Silliman University (also referred to as Silliman or SU) is a private Protestant research university in Dumaguete City, Philippines."CHED Taps SU for Research Network" . Visayan Daily Star. Retrieved June 5, 2012. Established in 1901 as Silliman Institute by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, it is the first Protestant institution of higher education in the Philippines and in Asia.
The university was named after Dr. Horace Brinsmade Silliman, a retired businessman and philanthropist from Cohoes, New York who provided the initial sum of $10,000 for the establishment of the school. Starting as an elementary school for boys, the school expanded to become a college in 1910, acquiring university status in 1938. Silliman University was run and operated by Americans during the first half of the 20th century. After the Second World War, Filipinos began to assume more administrative positions, culminating in the appointment of the university's first Filipino president in 1952.
More than 10,000 students from the Philippines and at least 56 other countries are enrolled in ten colleges, five schools, and three institutes.Silliman University. Retrieved August 11, 2014. It is registered as a National Historical Landmark by the National Historical Institute and is one of the few private higher education institutions in the Philippines that have been granted full autonomous status by the Commission on Higher Education."NHI Resolution No.7, Series 2002". National Historical Commission of the Philippines. Retrieved June 8, 2012.Atty. Ignacio Bunye. "CSF program up in Dumaguete City" . Manila Bulletin. Retrieved October 31, 2009."CHED Grants Silliman Autonomous Status" . SU Net News. Retrieved July 31, 2009. It is also a founding member of the Association of Christian Universities and Colleges in Asia (ACUCA) and one of the recognized institutions in the U.S. Veterans Administration's list of approved educational institutions."Past and Future". ACUCA. Retrieved September 4, 2009."WEAMS Institution Search.". US Veterans Affairs. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
History Founding and Early Development
Silliman University was founded on August 28, 1901, as Silliman Institute by Protestant missionaries under the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Originally established as an elementary school for boys, the institute began operations through an initial $10,000 donation from Dr. Horace Brinsmade Silliman, a retired businessman and Christian philanthropist from Cohoes, New York, who sought to establish an industrial school based on the Hampton Institute model of Virginia."Silliman University marks 117th year" . The Negros Chronicle. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
The person tasked by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions to establish the school was Dr. David Sutherland Hibbard, a man from Lyndon, Kansas, who, after serving as a pastor in a Presbyterian church in that locality, offered his services to the Board as missionary. Upon his arrival in the Philippines, he was commissioned, along with his wife Laura, to scout the southern part of the islands to determine the best location for the school. His original destination were Cebu, Zamboanga and Iloilo. While in Cebu, he received a suggestion to make a side-trip to Dumaguete. Upon his arrival there, he was met by a Rev. Captain John Anthony Randolph, chaplain of the sixth U.S. Infantry Regiment stationed at Dumaguete at the time, who later introduced him to Don Meliton Larena, the town's local presidente and to his brother Demetrio Larena, then the vice-governor of the province. Hibbard was drawn to the place and decided to establish the school in the locality. He would later write that the "beauty of Dumaguete and the friendliness of the people" helped in bringing about his decision.
The institute had a modest beginning: Dr. and Mrs. Hibbard held classes in a rented house beside the sea until the institute's first building, Silliman Hall, was completed in 1903."Silliman University:118" . Negros Chronicle. Retrieved October 30, 2020. Recalling how the university started half a century later, Dr. Hibbard described:
Enrollment in the school grew attracting students from other Asian countries."Falling in love with Silliman" . By: Mark Raygan Garcia. The Manila Bulletin. Retrieved October 30, 2020. In 1909, Silliman Institute was visited by US Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks. In 1910, it was awarded government recognition and the right to grant a degree. In the same year, it was incorporated under the laws of the Philippines. Women began to be admitted in 1912, with Pura Blanco as its first female student, and in 1921, the Silliman Bible School (later to become the Divinity School) was established in cooperation with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which largely represented the Congregational Churches of the United States. As enrollment in the institution continued to grow, a corresponding increase in faculty followed. These developments were accompanied by the adoption of a more advanced curriculum and the construction and acquisition of more permanent buildings and equipment. Of note was Emilio Aguinaldo's decision to send his sons to Silliman Institute."Laura’s Heritage Room opening: A Founders Day highlight". Silliman University. Retrieved May 20, 2025. By 1925, it was already recognized as "the most influential Protestant institution of higher learning" in the Philippines, according to a report submitted by the Board of Educational Survey, which was created by the Philippine Legislature to conduct a study on all educational institutions in the country.The Monroe Survey of 1925, submitted by the Board of Educational Survey of the Philippine Legislature, expressed concern over profit-making "private adventure schools" in the country. But on Silliman, the report read: "The most influential Protestant institution of higher learning is Silliman Institute at Dumaguete on Negros Island. In location, acreage, buildings, equipment and sanitary arrangements, this institution is a most attractive contrast to the private universities described above. A library of 8,000 volumes administered by a trained librarian has been wisely selected. Its finest building is devoted to the teaching of the sciences. The recitations heard by the Commission's representative were most ably conducted and the spirit that pervaded the place was one of the finest he experienced anywhere. Moreover, the Commission heard only words of praise throughout the Islands for graduates of Silliman Institute, particularly of those who entered the public schools as teachers."() The institute was re-incorporated in 1935, and in 1938 became the first school outside of Manila to be granted university status.
After its recognition as a university, Silliman continued to receive grants for land, buildings and equipment from the Presbyterian Board and the American Board (now the United Church Board for World Ministries). In addition, these boards provided the university with American faculty and staff. Two other American boards contributed personnel and funds: the Board of Missions of the United Methodist Church and the United Christian Missionary Society of the Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ)."Guide to the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations Secretaries' Files: Philippine Mission". Presbyterian Historical Society. Retrieved October 30, 2020."American Colonial Missionaries in the Philippines". By: Jennifer Hallock. JenniferHallock.com. Retrieved October 30, 2020."A Missiological Study of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in its Constitution and General Assembly Documents". VEM. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
World War II Life at the university was interrupted when World War II broke out. On May 26, 1942, some three weeks after the fall of Corregidor, two Japanese transports anchored in Dumaguete. Silliman was occupied by the Japanese forces and was converted to a garrison. One of its buildings, Channon Hall, became the headquarters of the dreaded Japanese kempeitai or military police where many Filipinos were tortured and killed. During the occupation, many members of the faculty and the student body were forced to evacuate to four localities within the province. Under the leadership of Dr. Arthur Carson, then president of Silliman, the remaining members of the faculty continued university operations in the mountains of Negros Oriental. This led to the formation of what was then known as the "Jungle University" in Malabo, Valencia, one of the localities in the province."SUMCFI Donates To Malabo School". Dumaguete MetroPost. Retrieved October 30, 2020. University Professor Roy Bell became a major in the Negros Island guerrilla forces, established a Free Government, printed the Victory News, and used his radio transmitter to establish contact with the South West Pacific Area (command). Many students, alumni, faculty members and ROTC officers joined the resistance forces, while theology professors Alvin Scaff, Proculo Rodriguez, Paul Lindholm and James McKinley "carried on pastoral and teaching duties for the resistance soldiers and civilians in guerrilla-dominated territory." The Carson and Bell families, plus other faculty members, were evacuated by the USS Narwhal (SS-167) on February 7, 1944.
American and Filipino forces liberated Dumaguete on April 26, 1945. A few days later, the Faculty Emergency Committee took charge of the campus and began preparations for the resumption of classes and the challenge of reconstruction.
Post-war years For the first half of the century, Silliman was run and operated by Americans. After the Second World War and until the early 1950s, efforts toward the Filipinization of the university administration began to surface. Filipino faculty members began to assume significant positions and, as more of them took on administrative roles, the board of trustees elected the university's first Filipino president, Dr. Leopoldo T. Ruiz, on August 26, 1952. He officially took office in April 1953. A Silliman alumnus (A.B. 1916) and a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley (B.A. 1920), Ruiz had an extensive experience in higher education and foreign service. Before his appointment, he pursued graduate studies in sociology at Columbia and Yale, earning an M.A. (1924) from the former, and a Ph.D. (1942) from the University of Southern California."Directory of Filipino Students in the United States". United States Bureau of Insular Affairs. Page 64. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
In the same decade as Ruiz's appointment, the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA), an interdenominational group based in New York, assumed responsibility for channeling all church aid to Silliman. The United Board is an international organization supported by ten Protestant mission boards."Silliman University General Catalog 2003–2004". SU Office of Information and Publications. The 1960s saw a decreasing American representation in the faculty and the engagement of new batch of professors of other nationalities. During this time, faculty members of South Korean, British, Scottish, German, Dutch and of Indonesian nationalities, among others also joined the faculty. By 1970, the Divinity School was the most international among academic units on campus. Up to most recent times, however, American and foreign visiting professors are still assigned in specialized areas."A Fulbright Scholar, A Human Rights Educator". George Washington University Law School. Retrieved June 22, 2010."Mission Connections" . Presbyterian Church (USA). Retrieved June 22, 2010."Editorial Board: David Arthur" . International Journal of Caring Sciences. Retrieved June 24, 2010.