BACOLOD CITY – The Northern Negros State College of Science and Technology (NONESCOST) in Sagay City, Negros Occidental has officially become the State University of Northern Negros (SUNN) after the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) en banc approved its conversion from a state college to a state university on Monday, January 22.
Mayor Narciso Javelosa Jr. here lauded the faculty and staff of SUNN who attended to the rigorous conversion process that started during the pandemic.
SUNN is considered as the first state university in Sagay City with campuses in Escalante City and Calatrava town.
Javelosa assured support to efforts to improve the quality of education in Sagay. He thanked former Negros Occidental Rep. now Sagay Vice Mayor Leo Rafael Cueva, who started the initiative, as well as Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Marañon III, for his support and help to fast-track the law creating the university.
Cueva said that he is overjoyed that SUNN is officially a state university. "We have been determined to make this happen."
The school was first known as Old Sagay Barangay High School in 1970 before it became a Municipal High School in 1978.
Later, it was transformed into an extension of Iloilo State College of Fisheries (ISCOF) which is now the Iloilo State University of Fisheries Science and Technology (ISUFST).
In 1998, the Iloilo State College of Fisheries-Sagay Branch was converted to NONESCOST through Republic Act (RA) 8448, authored and sponsored by the late Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr., a congressman representing the second congressional district of the province at that time, earning him the distinction as the "Father of NONESCOST.”
In 2022, the Senate approved House Bill (HB) 10283 converting NONESCOST from a state college to state university.
SUNN offers undergraduate and graduate programs in Agriculture, Fisheries, and Allied Sciences, Arts and Sciences, Business and Management, Criminal Justice Education, Education, Information and Communications Technology and Engineering, and Nursing and Allied Health Sciences.