukuba.

*Dr. Hiroyuki Konuma, founder of the Association for the Promotion of Self-reliance in Asia or GIAPSA* *and former director of Meiji University ASEAN Center, shares the current and best practices on* *internationalization in Higher Education Institutions*.

Dr. Nakao Nomura delivers his lecture on Global Human Resource Development through AIMS program through Skype to the academic and administrative staff from various colleges, units and offices of the University.

The seminar also featured a condensed curriculum of the Systemic University Change Towards Internationalisation (SUCTI) course facilitated by Rivera, which focused on understanding basic internationalization concepts, reflections on how internationalization can affect the staff in the context of their work, and how the staff can personally contribute to the internationalization process.

*Academic and administrative staff from various colleges, units and offices,* *participate in the discussions led by Noelle Rivera (standing far left).*

Rivera, who recently completed the intensive SUCTI Train the Trainers Course at Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain, through funding support from the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the UP Faculty, REPS, and Administrative Staff Development Program of the Office of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs, announced that SUCTI courses will be launched in UP Diliman by the first quarter of 2020. She also invited members in the audience who were interested to learn more about to be part of the first batch of trainers from UP Diliman.

*An overview of what will be covered in the SUCTI course to be launched in the first quarter of 2020.*

The Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Seminar was organized by the Academic and Administrative Staff Mobility Section of OIL Diliman, headed by Catherine Joie Tagaban. The seminar was also organized with the support of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Office of the Chancellor and follows the 2017 Seminar on Managing International Diversity, a seminar focused on academic staff and organized in collaboration with the College of Education and the Office for the Advancement of Teaching.

UP academic/administrative staff interested to undergo training to become SUCTI Trainers may contact Rivera via email at nrrivera@up.edu.ph. For other internationalization-related updates/ announcements from OIL Diliman, please visit the OIL Diliman website at international.upd.edu.ph or follow OIL Diliman in the following social networking sites:

Facebook: www.fb.com/international.upd
Twitter: @oildiliman
Instagram: @oildiliman

For more information on the international seminar on diversity, equity, and inclusion:

Office of International Linkages Diliman
Academic and Administrative Staff Mobility Section
oild_acadadminstaffmobility.upd@up.edu.ph
+63-2-8981-8500 loc. 2561