page_title: Silliman University
section_title: Campus
hierarchical_section_title: Silliman University / Campus
caption_attribution_description: English: An early morning photograph of the Silliman University Church. Construction for the church began in 1941, but due to interruptions brought by World War II, it was completed only in 1949. The church's origins can be traced to the coming of the American Presbyterian missionaries to the Philippine Islands in 1899, who established the Dumaguete Mission Station in January of 1901. Prior to its construction, members of the congregation held church services at the first floor of present-day Silliman Hall.
context_page_description: Silliman University is a private research university in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, the Philippines. Established in 1901 as Silliman Institute by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, it is the first American institution of higher learning in the Philippines and the entire Asian continent.
  The university is named after Dr. Horace Brinsmade Silliman, a retired businessman and philanthropist from Cohoes, New York who gave the initial sum of $10,000 to start the school. Starting as an elementary school for boys, the school expanded to become a college in 1910, acquiring university status in 1938. For the first half of the 20th century, Silliman was run and operated by Americans. After the Second World War Filipinos began to assume more administrative positions, culminating in the appointment of Silliman's first Filipino president in 1952.
  In terms of accreditation, Silliman is one of only five universities in the Philippines with "Institutional Accreditation" by the Federation of Accrediting Agencies of the Philippines.
context_section_description: Silliman is located in Dumaguete City, a quiet, peaceful seaside community with a population of 116,392. The university campus has a total land area of 62 hectares composed of the main campus along Hibbard Avenue, and the campus for the College of Agriculture and the Institute of Environmental and Marine Sciences to the north. Dotted by large acacia trees, the main campus is home to most of the colleges and schools of the university and is adjacent to the city's downtown district. Occupying almost one-third of the downtown area, the campus faces the sea to the east, flanked by its portals which are now considered symbols of the school and city. The three most prominent portals are the Gates of Knowledge, Opportunity and Service.  The Gate of Knowledge is the current and main entrance; it is the starting point of the two-kilometer-long Hibbard Avenue which was named after Dr. David Sutherland Hibbard, one of the founders of the institution. The other prominent landmarks on the main campus are the Silliman Hall, which now houses the Anthropology Museum; the Silliman University Church; the Robert B. and Metta J. Silliman Library; and the Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium, the largest theater outside Metro Manila. It is frequented by tourists so the university maintains a campus cruiser, a 15-seater golf cart or tram-like vehicle, to ferry visitors around the campus. It is used to transport students during regular days. 
   
  Two kilometers to the north (the other end of Hibbard Avenue) is the campus for the College of Agriculture and the Institute of Environmental and Marine Sciences. It has a land area of 29 hectares, and houses the College of Agriculture Complex, the Silliman Farm, a number of dormitories (known as the Cocofed Dormitories) and the Marine Laboratories of the Institute of Environmental and Marine Sciences. Adjacent to it is the Silliman Beach.
  Silliman has off-campus facilities located in Camp Lookout, Valencia and on Ticao Island, in the Province of Masbate. The Camp Lookout facility houses the University's Creative Writing Center which now serves as the venue and permanent home of the Silliman National Writers Workshop. The center has a two-storey main function hall and five duplex cottages.
  The university's Ticao Island facility, on the other hand, is a 465-hectare property in the Province of Masbate, another island in Bicol Region. Donated by the family of Elizabeth How, the facility is a combination of a working ranch, agricultural plantations, and patches of secondary forests. A framework for a long-term development plan has been made and is now the subject for validation by local stakeholders. The plan includes programs for agriculture, Christian ministry, coastal resource management and public health.
  Dumaguete has been called a "center of learning in the south" or a "university town" due to the presence of Silliman and other universities that have made their mark nationally and abroad. The city has become a melting pot of students, professionals, artists, scholars and the literati coming from the country and the world.
caption: An early morning photograph of the Silliman University Church. Construction for the church began in 1941. Due to interruptions brought by World War II, it was completed only in 1949.[43]
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