Opinion: The selection process for the U.P. Faculty Regent is being railroaded, union officials and several faculty say

(Is the outgoing U.P. Administration

outperforming the Phil. Nat'l Railways

in the fine art of railroading?

Photo source: http://tinyurl.com/2ccll5x)

The Search Process for a new University of the Philippines Faculty Regent may be in danger of being railroaded by the outgoing U.P. Administration, says the All U.P. Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU) and several faculty members, according to the website, U.P. Issues. The issues at hand center on the key demands of the administration of U.P. President Emerlinda R. Roman that the new Faculty Regent, who is set to be elected and subsequently proclaimed on November 26, 2010 and who will be replacing the current Faculty Regent, Judy M. Taguiwalo, not be concurrently a member of a professional organization if a faculty member is appointed or nominated to the position. According to current U.P. practice, the position of Faculty Regent is rotated among different U.P. constituent universities, and this time around it will be the turn of U.P. Los Baños. Regular faculty members (Instructors to Professors) all over the UP system are allowed to nominate and select their Faculty Regent.

Critics are pointing to the untested electronic voting system which is scheduled to undergo a dry run between October 25 to 27. Since the entire system is being run by the U.P. Computer Center which is under the direct jurisdiction of the Office of the University President, there is no independent oversight which creates questions about the outcome of the election. A check of the Primer of the U.P. Faculty Regent Electronic Voting System shows that it is not clear when electronic voting will be allowed or manual voting. There is no clear cut mechanism for appeals in the event of a disagreement or a dispute. The critics are also pointing to the ban on campaigning as another probem, and this has been interpreted as one way of limiting the capability of such unions as the All U.P. Workers Union and the All U.P. Academic Employees Union to field a candidate and if the candidate is elected, to engage in mass actions against objectionable policies of the outgoing U.P. Administration, which typified the term of the outgoing Faculty Regent Judy M. Taguiwalo.

Faculty Regent Taguiwalo says that the discussions regarding the procedures were not even approved formally by the various university councils of the constituent universities before the U.P. Administration declared them as final and executory (http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/10/faculty-regents-updates-on-september-24.html).

To read the details about the Search Process for a Faculty Regent, please click on this link: http://upissues.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/2010-fr-selection/