UP President Emerlinda Roman was forced to respond to the students’ demands after student leaders submitted petitions through mass lobbying and demonstration last July 31 during the Board of Regents (BOR) meeting. The meeting held at UP Manila was greeted by student protesters from UP Diliman, UP Manila, and UP Los Banos, carrying their demands for tuition rollback, immediate UPLB student elections, and the reclaim of student institutions and organizations’ democratic rights.

Determined that these demands need to be answered directly by the UP Administration, the students insisted that the BOR face the students and hold a dialogue outside the halls. After minutes of negotiations, President Roman agreed to meet the protesters and gave her responses on the different issues raised by the students. Her initial responses were: there will definitely be no rollback of tuition; the UP Administration refuses to intervene in the UPLB student-elections issue; and that the student organizations’ demands will be studied and be left to the discretion of the Chancellors of different UP units.

Student leaders believe that it was a collective victory that students were able to urge President Roman to give immediate responses to student demands. However, it was also clear to them that she was merely washing her hands off the issue, a clear refusal to take responsibility over the dismal state of students’ democratic rights in the university, according to Jaqueline Eroles, Chairperson of Students Rights and Welfare (STRAW) Committee of the UP Diliman - University Student Council (USC). Student institutions and organizations who led the action pledged that all BOR meetings will be greeted with mobilizations until the demands were properly addressed.

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Tags: Board of Regents, campus issues, petition, University Student Council, UP Administration, UP President

“The rollback?”

No action! I mean it’s pretty obvious. In fact we could have increased tuition this year because the approval of the board last year allowed for adjustment of tuition based on inflation… I really don’t know why they’re saying rollback when it’s not part of [President Arroyo’s] directive.

Tags: education, tuition increase, UP Centennial, UP President

More than a week ago, I was present at a meeting of sorts with UP President Emerlinda Roman. Apparently, she wasn’t aware than I am a member of the incoming University Student Council and is presently the secretary general of the leading militant student alliance in the university. Because she thought she was speaking with like-minded students, students who thought like the administration, she went on talking very casually about her feelings towards militants and activists. I was thinking if I should’ve courteously disclosed my affiliations, but didn’t end up bothering to, because I sort of wanted her to just go on revealing things she wouldn’t normally say out loud.

She did admit a few things, among which her recognizing how difficult it is to defeat the militants in the student council elections. Because she thought we were all non-activists, she urged us students present to consolidate better in order to win against the activists in the elections. I was wiling to pass those, among other things, off, as I had expected such thoughts to come from her.

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Tags: campus issues, tuition increase, UP Administration, UP President