THE OFFICE for Student Affairs (OSA) has ordered TomasinoWeb to take down its photo of College of Information and Computing Sciences (CICS) students in their “Type B” uniforms and entering a convenience store inside the University, after it supposedly caused “public ridicule.”
TomasinoWeb, an online media organization under OSA, posted on Feb. 15 a photo album of Thomasians donning their Type B uniforms for the first time this academic year.
Included in the album was a now-deleted photo, taken by an information technology student, of two CICS students entering the 7-Eleven store in front of the Fr. Roque Ruaño Building, O.P. Building that used to house what formerly was the Institute of Information and Computing Sciences.
Over the years, jokes and memes have been made likening the Type B uniform of the CICS to the uniforms of 7-Eleven employees.
TomasinoWeb’s photo drew several thousands of reactions and shares before it was deleted.
In a statement on Feb. 16, TomasinoWeb said it was told the photo became a source of public ridicule because of the “supposed association of the CICS Type B uniform with the convenience store’s employee uniforms.”
“While we believe being a convenience store worker is honest work, we acknowledge that the photograph still caused a stir online, and for that we sincerely apologize,” the statement read.
TomasinoWeb president Jan Zamora told the Varsitarian that OSA officials instructed the organization to “take down the post or change it to a different one, and […] issue a public apology.”
“We received a request from the (OSA) to head over to their office this morning (Feb. 16). This was in reference to the photograph which caught the attention of, according to them, the top-level University administrators, and of course, the (CICS) administrators,” he told the Varsitarian.
“As our caption in the album lays down, we were only reporting that the Type B season of the University has officially started. We never intended any malice nor to make the photograph a source for the online community to make fun of the uniforms of the CICS students,” Zamora added.
Several netizens on social media slammed the OSA decision, saying there was “nothing wrong” with being associated with convenience store employees.
“It’s almost like saying na 711 (sic) employees are below you, which is why you don’t want to be associated with them. There is nothing wrong with being compared to 711 employees. It’s a harmless joke,” a Facebook comment on TomasinoWeb’s statement read.
Zamora said that while he believed the deletion was “not justified,” TomasinoWeb decided to take the photo down to avoid repercussions on the organization.
“As a journalist, I do not think that the deletion is justified since that would imply that we did make a mistake and had malice when we took that photo,” he said.
“However, as the president of the organization, I also have to take into consideration how this incident will affect us, our stakeholders, and our role in the university going forward so we decided to yield to the office’s call to take down the photograph,” he added.
The Varsitarian has reached out to OSA for comment but has yet to receive a response as of this story’s writing.
