Students of UP Cebu join the walkout rally to protest the higher rental fee imposed by the university on the use of Performing Arts Hall.
(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
More than 300 students and faculty members walked out of their classes yesterday and marched around UP Cebu campus to protest the implementation of laboratory and rental fees, the Socialized Tuition System (STS), Student Assistant Information System (SAIS), the recently imposed no ID, no entry rule and other UP administration policies.
The walkout rally was spearheaded by Anakbayan-UP Cebu, Rise 4 Education Alliance, UP Cebu-based political organization Nagkahiusang Kusog sa Estudyante (NKE) and UP Cebu Student Council.
The walkout rally started a few minutes after 9 a.m.
NKE chairperson Thesha Godoy led student-protesters in entering classrooms, raising their placards with the words “UFees” and “JUNK Rental Fees” and urging students to walk out of their classes.
When the march reached the Humanities Hallway, junior mass communication student Roxanne Maria Sy, a member of UP Cebu’s theater group UPStage, and her groupmates, stood up and raised their clenched fists as they chanted, “Education not for sale! We are not for sale!”
Last March, the UPStage organized a stage act at the state university’s Performing Arts Hall (PAH) and they were told to pay P12,000 per eight-hour use of the venue.
“The rental fee imposed by the school is unfair for us students, also. They (UP Cebu administrative staff) told us that the PAH is an income-generating project for the school,” said Sy.
Last October 3, a few students rallied outside UP Cebu’s Administration building against UP Cebu Acting Chancellor Liza Corro’s approval to impose rental fees on almost all facilities in the university.
A news report published earlier stated that Corro approached the rallying students and assured them that the rental fees are applicable for outsiders only, and not for UP Cebu students and recognized UP-Cebu based organizations.
However, Anakbayan-UP Cebu chairperson Myles Albasin said that some students still have to pay the necessary amount in order to use the facilities.
The approved document on rental and laboratory fees released by the school’s Fiscal Policies and Operations Committee (FPOC) showed that no charges will be imposed for UP Cebu-based organizations that will use non-airconditioned rooms and equipment both for academic and non-academic purposes.
The use of airconditioning unit costs at P50 per unit, regardless of the duration.
The snake-rally ended along Gorordo Avenue where Sy and UPStage’s adviser, theater professor and The Freeman columnist Ligaya Rabago-Visaya, performed an act as a means to express their disapproval on rental fees.
“In my 43 years as a faculty member in UP Cebu, I cannot understand (what’s going on with the university),” said Visaya.
UPStage chairperson Denzel Yorong also said that “the stage (referring to PAH) should not become a market.”
The walkout rally concluded with a flash mob and dance number were also staged.