Tarantado Asintado
Eric Gerard Ruiz
Transparency is an “abused” word in Silliman. People like transparency. Students like transparency when it comes to their grades. Sillimanians want transparency when it comes to their student government.
Transparency is when I want to know how the teachers compute my grade. Actually, there are some teachers in the university who are eager to fail students as if their teaching standards are high. All they do is read what’s in the slide presentation or just paraphrase what’s in the book. Some teachers even fail to realize that some students can’t ask questions because they don’t really know the topic even after advanced reading. Afterwards, these teachers will give hard exams that are barely ever explained and introduced in the class. Students like me want explanations. I want to know why this particular topic is taught. I want to know why it’s important. From my own perspective today, it’s not the students who make their grades; teachers do. Why? These teachers give hard exams to dramatically affect the grade of the student.
Transparency will always be linked with the media, the campus publication. In fact, it’s quite funny that some are questioning the transparency of the media itself. Allegations of being biased are thrown against the school paper. Twitter has become the diary of a blockhead because Facebook is too mainstream. There is transparency when you respect the media as the fourth branch of the government, the fourth pillar. It is the campus publication’s responsibility to inform that the student body is essential to a healthy and functioning democracy.
Therefore, it is not healthy for the student government to work with the media. There is a possibility of censorship. If you believe that it is healthy, then you should take a look at the Marcos regime and think of how that turned out. The media shall put hidden facts to light, and let the people, also as members of the fourth branch, react on it based on a trusted source. Some people will always feel aggrieved and think they have been deprived of objectivity and fairness. After all, children always say “madaya ka” when they lose a certain game. If some groups in this campus feel that there is bias, why don’t they start their own newsletters where they can publish all their good works?
There should also be a respect to the school paper’s autonomy. The Weekly Sillimanian (tWS) is not a Yu-Gi-Oh card. Outsiders don’t have the right to ask for tWS’s official documents which contains the nature and operations of the school paper. Again, there is autonomy. There is a wall. Transparency can only be achieved in this way.
