Professor at SUNY Potsdam makes a splash in Philippines

POTSDAM — In the Philippines, Edwin J. Portugal is an academic celebrity.

The SUNY Potsdam professor of strategic and global management spent six weeks lecturing at the University of the Philippines at Diliman. While he was there, his name and face were plastered all over campus on 5-by-5-foot banners announcing his presence and advertising his lectures.

"Some would ask for my autograph," the Rouses Point resident said. "I had a doctorate from the States and I was also mayor of Rouses Point. They were government students, so being in politics just impressed the heck out of them."

Mr. Portugal was in the Philippines as part of the Fulbright Specialist Program, which allows people to travel to three institutions for short periods to teach, among other things. Though the program paid for him to be there for only six weeks, he chose to stay an extra week to squeeze in some lectures at other schools and to travel around his native country.

At Diliman, Mr. Portugal gave 19 lectures for groups ranging from nine students to more than 200 about international education, management and strategic planning.

Though he was born in the Philippines, he left at age 15 to come to the United States, and when he returned, he had to adjust to teaching in a very different culture and environment.

"It's like the Harvard of the Philippines. It's very selective," he said. "The students were hesitant, unlike at SUNY Potsdam. When I asked questions, hands wouldn't go up. I think it's part of the Asian culture. You don't want to be the first; you don't want to stand out. Whereas here in the States, we have a cowboy mentality. We want to stand out."

In addition to different attitudes among students, the Filipino concept of time is much more fluid, with classes and meetings regularly starting about a half-hour late. The climate also was very different from the north country; temperatures hovered around 95 degrees during the day, with lots of rain and humidity.

"I had asthma there the first two weeks because of all the humidity, the heat and the pollution," he said. "It's the size of California with 90 million people. It rained almost every day."

Despite the weather and struggles with asthma, Mr. Portugal managed to run in four 5K races.

He also will be seen at Diliman, which has 23,000 students and 26 different colleges on campus, again in December, when he plans to give several lectures via videoconferencing. SUNY Potsdam students will be able to travel to the college over the summer through a three-week program he is developing, the professor said.

Returning just in time for classes to start at SUNY Potsdam, he is waiting for invitations to visit Taiwan, Mexico, Ukraine and Tunisia, where he has relationships with several institutions already established, he said. The Fulbright Specialist Program allows grantees to travel to three institutions within five years, so he has a chance for two more trips.

There are more than 400 Fulbright Specialists waiting to travel around the world. They have to be invited to a specific institution before they can travel.

"I've been on the list for about a year and a half," Mr. Portugal said. "It's a waiting game."