BOR to Roman: Discuss TFI policy with students

By Jose Carlos Maningat


President Emerlinda Roman is set to discuss with the student regent and some student leaders the recommendations of the policy review on the tuition increase.

This was the motion carried out by the Board of Regents in the Sept. 28 meeting held in UP Los Banos regarding the policy review presented by Student Regent Terry Ridon.

“Well, the response of the Board was the same as the way they responded in Baguio [there was] positive feedback on the policy review,” said Ridon.

Among the proposals of the policy review are the immediate suspension of the new tuition increase and STFAP policy this month and the institutionalization of a comprehensive donations system.

The policy review also recommended the “formation of a multi-sectoral University Committee to further review the internal efficiency of the university.”

Ten regents were present in the meeting, including BOR Chair Romulo Neri, who testified in the ZTE broadband deal hearing in the Senate.

Ridon said the positive response to the policy review signals a progress in the fight to junk the tuition fee increase.

“With the policy review, we are challenging the UP Administration head-on, notwithstanding of course the utter necessity of renewing a broader student movement to finally junk the TOFI,” he said.

“Insofar as our policy review is concerned, it is only a piece of paper if no warm bodies of students would stand to support it and decisively stand for the junking of the TOFI,” he added.

Regent Cynthia Villar, also House Committee on Higher and Technical Education chair, raised to the board the house resolution filed by 25 representatives seeking to review the tuition increase.

Villar insisted that the UP administration should publish a full-page notice explaining itself for implementing the tuition increase, according to Ridon.

Outside the APEC hall where the BOR met, at least 800 students wearing black and red shirts walked out from their classes and protested in support of the policy review of the student regent.

In Diliman, at least 120 students from different organizations staged a rally that snaked through the floors of Palma Hall and College of Arts and Letters new building while the BoR meet was ongoing in Los Banos. #

Students initiate kalai renovation

By Majalya Fernando


It took a group of students with some creative design ideas to initiate the renovation of the Kalayaan Residence Hall, twenty-five years after the dormitory housed its first residents.

The UP Space Innovations and Lifestyles by Interior Design Students (SILID), a group of 33 graduating BS Interior Design students enrolled in ID 179 (Special Projects in Interior Design), through their Kontemporaryo Dormitoryo Project, chose Kalayaan as their beneficiary for free interior design renovation service.

“Kalai is the perfect dorm for this project,” said Leovy Mendoza, member of SILID. “It is the most popular kasi halos lahat ng dormers dumadaan doon. Maganda rin yung location, madaling makita kaya mas magiging interested yung sponsors.”

Kalayaan was also endorsed by Chancellor Sergio Cao as a beneficiary for the SILID project because of the nature of its clientele.

“Mas marami ring nakakagamit nito dahil hindi tulad ng ibang dorm, iba-iba lagi ang residents each year,” added Mendoza. “For me, Kalayaan is the symbol of UP. Dito unang nararamdaman ng freshmen ang freedom sa UP.”

Members of SILID began planning for the project last summer. Construction is set to begin within this month, with November as its targeted completion.

Cao granted SILID a budget to pay for labor costs. The students also rely on contributions from suppliers, private and corporate sponsors, and batch-sponsored fundraisers to pay for materials of construction.

Industry sponsors for materials so far include Mariwasa for tiles, ACE for paint, APO for vinyl tiles and ABC for tile grout and adhesive.

As soon as construction begins, the students will take turns in overseeing construction by a chosen contractor, which will take place from Monday to Saturday at 7:00am to 10:00pm.

“As of the moment, we are waiting for our request to begin construction from the administration to be approved,” said Mikaela Mora, head of the SILID construction committee. “Since it is our first time to handle a project within the bounds of the university, we have hit a few bumps here and there, but we remain optimistic that the process to be undergone will be fair and considerate to our status as graduating students.”

Renovation of the dormitory is confined to areas accessible to non-residents such as the lobby, TV/ activity area, dorm manager's office, computer room (to be converted into a mini conference room), paging room, key room and conference room.

It includes repainting of the existing ceiling, masonry walls and wall panels, removal and replacement of severely dilapidated ceiling boards, replacement of some light fixtures and painting of two murals, one in the activity area and another in the lobby.

“The theme of the project is contemporary organic,” said Mora. “It is dynamic, fresh and fun. We want to emphasize Kalayaan's uniqueness as a freshman dormitory, a repository of young minds and hearts. It is a place for students to commune and exchange ideas. We want to provide them with a place that stimulates their minds.”

Each year, the graduating batch of ID students selects a deserving institution to receive free design service. Past projects include the redesigning of an orphanage and a wing of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH).

Kalayaan Residence Hall is the only co-educational dormitory exclusive to freshmen students. It was constructed in June 1975, with an annex added in 1978.

Baby found dead in front of UP Parish

By Rima Granali


A baby was found lifeless at the entrance gate of the UP Parish of the Holy Sacrifice on September 24.

Jessie Santos, 37, a street sweeper found the baby inside a box at about 7a.m. that day while cleaning the area. “Akala ko basura pero mabigat parang may laman.”

When Santos looked into the box, he saw a baby boy. “Hindi na fetus, baby. Malaki at may buhok na,” he said.

Santos said he was nervous and scared and immediately reported it to the security guard of the UP Parish.

The security guard said the baby was probably left at midnight or early morning because the box was wet. It was raining the night before.

“Parang kamamatay lang, di pa nilalangaw,” Santos said.

Roberto Alveno, a sacristan, said the parents might not have the money to sustain the child or give him a decent burial so they left him in the church to be blessed by the priest.

Fr. Jessel Gerard Gonzales, SJ, blessed the baby before the Quezon City Police District took it for investigation.

Sanctuary

Gonzales said the baby was probably left inside the church premises to lessen the guilt of abandonment. People believe “makakaintindi naman ang Diyos,” he said.

Even centuries ago, abandoned babies were usually left in the church, Gonzales said, and cited the Hunchback of Notre Dame as an example.

“The church has always been a sanctuary. When we feel very abandoned, God is always there,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales said he feels sad because this is not an “isolated event.” A number of babies have been left in the church. One of the most recent was the baby that a church caretaker found near the coconut tree.

In August, two residents of Village A found a 6-month old fetus while walking along the UP lagoon.

Gonzales said that many of the babies aborted come from students within the community.

Pervading culture

Sex is a pervading culture especially among the youth, Gonzales said. Intercourse seems to be the “ultimate goal of every relationship,” he added.

“I am not against sex but sana responsible,” Gonzales said.

Mothers and fathers are not willing to take the responsibility of their actions which shows immaturity, he said.

“In 2000, an estimated 78,900 women were hospitalized for post-abortion care, 473,400 women had abortions and the abortion rate was 27 per 1,000 women aged 15–44 per year,” according to the Incidence of Induced Abortion in the Philippines: Current Levels and Trends by Fatima Juarez, Josefina Cabigon, Susheela Singh and Rubina Hussein from the September 2005 issue of the International Family Planning Perspectives.

Gonzales said, “Abortion is murder, a very serious crime committed to another person, a child who doesn’t have the power to defend himself.”

The baby was brought to Prudential Funeral Homes. The police still have no lead about the whereabouts of those who left the baby.

Campus paper editors kill neutrality

By Rima Granali


Objectivity is one of the basic principles in journalism but advocacy student journalists from different universities suggest taking a stand.

“Objectivity is a practical impossibility,” Frank Lloyd Tiongson of the Philippine Collegian said. “It can only be achieved by a superhuman or a god who can account all opinions in the world and society.”

No matter how mainstream journalists claim to be objective, they have subconscious and acquired dispositions that affect their reportage, Tiongson said in Killing Neutrality, a forum sponsored by the Union of Journalists in the Philippines and the College of Mass Communication Student Council.

Benedict Mark Lim, editor-in-chief of Ateneo de Manila’s Matanglawin said, “Sa bawat pagpili ng paksa may bias. Ang hirap na sabihin na kailangan mong maging objective.”
Matanglawin, which gives analysis and persuades students to take part on national and university issues, upholds advocacy journalism.
“It’s hard to support issues when you put yourself in the center,” Lim said.

Advocacy Journalism

Sue Careless, a professional member of the Canadian Association of Journalists and The Periodical Writers Association of Canada and an associate member of the Canadian Church Press defined advocacy journalism as writing a “declared bias and a publicly acknowledged point of view.”

Pro-student Stance

Jose Cosido, president of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) said most student publications are one-sided and biased because they uphold the interests of the students. UP's Philippine Collegian and Polytechnic University of the Philippines' Catalyst are examples of this.
Tiongson said Philippine Collegian is unapologetic for being “biased for the students and the masses.”

Alaysa Tagumpay Escandor, features editor of the Philippine Collegian said student publications can afford to tackle issues that are repressive and subversive because the funds come from the students and not from advertisers.

Corporate media, on the other hand, will never try to shape the status quo because they are dependent on advertisers, Escandor said.

Fair and Accurate

Tiongson said being pro-student is not contradicting to having fair and accurate reportage. The basic ethics in journalism still apply to advocacy journalism, he said.
“You don’t fabricate or falsify,” Tiongson cited Careless’s address.

Tiongson said fabricating would only ruin the credibility of journalists and their advocacies.
“Be fair, be true on (sic) what you’re saying,” said Jesse Kristoffer Aspril, editor-in-chief of Catalyst. “Advocacy journalism is not lying.”

Escandor said the Philippine Collegian may be biased but they always adhere to fairness. “We always try to interview the side of the administration,” she said. “Even if it is hard to get information from them because they are busy.”

Irreconcilable Interests

“Irreconcilable yung interests ng students at admin,”Cosido of CEGP said. He also said students want to exercise their academic freedom but the administration usually opposes it and makes actions to silence student journalism..

Philippine Collegian, Matanglawin and Catalyst have led several protests against perceived anti-student rules and regulations imposed by their respective administrations, the abolition of the tuition and other fee increase being one of these.

Mobilization

The role of advocacy student journalists has expanded to mobilizing the students and the masses.

“If you’re writing for a change, you should also move for the change,” Aspril said. “
Journalists make a difference when they persuade the people to act for that change.”

The Philippine Collegian moved against former President Ferdinand Marcos’s dictatorship while Catalyst initiated “All Shorts Day,” a protest against the dress code that prohibits PUP students from wearing shorts.

In an Interim article, Careless clarified that an advocacy journalist is not an activist. “No matter how dear a cause is to a journalist's heart, there are lines which should never be crossed,” she said.

Campus paper editors kill neutrality

By Rima Granali


Objectivity is one of the basic principles in journalism but advocacy student journalists from different universities suggest taking a stand.

“Objectivity is a practical impossibility,” Frank Lloyd Tiongson of the Philippine Collegian said. “It can only be achieved by a superhuman or a god who can account all opinions in the world and society.”

No matter how mainstream journalists claim to be objective, they have subconscious and acquired dispositions that affect their reportage, Tiongson said in Killing Neutrality, a forum sponsored by the Union of Journalists in the Philippines and the College of Mass Communication Student Council.

Benedict Mark Lim, editor-in-chief of Ateneo de Manila’s Matanglawin said, “Sa bawat pagpili ng paksa may bias. Ang hirap na sabihin na kailangan mong maging objective.”
Matanglawin, which gives analysis and persuades students to take part on national and university issues, upholds advocacy journalism.
“It’s hard to support issues when you put yourself in the center,” Lim said.

Advocacy Journalism

Sue Careless, a professional member of the Canadian Association of Journalists and The Periodical Writers Association of Canada and an associate member of the Canadian Church Press defined advocacy journalism as writing a “declared bias and a publicly acknowledged point of view.”

Pro-student Stance

Jose Cosido, president of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) said most student publications are one-sided and biased because they uphold the interests of the students. UP's Philippine Collegian and Polytechnic University of the Philippines' Catalyst are examples of this.
Tiongson said Philippine Collegian is unapologetic for being “biased for the students and the masses.”

Alaysa Tagumpay Escandor, features editor of the Philippine Collegian said student publications can afford to tackle issues that are repressive and subversive because the funds come from the students and not from advertisers.

Corporate media, on the other hand, will never try to shape the status quo because they are dependent on advertisers, Escandor said.

Fair and Accurate

Tiongson said being pro-student is not contradicting to having fair and accurate reportage. The basic ethics in journalism still apply to advocacy journalism, he said.
“You don’t fabricate or falsify,” Tiongson cited Careless’s address.

Tiongson said fabricating would only ruin the credibility of journalists and their advocacies.
“Be fair, be true on (sic) what you’re saying,” said Jesse Kristoffer Aspril, editor-in-chief of Catalyst. “Advocacy journalism is not lying.”

Escandor said the Philippine Collegian may be biased but they always adhere to fairness. “We always try to interview the side of the administration,” she said. “Even if it is hard to get information from them because they are busy.”

Irreconcilable Interests

“Irreconcilable yung interests ng students at admin,”Cosido of CEGP said. He also said students want to exercise their academic freedom but the administration usually opposes it and makes actions to silence student journalism..

Philippine Collegian, Matanglawin and Catalyst have led several protests against perceived anti-student rules and regulations imposed by their respective administrations, the abolition of the tuition and other fee increase being one of these.

Mobilization

The role of advocacy student journalists has expanded to mobilizing the students and the masses.

“If you’re writing for a change, you should also move for the change,” Aspril said. “
Journalists make a difference when they persuade the people to act for that change.”

The Philippine Collegian moved against former President Ferdinand Marcos’s dictatorship while Catalyst initiated “All Shorts Day,” a protest against the dress code that prohibits PUP students from wearing shorts.

In an Interim article, Careless clarified that an advocacy journalist is not an activist. “No matter how dear a cause is to a journalist's heart, there are lines which should never be crossed,” she said.

Sembreak Page Turners

By Janina Lagunda

Bid farewell, goodbye, adieu and sayonara to textbooks and readings that seem to stretch on painfully for miles and miles (for now, that is). Make the almost four weeks of idle time, rest and relaxation this sem break rich, imaginative and entertaining by diving into the pages of these bestsellers that just might bring out the bookworm in you:

Water for Elephants
By Sara Gruen

Alive with exciting and spectacular circus lore, the New York Times bestseller tells the tale of a man named Jacob and his wild and wonderful life when he ran away and joined the circus. Life in the traveling Benzini Brothers circus was not all that entertaining. The circus was squalid and brutish, and Jacob found himself becoming the caretaker of the menagerie of exotic creatures, getting beaten up and hung over, and falling in love with the crazy animal trainer’s wife, Marlena.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
By Kim Edwards

During a heavy snowstorm, Norah Henry goes into labor and her husband, Dr. David Henry is forced to deliver their twins himself, aided only by a nurse, Caroline Gill. He delights in seeing that their first-born, a son they named Paul, is as healthy as can be. Yet upon seeing that their second, a daughter to be later called Phoebe, is handicapped by Down’s syndrome, David asks Caroline to secretly take the baby away to an institution, rationalizing it as a need to protect his wife. But Caroline takes the baby away to another city and raises the child herself.

A Spot of Bother
By Mark Haddon

A successor to Haddon’s first novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, A Spot of Bother tells the story of recent retiree George Hall who is convinced that he has cancer after discovering a skin lesion on his hip. Starting to think that he’s losing his mind, he begins to obsess over his own mortality. In the meantime, his wife is having an affair with his former colleague, his daughter is marrying her second husband whom he and his wife disapprove of, and his son is afraid to bring his boyfriend to the wedding. In short, George Hall’s life is falling to pieces.

The Other Boleyn Girl
By Philippa Gregory

The Other Boleyn Girl tells the story of two sisters, Anne and Mary Boleyn, contending for the heart of the passionate King Henry VIII. The two sisters and their brother George are brought to the royal courts at a young age to advance the family fortune. Mary wins the king’s favor and their affair produces a daughter and a son. But soon Anne ousts Mary from her position and begins to carry out her plans of replacing Henry’s wife, Catherine of Aragon. Gregory combines sibling rivalries, power struggles and intrigues in this tale set in old England which will be seen early next year on the big screen with Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana in the lead roles.

Twilight
By Stephenie Meyer

Bella Swan and Edward Cullen are a pair that take “star-crossed lovers” to the superlative. After moving to the dull town of Forks, accident-prone Bella falls in love with the beautiful, porcelain-skinned, golden-eyed and velvety-voiced Edward and he reciprocates her love. However the farther they take their relationship, the greater the danger Bella is in because Edward could, at any moment, give in to his blood lust and kill her. He is after all… a vampire.

Across the Nightingale Floor

By Lian Hearn

Set in feudal Japan, the first book in the Tales of the Otori trilogy begins with young Takeo, the only survivor of the massacre that wipes out his village. He is rescued and taken in by Lord Otori Shigeru and starts a new life as heir to the Otori clan. Thrust into the world of warlords and feuding clans, he soon discovers that he is a member by birth of an ominous organization called The Tribe, a group of assassins with supernatural abilities. The Tribe lays claim on Takeo for he has incredible magical powers – invisibility, being in two places at once, hearing what other people cannot – that make him the perfect assassin… perfect for wreaking vengeance.