Dr. Shirley C. Agrupis is formally installed as the 7th president of the Mariano Marcos State University in fitting ceremonies at the university’s Teatro Ilocandia today.

Commission on Higher Education Regional Director Cherry Melanie Diego represents Dr. Patricia Licuanan, CHED and MMSU BOR chairperson, in presiding over the investiture rites. She will hand over the symbols of the presidency–the mace and the presidential medallion–to Dr. Agrupis.

The ceremony starts with a processional by the university officials, faculty members, heads of various colleges and universities, members of the Board of Regents, and family members of Dr. Agrupis.

During her investiture, Dr. Agrupis is expected to expound on her vision for the university and her strategic plans that will serve as guidepost in her four-year term.

In her vision paper for the presidency, Dr. Agrupis sees MMSU becoming one of the country’s top 10 universities, recognized for its innovative approaches to teaching, research, community outreach, and income generation. 

Before her appointment as president, Dr. Agrupis was a professor at the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a researcher, teacher, and scholar with 30 years of diversified work experiences in research, teaching, and administration.

Before joining MMSU in 2000, she was science research specialist at the National Tobacco Administration where she pioneered alternative uses of tobacco as particleboard, pulp, and paper material. At MMSU, she rose through the ranks to become full professor in 2012. 

Born on July 25, 1964, Dr. Agrupis finished elementary education (valedictorian) at the Bangag Elementary School in Bangag, Aparri, Cagayan in 1977; secondary education at the Bukig National Agricultural and Technical School (valedictorian), also in Aparri in 1981; BS Biology from MMSU in 1985, MS Botany from UPLB in 1992, and PhD in Agricultural Sciences from the Shizuoka University, Japan, in 2000.

Her fields of study in her MS and PhD degrees are Plant Morpho-Anatomy and Physiology; and Wood and Cellulose Chemistry, respectively.

She is married to Ador Agrupis, a retired forest engineer of Touken System, Japan. They have three children: Kristal An, 30, a medical doctor at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila; Jofil Angelo, 28, a Master of Design graduate of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, who now works as an Industrial Designer in Hong Kong; and Cheska Arla, 24, a second year Bachelor of Laws student at San Beda College, Manila.