THE DIGITAL ID is long overdue. It serves not only as a gate pass, but also a library card.
I cannot imagine how long it will take a line of freshman students to borrow books if their students numbers have to be encoded one by one. More so, there’s the hassle of using the registration form, bond paper in size, to enter the University’s gates and library.
But the hassle will continue. This is because the ‘digital ID’s will be released only in September when the semester is almost over. The students did not only pay a high price to this hi-tech ID’s, but they also paid the price for the inconvenience it brings.
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Perhaps I am one of those who failed to see Fr. Lana reinstalled as rector of the University. So I wondered why almost everyone wore a UST pin that day. The second installation rite of the Fr. Lana as UST’s 93rd rector became nearly a feast day, at least a “feast morning.” Food was served at the UST seminary gymnasium for those who attended the rite while a more extravagant buffet was prepared for his special guests and the University’s VIP’s.
Although his reappointment came as no surprise to many, his reinstallation rite, which became a grand occasion that packed more participants than the ceremonies to open the school-year, surprised me.
I might have failed to see him in those ceremonial moments, but I will not fail to see him in action. I saw more than half of his first term, and I will see a year of his second. In those years, I will not fail to see beyond the ceremonies the translation of UST’s mission and vision into action. Fr. Lana himself said he would want “to give impetus to what is necessary and vital for the next four years.”
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I have always been busy attending to academic requirement that I often fail to get involved in the community. This is not to say I am apathetic to politics and society because I once joined politics in high school, though I never thought of getting involved in anything more than that.
However, I have seen how apathetic on one hand, and how enthusiastic on the other hand, Thomasians are in this aspect. I have seen two student council elections that failed and one that was brought to court. While students don’t feel they should involved, some get themselves too much into what they call “service” to students.
This is the type of politics I have perceived inside the University and I do not wonder why on a larger scale, politics is complicated. Politicians quarrel as their constituents watch them. In the university, the students do not see all that are happening in campus politics. They ignore politics either because they don’t want to or they feel they don’t need to.
The school-year has just started and the student council and presidential elections are still next year so why talk about these things?
The Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections, set on July 15, perhaps will be a preview of things to come.
