Historical Background of CSU *By Fr. Ranhilio C. Aquino, Vice President for Administration and Finance, July 4, 2017. As representave of the Province of Cagayan in the Interim Batasang Pambansa, then Minister (later Senate President) Juan Ponce Enrile draſted the Charter of the Cagayan State University that was signed into law as Presidenal Decree No. 1436 by President Ferdinand E. Marcos on June 11, 1978. Except for provisions on the composion, powers and selecon of the members of the governing board, the Charter has since remained unchanged. It certainly was not creaon out of nothing. Rather, the Charter consolidated exisng post-secondary instuons, converng them into a single legal enty. These were the Cagayan Valley College of Arts and Trades at Tuguegarao, the Northern Luzon State College of Agriculture at Piat, the Aparri Instute of Technology, the Cagayan Valley Agricultural College at Lallo, the Bukig Naonal Agricultural and Technical School in Aparri West, the Sanchez Mira Rural Vocaonal School, the Western Cagayan School of Arts and Trades at Lasam and the Gonzaga Naonal Agricultural and Technical School. It is this fact that explains the present constellaon of campuses of the Cagayan State University: Andrews (Caritan), Piat, Lasam, Lallo, Aparri, Sanchez Mira, and Gonzaga. When the university commenced operaons, a site in Carig was developed - to which the Central Administraon of the university would later transfer from Caritan. It is the Carig site that has evolved, by Board sufferance, into the Carig Campus, although the Central Administraon has since returned to the Andrews Campus at Caritan. While the university was formed from pre-exisng instuons that were mainly agricultural and technical, its Charter, Presidenal Decree No. 1436, made it exceedingly clear that it was the intendment of the law that the university was to provide "beer service in professional and technical training in the arts, sciences, humanies, and technology and in the conduct of scienfic research and technological studies". Without a doubt then and by express legislave mandate, the university was not to be an agricultural, fisheries or technological university - although these remain vital and highly crucial concerns of CSU - but a "comprehensive university", a university as that term is understood in the academic world! Academics of note were the first university officials, headed by Dr. Manuel Corpus from the University of the Philippines, and Dr. Joselito Jara, who did a doctorate in educaonal philosophy from the University of Maryland as Vice-President for Academic Affairs. The officials of the pre-exisng colleges that were consolidated into the university were designated as "Campus Deans" and connued to supervise their respecve campuses. It was a truly enlightened decision of the Board of Regents to authorize the opening of a College of Medicine - the very first in the region, and an agreement with what was then the Cagayan Valley Regional Hospital (now the Cagayan Valley Medical Center) made the laer the training hospital of the College of Medicine. The first dean was a naonally recognized neurologist-psychologist, Dr. Gilberto Gamez of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Santo Tomas. Soon aſter, other professional courses followed: Medical Technology, Engineering and Liberal Arts courses. Guided by what the Naonal Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has idenfied as priority courses of the Region, the university has always offered degree programs in the "hard sciences" - mathemacs, physics, chemistry, biology - although, especially in regard to chemistry and physics, these have not been popular programs at all. But CSU now has a competent and highly credible corps of professors in these very disciplines! Dr. Armando Cortes, then Campus Dean of the Aparri Campus, succeeded Dr. Manuel Corpus as University President. At the me, it was the Bureau of Higher Educaon under the Department of Educaon, Culture and Sports, that superintended state universies and colleges. Prof. Monserrat Babaran was the Vice-President for Academic Affairs, and together, President Cortes and Prof.