Some campus issues at hand, or I’ve come across recently.

A proposal by an Ad Hoc committee formed by UP Pres. E. Roman to increase UP’s tuition fees from P 300 to P 1,000 per unit in UP Diliman, UP Manila, and UP Los Baños and from 200 to 600 for UP Baguio, UP Visayas, UP Pampanga, and UP Mindanao, has been submitted to the Board of Regents (for approval?). The Board of Regents are to meet tomorrow in UP Los Baños.

Also, it has been found that more than a quarter of the Special Service Brigade, civilian men hired by the university as an additional security force (those guys wearing reflectorized orange vests with yantok sticks roaming around the Academic Oval day ang night), are actually marines and army personnel in disguise. Tsk, tsk.

I’m too lazy to chronicle everything that transpired the week before. Plus I have tons of readings to breeze through before my Comm Res 101 class in a few hours. I made these collages this weekend and was supposed to supplement it with an entry last night but a really bad headache struck me, so it didn’t push through. Anyway, I’m back. Hope I don’t disappear again for more than a week. I’ll try to catch up with my backlong some time.

This has been a tiring week. Haven’t had enough time to blog. I will update substantially in a few days.

I’ve been allowed to take the car, for the first time, to school last Thursday and Friday. But as a concession, I was asked to wash it beforehand. Good enough a deal. I’m not allowed to use the car every day though, as my mother also uses it to go to Bulacan. Everything’s fine with me. Commuting and walking have become second nature to me anyway.

Last Thursday, I went to school before my 1PM class and did a round of errands, mostly for the upcoming Mass Comm freshmen week. After skipping lunch, I went to Film 106 class, which was National Cinemas (Hong Kong & China), and for that we have a German professor. Here’s to a semester filled with martial arts flicks. I’m not complaining though.

After class, I attended UP MCO’s first regular general assembly held at the steps of Ishmael Bernal Gallery. It lasted for a little more than an hour, but I didn’t stay for the entire duration as I had to run to Palma Hall and put up posters for our freshmen week. I haven’t been to AS in a while, and I won’t be able to be there often this semester because I don’t have a class there anymore. I’ll miss that. Though, AS was deserted the time I was there, since it was around 6PM already.

Last Friday, we were supposed to have Film 115 (Digital Photography) class in the morning but the professor didn’t show up. Ended up just hanging around with some blockmates below the skywalk first before running to UP Village to have streamers printed for the freshmen week. Dropped by Stan’s place while waiting for the streamer to be printed.

After lunch, I went to my Film 113 (Film Production 1) class. The professor briefed us on the course, then went on to review us on various photographic and technical terms. It made me feel a little dumb but I appreciate that certain brush-up on the basic technicals in film language and cinematography.

That night, together with my councilmates in the Mass Comm student council, we went to the League of College Councils Acquaintance Party at the School of Economics. We made fun of ourselves by dancing Kapag Tumibok Ang Puso by Donna Cruz, as our council’s presentation. Didn’t really got acquainted with a lot of other colleges’ student council people, it rather just made me familiar with everyone’s faces. The event ended past nine in the evening.

Cheers to Karl for a great first issue of The Philippine Collegian this academic year. I especially liked the editorial where it asserted on what it will stand for for the rest of the year:

The true journalist, clearly, is now deemed an “enemy of the state.” And rightly so, for in the context of a regime brazenly maintained by a widening spectrum of intensified violence, the only option is to resist.

These turbulent times expose the limitations of writing–the kind that proclaims to be “pluralist” and “non-partisan.” For pluralism is impossible in a society wracked by economic inequality and political domination, conditions that make it downright unjust to wield a “neutral” pen, which ultimately sustains the status quo.

[…] The path of defiance is paved with the blood of fellow journalists and activists who did not compromise even in the face of death. It is the path of those who articulated the discourse of the marginalized: the workers, peasants, women, students and national minorities. It is the path of those who stood firm in their advocacy but did not live to see the fruit of their cause. Their deaths will not be in vain.

If being an “enemy of the state” means taking a stand for the marginalized and demanding what is just, then this Collegian shall indeed be an adversary.

I’ve always believed media institutions should carry and declare their interests and their bias towards an ideology (there’s nothing wrong with that, for me) instead of pretending to be full-proof objective and neutral.

I had Film 121 (Scriptwriting I) class today. Well, as traditionally expected, first days of classes are reserved for class introductions and syllabus discussions. I don’t know what else to say about first day of scriptwriting class. I’m always looking forward to everything during first days anyway.

I had lunch with Patti, Kid, Tope, Brent and Hershey at a fastfood in Katipunan this afternoon.

Last Tuesday, my two organizations handled three blocks of freshmen after their Welcome Assembly at the University Theater.

UP MCO facilitated K3 and K6, a Communication Research block and a Journalism block respectively. I was surprised how many freshmen there were in these two blocks. Almost 60 all in all. But all went well, despite how Cine Adarna became crowded and despite the short downpour. I stuck mainly with facilitating the Comm Res block, tough I did hop around my orgs’ other facilitated blocks.

UP CAST facilitated H5, a Visual Communication block (a non-Mass Comm block), like last year.

After the afternoon block handling activities, I went off to Mass Comm to attend my first class for the semester, Communication Research 101. Lots of familiar faces in class, which is comforting. The usual first day introductions transpired, then we were dismissed off.

I hitched a ride with Eka to the Shopping Center to do some errands for the Student Council. I ended up leaving my cell phone in her car which left me “impaired” the rest of the day till morning the next day (today). I felt so lost without a cell phone, even for just less than 24 hours.

I also did some errands for my mom. I went to Katipunan to pay her bills, among other things. After doing them, I went back to Mass Comm to attend a Mass Comm freshmen assembly. On my way there, I bumped into Tope, Joma and Erika B., who were on their way to Chocolate Kiss. I ended up rewarding myself with a slice of cheesecake for all the walking I did.

Anyway, that afternoon, we convened the freshmen of Mass Comm to publicize our events for them and for them to form their freshmen council, a mini-student council of freshmen. It feels good to give the freshmen an opportunity to be more involved in Mass Comm affairs early in their college life, because they usually don’t get to since most of their subjects are still in AS.

Today, my dad had our dog, which he really hated, butchered. I feel very bad about it. To tell you one thing, my dad and I haven’t been in very good terms ever since he berated, shouted and cursed at me a few months ago (for the first time at that, and for me who rarely gets scolded, it was painfully traumatic). I’ve also learned to survive without allowance from him since then. [Pause]. I will refrain from ranting more than what I’ve already mentioned. Sasakit lang dibdib ko.