What rallying taught me in UP...

"So aktibista ka?"

"So you rally on the streets?"

These are but the few reactions (of many) that UP students and alumni get when mentioning that they go or went to UP. I can certainly relate as almost all of my Ateneo friends would ask me when I last attended a rally and when the next one would be. Now, spoiler alert, I never attended a single rally in my stay in UP and many UP alumni share this experience. I know a few who attended a few rallies and that was it.

So how did rallying teach me anything if I never attended a single one? Simple. I had the chance to see their arguments and evaluate for myself what position I should hold. Whenever I see a group rallying for anything, I always feel I need to look into the issue more. I mean, if people are that upset over something, maybe I should be too! Then I look into the pros and cons of each position and take it from there.

A hot button issue during my very first year in UP was about the Tuition and Other Fees Increase (TOFI). The argument put forth by the activists was that UP is a state university and should therefore be free. The idea that we were paying for college tuition at all was abhorrent to them. On paper, this sounds great. Anything free always sounds good... on paper. TOFI passed that year and the new bacth of students were paying 3x more than what I was paying for tuition. We could see instant results in the first semester alone! In our chemistry lab (1st year subject), we had to make do with rusted iron rings. Our instructor had to use masking tape because the iron ring was too large. We had to cut litmus paper so we could use one strip for several experiments.

In the semester directly proceeding that one, we were using computers with motion sensors on our physics experiments. Now, I will admit that the university had raised the money in other ways to pay for the initial equipment. But for the school to continue using these things, they had to have other funds for their maintenance. Where else but lab fees and tuition fees? Our classrooms in Engineering suddenly underwent a makeover and for the better! Better tables, better white boards and altogether, better rooms.

I was, on certain occasions invited to join an educational discussion which in hindsight was good practice. It gave students the avenue to explore ideas not normally addressed in the classroom. My memory was vague but I remember them saying that college education should be free. As a freshman who had no idea about all these things, I considered their ideas until they invited us to stage a rally for greater state subsidy. I didn't agree in rallying for a cause. I believed that if we truly want the government to fund our education, we'd have to prove to them that our education is worth funding. As opposed to their view which was to demand free education regardless of merit.

This is what I learned from rallying in UP. There's a more nuanced ideology here and it's a hot button topic now on social media so I think I'll address it in a separate post.