TOMASINOWEB has selected a new adviser and is now waiting for the Office for Student Affairs (OSA) to approve the appointment, as the media organization aims to end a prolonged absence from social media that began after its former adviser resigned due to a censorship incident.
TomasinoWeb president JC Zamora said the nomination was submitted to the OSA on Monday, March 4, but it has yet to be processed due to the three-day University-wide Lenten retreat from March 5 to 7.
“We are now awaiting the appointment letter from the [OSA] to make our nominee’s appointment official,” Zamora told the Varsitarian in Filipino.
The Varsitarian has learned from a source close to the organization that the next TomasinoWeb adviser is journalism instructor Nathaniel Melican. He is set to take over the position vacated by another journalism instructor, Leo Laparan II, who resigned on Feb. 19.
Should the OSA accept the appointment, Melican will oversee the content produced by the student media organization, which has been under scrutiny following the Office for Student Affairs’ infamous directive to remove a social media photo that allegedly led to “public ridicule.”
TomasinoWeb has put its social media operations on hold since Laparan’s resignation.
Melican began teaching at the Faculty of Arts and Letters in 2021, handling courses such as Newsroom Practice and Media Management, Data Journalism, and Communication Theory, among others.
Before joining the faculty, he was a reporter for the Philippine Daily Inquirer and BusinessWorld.
Melican, a former Varsitarian writer, obtained his bachelor’s degree in journalism at UST in 2008 and master’s degree in journalism, media, and globalization at Aarhus University in Denmark and University of London in 2019.
Appointing a new adviser would allow the organization to post content on social media, as the OSA prohibits student organizations without advisers from doing so.
Laparan quit his post after the OSA censored TomasinoWeb over a photo of College of Information and Computing Sciences (CICS) students in their “Type B” uniforms and entering a convenience store.
Several student leaders, journalists and alumni have criticized the OSA’s takedown order, which sparked nationwide controversy. with reports from Mabel Anne B. Cardinez and Logan Kal-El M. Zapanta
