Amidst the grade submission season, UPLB faculty members made time to attend the 2025 UPLB Pre-Faculty Conference on June 9, 2025, at the DL Umali Hall. 

The Conference allows faculty members and researchers to share information on their current projects and studies, ask questions, consult, and gain other insights. This year, it was organized into five plenary talks. 

The first plenary talk tackled the DUNONG Program, or the Department of Education-Laguna and UPLB: Nurturing Opportunities for the Next Generation Toward Ending Learning Poverty in the Philippines, and the role of UPLB in its implementation.

Rosario B. Bantayan, program coordinator, with Jose Limbay Lahi O. Espaldon, Dr. Liezl M. Atienza, and Dr. Leila Landicho, respectively, discussed DUNONG and its components, namely volunteerism, nutrition, and organic agriculture and their roles in addressing learning poverty in the Philippines. 

The second plenary talk, led by Faculty Regent Early Sol A. Gadong, was about innovations in basic education. Gadong discussed the strategic roles of UPLB in basic education and how the university needs to actively engage teachers, given the expertise of its faculty members. 

According to Gadong, UPLB is best positioned to contextualize basic education learning for agriculture. She highlighted UPLB’s existing and potential contributions to and issues in basic education in the country.  

The third plenary talk, with Val Randolf M. Madrid, a faculty member at the Institute of Computer Science of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), tackled current technology trends and the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the university. 

Madrid shared his knowledge on understanding buzzwords in AI with the audience, discussed AI approaches, differentiated between discriminative versus generative AI, and tackled the limitations and ethical issues to consider when using AI, among others. 

Espaldon,  director of the Ugnayan ng Pahinungod, led the fourth plenary talk, in which he discussed the perception and understanding of UPLB regarding volunteerism and public service. 

Espaldon characterized the awareness level of university-initiated volunteers, their participation in volunteer activities, and barriers to participating in volunteerism and public service.

The last plenary talk was on faculty welfare, given by Jason F. Pozon, CAS-UP Rural High School faculty member and president of the All UP Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU-UPLB). 

Pozon discussed employee welfare, benefits, grievance procedure training, accomplishments from union negotiations, honoring personal time, and establishing professional boundaries.

In his closing remarks, Vice Chancellor (VC) for Academic Affairs Agham C. Cuevas, assured the faculty members that the UPLB administration is open to hearing their concerns and will continue to hold conversations to get to know them better and discuss issues that affect the university. 

Also in attendance were Chancellor Jose V. Camacho, Jr., who delivered the welcome remarks, VC Rosanna Marie C. Amongo for Planning and Development, VC Janette H. Malata-Silva for Student Affairs, VC Nathaniel C. Bantayan for Research and Extension, VC Rolando T. Bello for Administration, deans, unit directors, and faculty members of different colleges in UPLB. This conference is the official kick-off of the UPLB Faculty Conference, which will be held on June 16-17 at The Glory Hotel in Clark, Pampanga (KEAraguas).