Heard but Ignored

Heard but ignored ─ despite the recent dialogues, petitions, and social media rallies that call for the end of the semester, the University of the Philippines Board of Regent refuse to heed the demands of hundreds of faculties and thousands of students as they push through: and while the administration claims that no student should be left behind, they fail to give utmost compassion amidst these trying times. This is a far cry from the university who echoes the terms “Utak at Puso”- showing the lack of sympathy for its constituents.

University of the Philippines scholars protest for the end of the semester and to demand accountability from the Duterte administration (Photo from UP Office of the Student Regent)

Before the start of the first semester, UP acknowledged that 5,600 of its students do not have the means to continue their studies due to the pandemic, 1600 of which have no resources at all. Despite this, UP still pushed through with the opening of classes, promising financial aid and resource donations, which can only do so much to close the gap of the digital divide.

Now, after being subjected to remote learning, all the while experiencing a pandemic and natural disasters, students are asking the university for mass promotion and a call to end this semester. This demand has gained traction all over social media with the help of various university student councils across the UP System. Around 15,000 students have joined the online petitions; in addition, 300 faculty members and 200 student organizations stand in solidarity as well.

Notably, the University of the Philippines Los Baños has created the #WelgaUPLB movement that advocates not only student welfare but also the #LigtasNaBalikEskwela which calls for better pandemic response and government accountability.

According to #UPLBKilosNa Spokesperson Tani Famador, the movement also raises the issue of lack of compassion towards our academic institutions who constantly suggest better technical knowledge or policy, only to be either ignored or attacked by government officials, leaving most of our experts demoralized.

“We must campaign inside and outside UP for faculty, administrators, and government to be compassionate and listen. With all that's happening in the country, UP must have to set an example of what a more compassionate democracy looks like,” Famador stated.

With roughly around three weeks for the semester to end, students are forced to cram the remaining topics and exams in a short amount of time. The compression of the semester, from 16 weeks to 11 weeks, puts pressure on the students, resulting in them becoming more stressed as they face deadlines, a pandemic, and the aftereffects of typhoons simultaneously. Exposure to constant stress affects the hippocampus, amygdala, and temporal lobe, causing several structural changes in the brain, such as the reduction in the dendritic branches due to the increase in plasma cortisol, alteration in the synaptic terminal, and alteration in long-term potentiation (LTP), an important process in memory formation, hence affecting memory and cognitive functions.

Online classes have become taxing to most, as students struggle every day with the Internet connection and juggle with activities both from school and in their homes. At the end of the day, the quality of education is compromised with tired students more concerned about meeting the deadlines instead of learning. This somewhat forced productivity due to the uneven ground for learning proves no matter how many academic breaks and no matter how eased the academic system is, it all comes down to privilege. These are just band-aid solutions, but it does not assure that all the students will be able to learn at the same pace, and in the same comfort.

These burdens are equally shared by the instructors as they are required to create coursepacks, adapt to the new mode of teaching, and address the concerns of their students while remaining compassionate with the situation. With the UP BOR’s decision to continue with the sem, they bear the brunt in the next weeks because, without a unified response from the UP system itself, professors are left to their own devices on how they will handle the rest of the semester.

Despite the flexible academic measures and the recent memorandum entailing the ‘no-fail policy,’ this does not equate to compassion: one student left behind is one too many (READ: BOR extends grade submission deadline). While the BOR represents the highest governing body in the UP system, their decision fails to represent, understand and take into account its constituents, as they reduce the calls for mass promotion into creative laziness, clearly detached from the grave realities faced by the students.

In a statement given also by the UPLB Task Force ‘Kilos Na’ Spokesperson Sieg Severino, he states that although the no-fail policy is a huge success on the part of the students, the memo only caused further confusion and reeks of fake compassion from the UP Administration to save face and pacify the growing student's discontent.

“Some professors, with their hands now tied due to memo, are now advising students to opt for INC or DRP should they feel that they won't be able to comply with the requirements. Most of our faculty members have adjusted the course packs countless times because of UP's apparent lack of preparation, decisiveness, and urgency - points that were already raised prior to the opening of the semester. The students are now left with an option to prolong their struggles until January or until the end of the next semester or next year. At face value, the memo seemed to be a welcomed move by the UP admin, but the fine print of the provisions shows that it's another band-aid solution to bigger problems facing the university,” Severino said.

For a university that prides itself in academic excellence, it is frustrating to see that it disregards the struggles of its constituents. What kind of example is UP setting up, if it says it is doing things for the people, but invalidates the struggles and neglects the needs of its students? When the education system is broken, it ultimately fails. In turn, its constituents will bear the burden of making the system work. We can try to make it work but band-aid solutions will never be enough.

What we want isn’t false leniency but rather concrete plans. That is to say, education must never come at the expense of the students’ welfare. Excellence is nothing without honor, just as academic integrity and online classes amount to nothing if not everyone is in the same boat. While the fate of many UP students rests in the hands of the administration, we still have the power to guide them in doing the right thing, where no student is left behind.

As suggested by Severino, ending the semester and academic strikes is a multi-sectoral effort and should be used to pressure the BOR to backtrack their decision and be more proactive, pro-student, and pro-people. Furthermore, the call for ending the semester should be intensified.

“The BOR has proven again that they do not represent the true demands of the UP community. The students and the professors have the academic freedom to end the semester all on their own. There should be negotiations between the class and instructor, as well as an academic strike should the class believe that the requirements are unreasonable,” Severino added.

Although the fight for student welfare and academic ease is not done yet as the modification of the academic calendar that compressed the second semester may repeat the same problems as the UP community experienced in the already problematic first semester.

“The apparent lack of clear guidelines that are not open to interpretation leaves this initiative moot. UP should understand that lowering workloads and shifting to distance learning is not the same as trimming down the academic calendar. There should be a comprehensive plan from the admin and ensure a better recalibration of the curriculum,” Severino remarked.

With the upcoming proposal for the second semester, we hope that UP will listen to the struggles of its constituents. In the words of the university hymn, “Ang tinig namin, sana’y inyong dinggin.”