Students make up the largest chunk of the population in the university, and as such, policies implemented by the administration affect them the most. But aside from academic policies, pressures and threats from outside the campus affect and have also been hounding the students.
For Kayla Bautista, finance manager of the UPLB student council, and Fauzhea Guiani, UP Mindanao Student Council Chairperson, the next president should be someone who takes the initiative to reach out to students and defends their academic freedom.
UP Mindanao faces the brunt of militarization with the presence of the 11th Regional Community Defense Group (RCDG) within its grounds. And with the unilateral abrogation of the UP-DND Accord last year, state intrusion within the campus of all constituent units would only heighten.
For instance, some National Service Training Program classes in UP Baguio and UP Los Baños (UPLB) invited former army generals to speak before the students. They then went on to link individuals and mass organizations with communist rebels.
“It’s really a threat sa students, even sa faculty and staff ng university, yung presence ng RCDG diyan… Ang mahirap ay yung pag-iisp ng admin na ay ‘wala na tayo magawa diyan dahil nandiyan na talaga sila,’” said Guiani. The next president, then, must be someone who stands against the militarization of the university.
With the expected transition back to campus next semester, protection against state intrusion, and security of academic freedom should be guaranteed alongside policies that establish the safe resumption of in-person classes through adequate facilities and services. For pro-student policies to happen, the next administration must be led by someone who doesn’t shut the door for student concerns.
“Yung hinahanap talaga ng UPLB ngayon ay yung may initative na lumapit sa students. Kasi ang nangyayari or ang nararamdaman for the past years, kailangan paingayin, kailangan pilitin for a dialogue,” said Bautista.
For one, students appealing their MRR and readmission had to ambush UP President Danilo Concepcion at one of his events in UPLB just for him to hear their cases. It was also only this year that the SAIS, an information system implemented by former president Alfredo Pascual as part of the eUP project, was junked. SAIS was infamous for its inability to cater to a large number of students trying to access its services.
KASAMA sa UP, the system-wide alliance of councils, crafted the UP Student Agenda for the next president which includes calls for assuring quality education through the expansion of student services, and a greater budget for the funding of learning facilities among others.
Despite Concepcion’s fixation on infrastructure, constituent units (CU) are still in need of learning spaces and facilities. Guiani says that the lack of laboratories on campus forces students to forgo experiments for their thesis, while the lack of dormitories raises housing problems for the anticipated transition back to face-to-face learning.
But infrastructure projects like the Davao City-UP Sports Complex remain underutilized by the student body, and the Agrifutura Parks in UP Los Baños is feared to become a commercialization venture that may disregard its supposed academic-based function for students, similar to the UP Town Center.
Student councils call for an academic leader who is consultative with their needs and open to dialogues. The new president must lead the students through post-pandemic education while defending their academic rights under a Marcos presidency.
In this pivotal period, the 22nd UP President should be able to stand with the largest sector in UP and decisively answer their collective calls for a truly democratic and inclusive university. ●
