The Office of the University Registrar is considered as the show window of any educational institution. It is the repository of highly important and delicate documents, and the place most frequented by students, as well as by the alumni.
Being an integral part of a tertiary level institution, the Office of the University Registrar at Saint Mary’s was created simultaneously with the opening of the college department in 1947. The office occupied one of the rooms fronting the lobby of the now Junior High School building. When the college department was transferred to the present site in 1969, the Registrar’s Office was housed in one-half floor area of Room A105. With the increase of enrolment and student records, the office also expanded and moved to Room A104 then later to Room A103. The old office furnishings of three steel and two wooden cabinets were replaced with 24 four-shelved and 14 three-shelved cabinets which were placed in a fireproof vault built in 1987 and shared by the Accounting & Registrar’s offices. A new vault was constructed separately for the Registrar’s office in 2000, when the Accounting Office moved to Room A104 and the Registrar’s office to Room A103. The two elite, one pica and one long-barrel typewriters are now replaced with units of computers inside a fully air-conditioned room.
The first registrar of the college was Mr. Julian L. Bravo, a B.S.E. graduate of the then Saint Mary’s College. His work as registrar included keeping records, scheduling subjects, assigning loads to teachers, preparing transcripts and certifications, delivering mail, time keeping, communicating with and submitting reports to the Department of Education and other agencies, issuing grades, applying for new courses and renewal permits, and many more. In 1957, he was ably assisted by Mr. Alejandro M. Maddela, a BSC graduate who resumed the position of Registrar in 1974 when Mr. Bravo migrated to the United States. Mr. Maddela resigned in 1980 to join the government service and Mrs. Natividad P. Araneta took over as Registrar from May 1980 to 2011. Upon the retirement of Dr. Araneta, Dr. Ella B. Tumaneng took over the registrarship and was succeded by Dr. Danao in 2014 up to present.