Home | To bottom

Education, anyone?

An account of SLU students’ situation

BAGUIO CITY (April 15) – A university, academy, college, no matter what you call it, will always be the place where young people are molded for soceity’s needs. However, educational institutions should be established for a single reason — to educate, but that was then. Today, anybody could be confused as to what the goal of a school has, to educate or to profit?

There’s no point in denying that good education entails a lot of money. Students have to pay their dues in order to obtain the service they deserve. This statement is yet to be questioned in St. Louis University (SLU).

According to Arthur Odsey, SLU’s SSC President, the students are getting less than what they deserve. Corruption is very evident and the administration is deceitful in financial matters, he says. Although they present financial statements, these are not concrete, since the breakdown is not detailed. Odsey adds that the administration had been reluctant in releasing funds for no tangible reason at all.

Are the fees either unused or being misused? The SSC fund is being withheld prompting them to file a case against SLU administrators and the SSC is 99% confident that they will win the case because ironic as it may seem, the instructors of the College of Law play as lawyers for the SSC.

Accreditation means improvement. Some rooms now have curtains. Before, students were not able to concentrate during lectures because of sunrays directed to the room. The students at the back of the room are often blinded by the rays reflected on the board. But the curtains were not installed for the benefit of the students. They were placed there because an accreditation is due.

Another thing that the administration has to deal with is the carry over scheme.

“They are wise” commented Odsey. According to the rules, the school cannot increase tuition fee without consulting the students first, so what the SLU administration did was to rely on the carry over scheme which is the perfect alternative for the tuition hike. With the carry over scheme, the administrators did not have to talk with the students but they still succeeded in acquiring higher fees.

Up to now, students do not understand why they cannot bring cameras or guitars to school. These little things alone imply how the studentry suffer from lack of freedom. After all, academic freedom means academic quality. Probably a reason why students want to bring their guitars at school is because they want to excel in other things as well.

St. Louis University’s orientation states that the school is a nonprofit, non-stock institution, but how can the school prove this when cases after cases are filed against its administrators?

But despite all these difficulties hurdled by the students, Odsey optimistically said “SLU has a long way to go.” He added, “I never questioned the quality of education it give us, it even satisfies me. My only concern is the academic freedom, I’m not contented with it.”

It is not proper for the youth to be exposed to such delinquencies especially if those are executed by the ones who are supposed to serve as their guide. If this continues, the already distorted system will never be straightened out.

Everything is being commodified but please, spare education, so much depends on it. # Irene Jane A. Lorenzo/MMSU intern

Home | Back to top