Admin, studes face-off in dialogue
by Mark Patrick Lorenzana

Due to pressing issues the Carolinians have been facing recently, the Supreme Student Council sponsored a dialogue entitled “Face to Face: a dialogue on the issues of the students and the administration” Thursday, July 24 from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon at the USC main AVR 2. Representatives from the USC administration and different organizations as well as the Today’s CAROLINIAN and the Voice of Talamban discussed the threat to both student publications’ autonomy, the no permit no rally policy, the tuition fee increase, the dress code policy, the new school uniform, and the padlocking and impending closure of the Resource Center for Nationalist Studies.

Rev. Fathers Vicente Uy, Ernesto Lagura, Generoso Rebayla, Vice-Presidents for Administration, Academic Affairs and Finance respectively and Students Affairs Services Head Nimfa Alo represented the administration in the said dialogue. Editors-in-chief Achinette Joy Villamor and Edwin Ermac represented the TC and VOT while Chairpersons Edward Felipe and Amir Archival Aluk carried the banners for their respective organizations, the League of Filipino Students and Anakbayan. Early in the forum, however, Mary Anne Badal of the Students Affairs Services insisted that Felipe and Aluk cannot sit in as representatives for the LFS and Anakbayan considering that these organizations are not registered and therefore not recognized by the SAS office. Aluk and Felipe instead sat in as students of USC.

The administration presented their reasons for the implementation of the university policies that are currently under question and protest from different student organizations, while the student representatives laid down their counter arguments. Fr. Uy cited a provision in the Campus Journalism Act wherein “the selection of the Chief Editor and members of staff of tertiary student publications shall be through competitive examinations prepared, conducted, and supervised by a committee composed of a representative of the school administration, one faculty member, one mass media practitioner who is acceptable to both (school administration and editorial board) and two past editors to be chosen by the outgoing editorial board”.

Villamor and Ermac argued that the TC and the VOT have been practicing the same selection process for more than ten years since the CJA’s implementation. They further contended that for years, the administration has been signing entrance permits to allow people from the mainstream media and former editors entry to the campus specifically for the purpose of serving as judges during the editorial board interviews, without any problems. Aluk and Felipe, on the other hand, questioned the validity of the no permit no rally policy. They even cited different instances wherein the rights of the students to peaceably assemble within the campus were repressed. Ermac also attested to this, and said that when the VOT organized a poetry reading at the Talamban campus soccer field last year, they were dispersed by a university security guard for the reason that they did not have a permit for the venue as the soccer field is a university facility.

On the issue of the closure of the RCNS, Fr. Uy stated that there is “a need to transfer the office of the Supreme Student Council from its present location” to the room the RCNS is presently occupying, as it is “near the guidance and students affairs services”. The RCNS was padlocked sometime in the last week of June, and according to chief security officer Eufracio Corvera, this was after members of Anakbayan had a recruitment campaign during a welcome party for the freshmen students. Victor Cantal, RCNS officer in charge, expressed his sentiments during the open forum. He said that there was no notice of the abrupt padlocking, and he only received a letter from Fr. Uy asking him and other student volunteers to vacate the RCNS only a few days after the incident happened. Elmira Judy Aguilar, a faculty member from the Sociology-Anthropology department, said that the RCNS is an institution, and has been in the university for a number of years now, since the lifting of martial law. She added that the RCNS is the only alternative library in the Visayas, and that she even refers some of her students there, because the USC library does not have a complete set of books, and it has continually failed the PAASCU accreditation.

Alo, on the new dress code policy, said that “there was a need to prohibit female students from wearing t-shirts that expose the navel and/or the underwear”. She also added that there had been reported incidents of exposed underwear from female students who wore hipsters and t-shirts that are not three inches below the waistline, especially whenever these students stooped down. On the new school uniform, Alo said that “it was a requirement only for incoming freshmen” and that “though not a requirement, at least four surveys have been conducted among female students since 1996, and the results showed students wanted a change in their school uniform”. In the open forum, a female student asked the connection between a person’s intellectual capacity and what the students wore. Aluk recalled an incident last summer when a number of female students were denied entry to the university because of the abrupt implementation of the dress code policy. The female students only got wind of the policy the same day they were prohibited to enter the campus. Aluk also cited that the female students were not properly consulted about the new uniform because the SAS did this through a fashion show. He also added that the students were not informed of the price in the said fashion show.

The last issue tackled was the 7.5% tuition fee increase. Aluk read a report by the Commission on Higher Education on schools in Region VII that had their tuition fees increased. He argued that the report was inconsistent with the alleged 7.5% increase issued by USC. The report by CHED shows that there is a 26% increase per unit in the tuition fees of freshmen and sophomore students in all programs except law, nursing and computer science, which had an 8% increase. Aluk added that even if the percentage was averaged, it was impossible to get 7.5%. Fr. Rebayla said that the inconsistencies in the CHED report was probably just an error in the figures, and that indeed, they stuck to the 7.5% increase that was agreed upon last semester by the Administrative Employees Association and the College Faculty Association. The Supreme Student Council, according to Aluk, was against the 7.5% increase, although they were not against the increase in salary of teaching and non-teaching personnel. The SSC instead pushed for other alternatives to augment the need for a salary increase.

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