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UPLB History

Beginnings
On March 06, 1909, upon the passing of the act which created the University of the Philippines, the Board of Regents approved the establishment of the UP College of Agriculture (UPCA). Dean Edwin Copeland, professor of Botany at the Philippine Normal College, and four other American teachers were responsible for building the college. They were Harold Cuzner, Edgar Ledyard, Carrie Ledyard, and Sam Durham. They did not hold classes until June 1909 where classes were held in the houses of the faculty members and tents. The first structure rose months later on a 73-hectare abandoned farmland at the foot of the Mt. Makiling.
1910s
A formal four-year curriculum was instituted in 1910. UPCA started with four departments: Agricultural Botany, Animal Husbandry, Entomology, and English. The Department of Agronomy and Forestry were created in 1910; the Department of Engineering in 1912. In 1916, the Department of Forestry became the School of Forestry. The Department of Military Science and Training was established that same year, and year later was the Department of Plant Pathology. In 1917, the UPCA campus had grown to 127 hectares with 7 buildings, with 500 students it had its own student council and alumni association with 100 graduates. A 300-hectare Agricultural Experiment Station was acquired. Charles Baker replaced Copeland as the UPCA Dean. In 1919, the Department of Rural Economics was organized and the College of Veterinary Medicine was transferred from Pandacan.
1920s
In 1920, the departments of Agricultural Chemistry and Physical Education were established. The college went through a crisis due to lack of faculty members. The Department of Agricultural Education and UP Rural High School which served as a laboratory for practice teachers of Agricultural Education was formed in 1928. The first UPCA technical writing manual, Preparation for Scientific and Technical Papers was written. In 1927, Charles Baker passed away and Bienvinido Gonzales became the third dean of UPCA in August of that year.
1930s
The Department of Soils and College Health Service were established. It had its first alumna of the UPCA and first woman plant pathologist of the Philippines graduated, in Victoria Mendiola. In 1931, the College of Agriculture Biweekly Bulletin was published to present the results of researches conducted at UPCA. It supplemented the Philippine Agriculturist, presenting digests of foreign agricultural works and the results of students' theses. The College Cooperative Store (now UPLB Cooperative Inc.), the Maquiling School and the Los Baños Biological Club was formed.
During the War
The World War II then broke out. The college was closed and was declared a recuperative camp for Filipino war prisoners, an internment camp for Allied nationals, and headquarters of the Japanese army. It was also the home-base of a guerilla unit - the Home Guards. The college reopened in 1943. It was the worst times for the college. Teaching and research were impaired. Towards 1944, American planes began to frequent Los Baños. When the American troops pulled out, the Japanese came back. They demolished in two days what had taken 36 years to build.
After the War
Buildings were reconstructed, available reference materials were gathered, the publication of the Philippine Agriculturist and Biweekly Bulletin resumed. During the rebuilding of the college, students had a choice of 8 different curricula. UPCA started to become a training center for technical agriculture for Southeast Asia. International House (IH) was constructed to serve as a meeting ground for foreign and Filipino students.
1950s
The Department of home Technology was then established with the Office of Extension and Publication (now the College of Development Communication). The Agricultural Credit and Cooperatives Institute (ACCI), was created. The first Southeast Asia agricultural extension training was held on campus in the summer of 1958.
1960s
In 1961, the Dairy Training and Research Institute (DTRI) was established, followed by the Association of Colleges of Agriculture in the Philippines (ACAP) in 1962. The University of the Philippines-Cornell University (UPCO) graduate education program was initiated in 1963. The college was empowered in 1964 to acquire 288 hectares in La Granja, La Carlota, Negros Occidental for research and training byu Republic Act No. 2415 and Presidential Proclamation 250. Two years later UPCA was selected as the host institution of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA).
Autonomous UPLB
Presidential Decree No. 58 dated November 20, 1972 granted UPLB full and complete autonomy, thereby making it a full pledged university, not just an agricultural college. This was the most significant change in the college's history. The UPCA then became the core of UPLB, together with the College of Forestry (CF), ACCI, the DTRI, the Graduate School, and the Agrarian Reform Institute (ARI), which was then located at UP Diliman. The College of Science and Humanities (now College of Arts and Sciences) was constituted by four departments (Humanities, Agricultural Chemistry, Applied Mathematics, Agricultural Botany) and a division (Zoology). The College of Development Economics and Management (now College of Economics and Management or CEM) was also instituted. Eight centers: University Extension Center (UEC), Center for Policy and Development Studies (CPDS), Museum of Natural History (MNH), Postharvest Horticulture Training and Research Center (PHTRC), National Crop Protection Center (NCPC), Farming Systems and Soil Resources Institute (FSSR), Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST), and Institute of Animal Science (IAS).
1980s
Three colleges were added to UPLB: College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT), College of Human Ecology (CHE) and College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM). Three other institutes were formed: Biological Sciences (IBS), Chemistry (IC), and Mathematical Sciences and Physics (IMSP) and the Institute of Computer Science(ICS). In 1986, the Institute of Forest Conservation (IFC) was established. UPLB's number of colleges and institutes was brought to 33, giving rise to a university with more than 300 buildings and structures, sprawling over 15,000 hectarres of campus and experimental farms, land grants, and forest reserve.
1990s to Present
UPLB still continue to strive for quality education through expansion of its various academic programs and upgrading of its faculty, even as it undertakes more vigorous research and extension activities for national development. Future targets of UPLB's extension services will focus on technology promotion and utilization, establishment of a technology consultancy center, implementation of new action projects or replication of viable ongoing ones and distance learning to farmers. UPLB will maintain and improve its service facilities such as the repair, renovation, construction and development of buildings and infrastructures on campus. A newly built Academic Heritage Monument was constructed as a project of the UPCA to commemorate the glorious past of UPLB. In 2000, the New College of Arts and Sciences Building was built to house the faculties of Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Biological Sciences and the Office of the University Registrar.
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