A quarter century after the Mendiola campus opened, Abbot Celestine Gusi presided over the second construction wave and artistic flowering in San Beda. St. Benedict’s Hall was constructed and inaugurated in 1952. Covered basketball courts followed a year later. At St. Bede’s Hall, the Jubilee garden and fountain were built and an obelisk honoring the…
When the smoke of war cleared, San Beda was quick to rehabilitate and re-opened on 2 July 1945. With the other schools not yet in a position to operate, San Beda was able to assemble the best faculty, a true superschool. The student profile was still mainly middle class even if the likes of Eugenio…
The growth spurt in the 1920’s was blunted by the 1930’s “Big Crash”, with the wealth base of the economic elite swiftly eroded by the crumbling world economy. Rector Fr. Bernardo Lopez acted decisively to manage the crisis as the previous decade’s sterling growth was gained at the cost of heavy loans. Severe austerity measures…