as graduate education. Programs in the undergraduate and graduate levels cover disciplines such as arts, accountancy, agriculture, architecture, business administration, engineering, English, Filipino, information technology, law, medicine, nursing, anthropology, biology, chemistry, clinical sciences, pharmacy education, teacher education, economics, environmental science, fine arts, theater and performing arts, foreign languages, geology, journalism, library science, marine sciences, nutrition and dietetics, music, physics, theology, philosophy, psychology, public administration and social work. In addition to its academic undertakings, the university is involved in research and community extension projects. Silliman's stature in the fields of environmental and marine sciences has led to its being designated by the USAID as a 'Center of Excellence in Coastal Resources Management.' History Establishment Silliman University was founded on August 28, 1901, as Silliman Institute by Protestant missionaries under the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Originally established as an elementary school for boys, operations for the institute started through an initial $10,000 donation given by a businessman and Christian philanthropist of Cohoes, New York named Dr. Horace Brinsmade Silliman, who wanted to establish an industrial school using the Hampton Institute of Virginia model. The person tasked by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions to establish the school was Dr. David Sutherland Hibbard, a man from Lyndon, Kansas who, after serving as a pastor in a Presbyterian church in that locality, offered his services to the Presbyterian Board as missionary. Upon his arrival in the Philippines, he was commissioned, with his wife Laura, to scout the southern part of the islands to determine the best location for the school. His original points of destination were Cebu, Zamboanga and Iloilo. While in Cebu, a suggestion came to him to make a side-trip to Dumaguete. On his arrival, he was met by a Rev. Captain John Anthony Randolph, chaplain of the sixth U.S. Infantry Regiment stationed at that time in Dumaguete, who later introduced him to Don Meliton Larena, the town's local presidente and to his brother Demetrio Larena, then the vice-governor of the province. Hibbard got attracted to the place and decided to establish the school in the locality. He would later on write that the "beauty of Dumaguete and the friendliness of the people" helped in bringing about his decision. The institute had a modest beginning: Dr. and Mrs. Hibbard held classes in a rented house beside the sea until the institute's first building, Silliman