UST ALUMNI have created a website to support TomasinoWeb and criticize the Office for Student Affairs (OSA), calling for the removal of all individuals involved in what they said was a “blatant case of campus repression” after the organization was ordered to take down its photo of students entering a 7-Eleven store on campus.
More than 700 UST alumni, including former members of campus publications, student councils, and other student organizations, participated in the signature campaign on the website, standwithtomasinoweb.com, which also contained a statement that criticized OSA’s takedown order.
“Let us call a spade a spade. The University of Santo Tomas, through its (OSA), clearly censored TomasinoWeb over a benign photo of students. Its order to take down the image and its threat to dissolve the organization is definitely an encroachment on the constitutionally-enshrined rights of students,” the statement read.
“We, Thomasian alumni, believe that the gagging of the campus press through OSA is just a symptom of a much more malignant disease in UST, one that has plagued the university since its establishment under colonial rule,” it added.
The OSA’s move thrust the University into the national spotlight. It had instructed the online student media organization to take down its photo of College of Information and Computing Sciences (CICS) students in their “Type B” uniforms entering the 7-Eleven store on campus. The CICS Type B uniform resembles those worn by store workers.
The issue has garnered national news coverage and was featured as the main story in the Metro section of The Philippine Star.
In the statement, the UST alumni also called for the resignation of University officials responsible for the controversy, claiming that their actions were contrary to UST’s three C’s: competence, commitment and compassion.
“All officials involved in this blatant case of campus repression must go,” it said. “We assert that there should be no space in the University for people without competence to properly handle organizations, compassion for the welfare of students, and commitment to ensure that UST is a space where students’ democratic rights are protected and upheld.
TomasinoWeb’s social media operations have been put on hold since the resignation of its adviser, journalism instructor Leo Laparan II, on Feb. 19.
Over 700 UST alumni have participated in the signatory drive as of posting time. This number includes former staffers and officials of the online student media organization.
Meanwhile, seven college-based student publications in UST also released a joint statement on Feb. 20 in support of TomasinoWeb, saying the controversy has sent a “chilling effect on other avenues of publication.”
“The college-cased publications express deep concern over the treatment of TomasinoWeb,” read the statement signed by the chief editors of publications Education Courier (College of Education), Accountancy Journal (Alfredo M. Velayo College of Accountancy), Commerce Journal (College of Commerce and Business Administration), Thomasian Engineer (Faculty of Engineering), Science Journal (College of Science), Transcend Daily (College of Tourism and Hospitality Management), and La Stampa (UST Senior High School).
“The image in question was innocuous and devoid of any intention to cause offense to students of the college. Instead of fostering constructive dialogue about the challenges faced by convenience store workers, this situation has unfortunately led to unwarranted censorship, creating a chilling effect on other avenues of publication,” it continued.
The OSA has yet to comment on the controversy.
