Welcome to this issue of Silliman Journal where our cover showcases the work of local artist Hersley-Ven Casero. If you look closely, you may appreciate the intricacy and even the meaning behind such a painting, but I leave the interpretation up to you. Hersley-Ven is one of Dumaguete’s upand-coming artists and photographers, with works starting to get noticed in publications as diverse as the Los Angeles Times and the Lonely Planet Magazine. He is Instructor in the Fine Arts Program of Foundation University in Dumaguete City, but his first shows as a painter and as a photographer have been with Silliman University’s Cultural Affairs Committee. The mixed media painting “Money Rain” comes from his collection of works titled The 365 Project: Incipient Ideas. This issue then aptly begins with an article on “Procurement of Foreign-Funded Projects through Executive Agreements,” by our colleagues at the College of Law—Atty. Myrish Antonio and Atty. Ramon Ruperto who endeavor to guide us through the legal intricacies of how corruption may be prevented in the enactment of Republic Act 9184, otherwise known as the Government Procurement Reforms Act. The discussion is helpful especially to the lay reader who wants to understand government, policy, and transparency beyond what we read in the newspaper. This first paper is followed by two studies in the natural sciences— on waterbirds in Negros Occidental and freshwater ecosystem species in Luzon. Biologist Abner Bucol and co-researchers—Rogie Bacosa, Renee Paalan, Jojie Linaugo, and Carmen Menes—tell us about the plight of waterbirds, lamenting the fact that most previous studies have been done on forest birds. Interestingly, they have found this area to be considerably rich in waterbirds, rivaling those of other wetlands in the Philippines in terms of species diversity. Hunting, however, continues. Annie Melinda Paz and colleagues Erlene Castro, Vincent Flores, and Angelee Romero, in their study of endemic, indigenous and introduced species in the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Pampanga, also alert us to the negative effects of environmental degradation on freshwater ecosystems. They found that introduced species (foreign species “introduced and dispersed by direct or indirect human activity to a region or location outside the limits of its natural range”) are in great numbers—something to be concerned about because this may lead to endemic and indigenous species displacement and extinction as well as loss of biodiversity in the freshwater ecosystems. Meantime, in efforts to address the needs of mathematically under-prepared college entrants at Silliman University, mathematics professors Millard and Alice Mamhot report results of their research on “Learning Styles and Intelligences,” and find that students generally prefer sensual thinking and recommending that an “excitement factor” be included in the teaching of mathematics. Our final full-length article is based on a study by education professor Gina Fontejon-Bonior on “The State of Research and Publication” among faculty members at Silliman University. Strategies suggested for the development of an institutional-wide research and publication culture—i.e., through capacity building via mentoring, strengthening incentive systems, providing more dissemination opportunities, and identifying funding agencies—are both concrete and doable.