It will be then my joy and pride, and the joy and pride of the parents, of our people to know that we have established in this northern outpost of our country a university true to the dreams of all those who have died, including the man after whom the university is named, my father, and true to the historic and universal traditions of every university worth its name, a place from whence our leaders of the future will come, men and women who can thus rule others because they have learned the basic precept of learning first to rule themselves, their emotions and their passions. That true university, after all, is the school of discipline where the mind, the will and the spirit of men may be enabled to achieve and to create in the image of his maker; who are born or who live in this northern region, who must rely on human, rather than material resources have need of this kind of university to transmit the virtues of the older generation to the young, to institutionalize the transmittal of this virtue – from one generation to the other…I hope and pray that this shall be the Mariano Marcos State University. (Excerpt from the Commencement address of His Excellency President Ferdinand E. Marcos, April 25, 1978 )