Ancheta Occupies DCR Chairpersonship, Plans to Keep Progress Through Solidarity
After a thorough process of deliberation, Assistant Professor Jeffrey R. Ancheta was designated as the new chairperson of the Department of Communication Research (DCR) under the College of Communication (COC) of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) through a Special Order signed by the University President Manuel M. Muhi last May 2, 2023, and officially assumed the office on May 8, 2023.
New Face of Progress Under the New Chairpersonship
In an interview with UNDERSCORE PUP-DCR, Ancheta shared his primary objective in his term anchored to the university’s vision of becoming a national polytechnic university. Among the goals laid out by the new chairperson include providing high-quality polytechnic education that meets the demands of both national and global markets; improving the production of basic, applied, and solution-oriented research; ensuring that the research outputs are effectively utilized by experts, policy-makers, industry, and society; and incorporating cultural activities in the institutional framework to promote the holistic growth of students.
When asked about the biggest challenge of his new designation, Ancheta said it is a big responsibility for him to maintain the department’s academic standards through instruction, production, research, and extension, compared to his previous approach to management as the Research Management Cluster Coordinator of the Research Management Office and Chief of the Center for Futures Training and Advocacy under the Research Institute for Strategic Foresight and Innovation wherein the focus is solely on research administration of different colleges across the university.
“This time, being Chairperson is different because we have to address all the concerns of DCR stakeholders — students, faculty, partner communities, and agencies — whether instruction, research, or extension,” Ancheta expressed.
Despite this, Ancheta shared his strategy for addressing challenges and issues within the department by promoting the D-C-R Framework (Dynamic governance, Collaborative initiatives, and Responsive environment). This approach centers on consent-based decision-making and ensuring that all perspectives are heard, allowing discussion among stakeholders to spark innovation and new strategies to the department’s instruction, production, research, and extension components, and encouraging active learning, innovative research, and transformative community engagement by being a responsive environment.
Additionally, he emphasized that the department must work together to develop projects and initiatives that foster the development of all DCR stakeholders as students, faculty, and partners to uphold the department’s tagline, “In CommRes, We bring Progress!”
“In other words, we must first become one as a department. And from this, we will be able to produce projects and programs for all DCR stakeholders that will support their development as students, faculty, and partners, and we will be prouder to express the department’s tagline,” Ancheta shared.
Looking Back on Three Years of Progress
Former DCR chairperson Dr. Rudolf Anthony A. Lacerna had his share of challenges during his incumbency too.
In an interview with UNDERSCORE PUP-DCR, Lacerna recalled his term’s early days when he found the department in such disarray. Back then, DCR faced challenges ranging from disorganized office, insufficient faculty members, and branching student concerns.
However, none of these presented Lacerna with a more significant challenge than the COVID-19 pandemic, but he remarked that it taught him many things.
“Ang sabi sa kulturang PUP, ang pagiging chairperson talaga ang pinaka-stepping stone mo para maging mas bihasa ka na sa ibang mga position. Kaya siguro, yung natutuhan ko rito [ay] ‘yung sobrang haba ng pasensya kasi pandemic eh (In the PUP culture, being a chairperson is your stepping stone to becoming more skilled in other positions. That’s why I learned to have lots of patience, especially because we were in a pandemic.),” he said on his chairpersonship.
On a brighter note, during Lacerna’s term, the DCR could participate in various internationalized activities that showcased the department’s local talents to the international scene. These partnerships strengthened the department’s alliance with the Media and Information Literacy (MIL) for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Network.
It also opened opportunities for the faculty to receive MIL training, and the department was given the honor of representing the Philippines as an institutional partner. These milestones brought gains for the department, and for this, Lacerna said that the Communication Research student body and faculty made him proud.
These experiences served as honing tools that have equipped him for his new endeavors as the Chief of Center for Research and Extension and the Program Chair of Master in Communication at the PUP Open University System (PUP OUS).
“‘Di kasi accurate ‘yung term na ‘binitawan’ ang CommRes. Tawag ito ng public service. Minsan talaga, kapag tawag talaga ng serbisyo, wala tayong choice (Saying that I gave up on CommRes would not be accurate. Sometimes, when service calls, we have no choice but to heed it.),” he belied the claims that he gave up the DCR, clarifying that it was a matter of catering to public service.
To conclude the interview with UNDERSCORE PUP-DCR, he said, “DCR is in good hands,” hoping to ensure that he left the chairpersonship in the hold of a trustworthy leader.
The DCR is now in the period of transitioning between two chairpersons.
Though having parted ways with the department already, Lacerna bantered that saying goodbye was sweeter than it was bitter because the problems that greeted him when he first started his term had lessened significantly. The Communication Research community shall root for Lacerna in his pursuits at the PUP OUS and bear witness to the fruits of Ancheta’s plans for the department.
