09/03/2022
A trivia as we celebrate the University Library's Centennial today:
President Quezon, deeming that the 10-hectare Manila campus would not suffice for the expansion of the University, suggested relocating it to a bigger site. Subsequently, Commonwealth Act No. 442 was enacted on 3 June 1939, which provided for the transfer of the UP to a site outside of Manila. The government then acquired the sprawling 493hectare property in Diliman as its new campus, with a "climate that was ideal for academic life and conducive to serious study and introspection". Two buildings (which were later to become the Colleges of Law and Education) have already been constructed in preparation for the move in 1942, but WWII precluded the transfer. When the US Army finally vacated the site,
UP President Bienvenido Gonzalez, amid strong opposition, effected the transfer to Diliman which took place between 1948 and 1949. The following year saw the completion of several buildings including the University Library (in the foreground), which was first established in 1922 and which now bears his name.
Sources:
The Diliman Campus. (n.d.). University of the Philippines.
Philippinensian. (1950). University of the Philippines.
Resurgence of the University. (1948). University of the Philippines.
