Silliman University - Campus

Campus

Silliman is located in Dumaguete City, a quiet, peaceful seaside community with a population of 116,392. The university has two campuses: the Hibbard Avenue main campus and the College of Agriculture and Marine Lab campus. Dotted by large acacia trees, the main campus has a land area of 33 hectares. It is home to most of the colleges and schools of the university and is adjacent to the city's downtown district. Occupying almost one-third of the downtown area, the campus faces the sea to the east, flanked by its portals which are now considered symbols of the school and city. The three most prominent portals are the Gates of Knowledge, Opportunity and Service. The Gate of Knowledge is the current and main entrance; it is the starting point of the two-kilometer-long Hibbard Avenue which was named after Dr. David Sutherland Hibbard, one of the founders of the institution. The other prominent landmarks on the main campus are the Silliman Hall, which now houses the Anthropology Museum; the Silliman University Church; the University Library; and the Luce Auditorium, the largest theater outside Metro Manila. Regularly frequented by tourists, the university maintains a campus cruiser, a 15-seater golf cart or tram-like vehicle used to ferry visitors around the campus. It is used to service students during regular days.

Two kilometers to the north (the other end of Hibbard Avenue) is the College of Agriculture and Marine Lab campus. It has a land area of 29 hectares, and houses the College of Agriculture Complex, the Silliman Farm, a number of dormitories (known as the Cocofed Dormitories) and the Marine Laboratory. Adjacent to the Marine Laboratory is the Silliman Beach.

Silliman has off-campus facilities located in Camp Lookout, Valencia and on Ticao Island, in the Province of Masbate. The Camp Lookout facility houses the University's Creative Writing Center which now serves as the venue and permanent home of the Silliman National Writers Workshop. The Center has a two-storey main function hall and five duplex cottages.

The university's Ticao Island facility, on the other hand, is a 465-hectare property in the Province of Masbate, another island in the Visayas. Donated by the family of Elizabeth How, the facility is a combination of a working ranch, agricultural plantations, and patches of secondary forests. A framework for a long-term development plan has been made and is now the subject for validation by local stakeholders. The plan includes programs for agriculture, Christian ministry, coastal resource management and public health.

Dumaguete has been called a "center of learning in the south" or a "university town" due to the presence of Silliman and other universities that have made their mark nationally and abroad. The city has become a melting pot of students, professionals, artists, scholars and the literati coming from the country and the world.