Not only UP students look forward to Fridays. Dr. Barcelona, along with five or six other relatively young Deans (from the Colleges of Fine Arts, Engineering, Industrial Relations and Hotel and Restaurant Administration, Asian Studies, and Statistics) used to set up an informal Friday group and referred to themselves as the “Young Deans of Diliman.” During their get-togethers, they consulted each other's, compared notes, learned from each other’s management and administration style, shared frustrations, and served as each others sounding boards.

The Young Deans felt that they helped change the culture of administration on campus by blending in with students, such as keeping open door policies, being with and constantly interacting with students (in cafeterias, stairways, basketball games, coming in Saturdays in blue jeans, etc.). That helped a lot to establish rapport with their younger constituents.

Dr. Barcelona considers as her greatest achievement her rise from being a student of communication to being the Dean of the College of Mass Communication in the country’s premier state university. Counting the time from her student days to professorial days, she committed some 23 years of her life to UP.

When she finished her Ph.D. at age 31, she was reportedly the youngest (or among the youngest) female Ph.D. holder in the country in the area of communication.

When she became the Dean at age 39, she was also among the youngest female Deans in the UP campus and at that time, the only alumnus of the College to have had made it that far in the academic ladder.

As part of her dedication to civic work, she was recruited to Rotary International (Rotary Club of New Manila Central) and became the first woman Rotarian in the Philippines in 1987.

She sat as Board Member of the Philippine Social Science Council, the Public Relations Organization of the Philippines, the Philippine Communication Society and the Philippine Association of Communication Educators. She was Board Secretary of the Association for Non-Traditional Education in the Philippines and was past Club President of the Rotary Club of New Manila Central

She has authored, co-authored, and edited various publications.

Dr. Barcelona holds a doctorate degree in Sociology from the University of Chicago. She obtained a Master’s degree in Communication Research, and a Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Communication, both from the University of the Philippines (UP).

Dr. Delia Barcelona was born on February 21, 1952 in Pakil, Laguna. She has two daughters, Katherine and Sheila Kristina.

“One of my greatest challenges as Dean of UP CMC was to lead a faculty group that included two former Deans, one of them my greatest mentor and supporter, the late Gloria Feliciano (GF).”

While serving UP as Professor and former Dean, she taught, researched, gave public lectures, counseled students, chaired and moderated committees, served in advisory boards, technical working groups, and task forces, wrote publications and articles, did public relations and public information, appeared in media interviews and panels, chaired the graduate department and administered the entire College. She also represented UP and the Philippines in many local and international conferences and meetings practicing interpersonal communication at all times. She thus considers herself a practicing communicator, in every sense of the word.

As a former faculty member of the UP College of Mass Communication, Dr. Barcelona taught a wide range of communication and development subjects.
She taught courses like Mass Media and Society, Communication Research, Public Information, Communication Theory, Communication and Socio-cultural Change, Popular Culture, Cross-cultural Research, Communication Evaluation, Communication Networks, Comparative Communication Systems, Communication and Public Opinion. She also advised many graduate and under graduate student thesis writers, and chaired several dissertation panels of Ph.D. students, both at the College of Mass Communication and other disciplines (Sociology, Phil. Studies, Anthropology, among others).

From her recollection, she has contributed to UP-CMC’s history through these means:

1. Strengthened emphasis on curricular reform, which included more focus on socio-cultural and socio-psychological   dimensions of communication and mass media.
   
2. Closer linkages with other colleges in terms of offering cross-disciplinary programmes with other UP units (i.e. Business Communication with the College of Business Administration, Political Communication with the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP), Health Communication with the School of Public Health, and Population Culture with the CSSP Department of Sociology, Advertising with the College of Fine Arts, among others).
   
3. Reviews of policy guidelines on internship, faculty promotions, etc.
   
4. Development of a major proposal (including negotiations with the Sony Corporation) for a media center in UP.
   
5. Technical guidance in the establishment of the UP Open University
   
6. Establishment of UP-CMC as a WHO Collaborating Center for the training of reporters and journalists on health matters.
   
7. Setting up the first university-based graduate programme on communication and social mobilization with funding support from UNICEF.
   
8. Procurement of computers and video equipment for the College