Qualla: Silliman University

Silliman University: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bglev, CC BY 4.0. In 1901, a retired businessman from Cohoes, New York, wrote a check for ten thousand dollars. Dr. Horace Brinsmade Silliman had never visited the Philippines, but he believed that education could transform lives anywhere, and the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions needed seed money for a school in the Visayas. That single donation founded Silliman Institute -- an elementary school for boys in the coastal town of Dumaguete. More than a century later, the institution that bears his name is a full research university of 62 hectares, the first Protestant university in the Philippines and the first American university anywhere in Asia.

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Image: Bglev | CC BY 4.0

Silliman University: From Schoolhouse to University

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aclarado, CC BY-SA 4.0. The school began modestly, educating young boys in a building whose materials included lumber salvaged from an old theater in New York. It was a Protestant institution in an overwhelmingly Catholic country, yet it grew steadily. By 1910, Silliman Institute had expanded into a col...

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Image: Aclarado | CC BY-SA 4.0

Silliman University: Silliman Hall and the Acacia Campus

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aclarado, CC BY-SA 4.0. The oldest surviving structure on campus is Silliman Hall, built in 1909 as an addition to the original 1902 building that has since been demolished. It is the oldest standing American-era structure in the Philippines, designated a National Historical Landmark. Its Stick-style ar...

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Image: Aclarado | CC BY-SA 4.0

Silliman University: A University That Shaped a Reef

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Franz Miko Verzon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Silliman's influence extends well beyond its campus walls. The university's community-based coastal resource management program helped transform Apo Island, a small island off the coast of Dauin, into one of the world's recognized dive sites. The program demonstrated that marine ...

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Image: Franz Miko Verzon | CC BY-SA 4.0

Silliman University: The University as City

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aclarado, CC BY-SA 3.0. Silliman does not merely exist within Dumaguete; in many ways, it is Dumaguete. The 62-hectare campus occupies nearly ten percent of the city's urban core. Its church, medical center -- the Silliman University Medical Center that serves as a major tertiary hospital for the region...

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Image: Aclarado | CC BY-SA 3.0