Updates to the open forum during the 2nd forum for the Nominees for U.P. President held on September 24 at U.P. Diliman

(U.P. Diliman Dept. of Speech & Theater Arts Prof.

Antoinette B. Hernandez moderated the nominees

forum at NISMED Auditorium, U.P. Diliman)

(Students from U.P. Mindanao protest education

budget cuts online. Other U.P. students protested

online from U.P. Visayas and in person in front

of the NISMED Auditorium at U.P. Diliman)

By Chanda Shahani

The Diliman Diary is uploading details about the question-and-answer portion of the second nominees forum for the search for the next U.P. President held at the NISMED Auditorium at U.P. Diliman, last September 24, 2010.

We attended the forum from out of U.P. Baguio via livestreaming prepared by U.P. Open University and have already uploaded details about the nominees’ presentations proper. For readers who are interested in reading this, please click on this link: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/09/ups-problems-are-ventilated-their-own.html

The Diliman Diary also covered the first nominees’ forum held at U.P. Los Banos on September 20, 2010 out of U.P. Manila through livestreaming with subsequent updates on September 21, 2010. Since we are striving to furnish a representative sampling of the nominees’ remarks and positions over an extended period of time, rather faithful reproductions of everything they said in each forum, we encourage our readers to check out our coverage of these by clicking on these links in order to get a holistic appreciation of the capabilities of each nominee: (please click on: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/09/nominees-for-up-president-present.html and http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-details-emerge.html) .

Additionally, readers are also encouraged to check out and download the vision statements and curriculum vitae of the eleven nominees for U.P. President from the U.P. website (please click on: http://up.edu.ph/features.php?i=221)

Faculty Regent Judy Taguiwalo said there was a protest action on September 24 at the entrance of NISMED before the start of the forum. The student activists of Diliman protested only outside the venue and before the start of the public forum as they went to Mendiola in the City of Manila for the national protest against budget cuts in education. Parallel protests were made by the students of UP Mindanao and UP Cebu who held up protest posters during the livestreaming (please see the picture embedded above).

Here is Regent Taguiwalo’s narration of events up to the point of asking questions, which was posted on her Facebook page:

“All eleven nominees were present at the September 24 Public Forum on the Next UP President held in UP Diliman.”

“This time the presentation of the vision statements started with UPLB Chancellor Velasco and ended with Prof. Briones.”

“Where the UPLB forum had only two rounds, there were four rounds of Q and A in the second forum. Two questions, one at the beginning and the other at the end of the forum, were answered by all the nominees and sandwiched in between were individual questions drawn by the nominee from a pool of written questions from Diliman or question from a remote site.”

“Based on the notes I made during the forum, here are the questions raised during the forum.

The common questions were:

What are your plans to make UP a research university?

Ilarawan ang inyong management style kung kayo ang magiging Pangulo ng UP.

The following questions were answered by individual nominees based on the sequence determined by drawing lots. 1) Chancellor Velasco, 2) Prof. Ben Diokno, 3) Prof. Maris Diokno, 4) Prof. Alaras, 5) Prof. Azanza, 6) Prof. Teodosio, 7) Dean Pangalangan, 8) Dr. Cabral, 9) Former Alumni Regent Pascual, 10) Chancellor Cao and 11) Prof. Briones.

1. What is your stand about constructing a mosque in UP Diliman/ UPLB?

2. Apathetic na raw ang mga UP students, ano ang programa ninyo para mahimok ang mga estudyanteng lumahok sa mga pakilos?

3. What has been your greatest legacy to UP based on your last administrative position?

4. In UP Mindanao, some of the faculty members have to resign in order to pursue graduate studies because of the lack of faculty items. What are you going to do to help UP Mindanao obtain more faculty items?

5. From UPV Miag-ao: What are you going to do about the DBM proposed 2011 UP budget cut of P1.39 billion?

6. What policy can be put in place to encourage partnership with the private sector in utilizing the land grants of UP?

7. Today is the 17th year of the inception of Pahinungod, what are you going to do to strengthen volunteerism among the students?

8. How do you plan to address illegal occupancy of UP properties?

9. Is there anything being done or need to be done in the regional CUs that you will continue to do or will do if chosen President?

10. Should you be selected as UP President which strategy presented by other nominees would you adopt? For example, a strategy that addresses the pressing problems of the university such as the budget deficit without unduly burdening the students?

11. Ano ang inyong specific program on women and gender?

Second round of individual questions:

1. Ang ating unibersidad ay nakatuon sa pagtuturo at pananaliksik sa agham at teknolohiya, hindi masyadong nabigyang pansin ang sining. Ano ang iyong gagawin para maiwasto ito?

2. What your plans for informal settlers in UP?

3. Some students need financial assistance in spite of STFAP and scholarships. What are you going to do to address this problem?

4. According to the Constitution, education should be a priority, how do you intend to retain the public character of UP?

5. According to the attrition law, items vacated by administrative staff cannot be filled up leading to deficiencies in administrative staff support to faculty. What do you intend to do to address this?

6. The BOR should defer to the university on academic decisions. What do you think about the case of Dr. Jose Gonzales of PGH?

7. How can you assure the students that in spite of the budget cuts, UP will not transfer such amount to students through higher tuition and other fees?

8. With the autonomy of UP Cebu from UPV, it will be under the office of the UP President. What are you going to do to support the growth of UP Cebu?

9. What steps are you gong to take to develop the particular strengths of UP Baguio? Please give specific answers.

10. Aside from the academic side, do you have plans for the welfare of the students?

11. What do you propose to do with the RGEP?”

To read the answers of the nominees, please click on: http://diliman-diary-sidebars.blogspot.com/2010/09/september-24-2010-open-forum-at-nismed.html

Inconsistent audio quality in U.P. Baguio and a lack of manpower prevented us from providing our readers with the comprehensive coverage we would have wanted for the Q&A part of the open forum. However, we encourage readers who attended any of these fora to send us any updates which we may incorporate into our ongoing coverage of the 2010 Search for the Next U.P. President.

(Photos by: Chanda Shahani)

(Chanda Shahani is the Editor of the Diliman Diary)