The once shining beacon of UP Diliman’s student politics now flickers. Far from the multiple-way races or the lively miting de avance of the past, today’s student politics is defined not by its loud shine, but by a quiet dim.
If the 8.29-percent turnout during the October 2023 University Student Council (USC) special elections is any indication, the USC’s reach, along with the reach of its sectoral campaigns, is fainting. Entire college council positions lay empty, undermanned, or unempowered. And once-formidable political parties and institutions lay bare, fractured, and marred with scandals.
We should not fall to the temptation to conclude that the student population has changed and can no longer be compared to the active movements of eras bygone. Instead of arriving at this conclusion, we may analyze the environment that led to this disengagement. The solution then reveals itself: by changing the current culture through consistent outreach and transparency can student leaders reinvigorate their constituents.
Any such reignition must start with the empowerment of college councils, political parties, and organizations, which are closest to the student body. With a weakened and, sometimes, lackluster student council, students remain oblivious to the workings of a representative democracy run by their fellow students. Some even spend their entire stay in the university without ever understanding its political system.
A good starting point for the next USC could be political education through avenues easily accessible to the studentry, whether through aforementioned college councils or broad events such as the UP Fair.
But the greater challenge is placed on our current student leaders. Whatever outreach efforts the USC may launch are futile against a distrustful studentry. So far, issues that have rocked the USC, from political party affiliations to fraternity engagements, have been met with subdued actions and silent dismissal. Rectifying this must start with an admission that the studentry’s current disengagement is partly a product of the shortcomings of their leaders.
Rectification, then, comes with more transparency and accountability from the student council. Greater rigor is needed, as meeting minutes and financial reports currently remain sporadic. But beyond the administrative gestures of live-streamed general meetings or comprehensive documents, transparency is achieved by an active outreach by the council to the studentry. And the USC must ask itself how it could be made felt, and regain lost ground.
Certainly, bringing national and university issues to the students, as done by the current USC in forums regarding dormitory and UP commercialization issues, is part of the solution. However challenging, the USC must be persistent in this regard, as only through consistently facing the student body can the USC become more relevant again for its constituents, and the studentry be made to lead mass movements.
But parallel to this task, the next student council must be open to criticism and meaningful discourse from both inside and outside the council, be honest with its current standing with the studentry, and lead meaningful changes and campaigns to change it.
For the Iskolar ng Bayan, these issues and the situation that we find in the once-strong student movement are the reason why your vote matters in this election. After all, today and tomorrow’s democratic exercise is not just a referendum on the state of affairs of campus politics. Now more than ever, a reinvigorated student movement is sorely needed. As attacks by the state intensify, it is through a fully engaged student body that the student movement can effect the most change.
Disengagement is not a mere condition, but a result. Any reignition of university student politics will only come if the student council faces some hard truths. ●
