The university community is open for new and diverse ideas. The problem is, being political is being compromised. Democracy and academic freedom has been arbitrary for everyone.
In my experience, when it comes to student convocations, auditoriums are hardly occupied. Convocation is a form of exercising democracy. This is the place where vast kinds of people merge to indulge into an activity of information exchange and a place where students are ideally united according to their collective interests. So, if the mass of students are present, every partition of the population will symbolically feel involvement into a community. Such scenario will ideally create an invisible tie of responsibility towards each other and the bigger group.
People, who don’t attend community activities, will feel detached to the system that it should belong. Thus, apathy branches out and self-perpetuates. When people or groups are devoid of the idea that they belong to that bigger group will ideally end up to social distrust and distance.
I knew a friend that said that the people who don’t vote for the student council’s election will have no right to complain about anything related to the student welfare. I was kind of accepting his idea.
When people are given enough autonomy and freedom that they can skip student community gatherings and instead go to the mall, there is something sacrificed.
A student convocation made a difference just few days ago. The UPD USC cancelled the classes for time when convocation was about to be held. Reasons not to attend were narrowed down. Aside from that, organizations will be forced to attend the event. Attendees would be counted for points for the UP fair. So people were crowding the Educ Auditiorium.
A little push would gather parts of the community together. The student body was able to address issues to the kids present there.
So, before we celebrate any freedom, we should also put in mind what we may lack to give back something for that freedom. Freedom what we are talking about is to allow ideas and not exactly to allow us to be using that freedom for something else that does not return to a related end intended for that freedom. Freedom is not meant to sacrifice and destabilize the involvement of constituent groups and entities in the community.
Student academic freedom is fought for the students’ collective interests by the students themselves. So, we have a little due to pay—help that freedom to keep on.
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