Friday, March 29, 2024

Let’s add more fuel to the fire

By Nathan Angelo B. Cruz | Web Manager

Vol. XCI No. 3 — Aug. 14, 2019


It has been a tumultuous few weeks here at Silliman University. First, we had the bomb threat, then the stabbings, a mugging, and lastly another bomb threat. Currently, we have the presence of the military around campus, while we are taking our midterm exams and preparing for Hibalag. But in the face of all this adversity, we Sillimanians, know next to nothing; the best we have are wild rumors and baseless speculation. Crisis after crisis, we still learn next to nothing of what is going on and what is going to be done. The party that should be responsible for this, of course, is the administrators of this school. The people are not happy; it would not take much to ask any random student or go on social media to hear their grievances over how the admins have handled the situations as of late. It seems that these days, every move the admins make is shooting themselves in the foot with how they have backfired.

Why are we kept in the dark? Evidently, we have been fed lies from the very start since the first bomb threat. We were told it was a simple exercise and that there is nothing to worry, but the sudden cancellation of classes meant that something was clearly amiss. And sure enough, it was; rumors, false or otherwise, spread like wildfire until they did confirm it was, indeed, a bomb threat. Understandably, the announcement was made with the best intentions in mind: they wish to not cause panic. That would be fine, if not for how they did it so haphazardly, creating panic regardless. They may have successfully (at least, to our knowledge) defused the threat of the bomb twice, but the damage was already done.

Of course, let us not forget the elephant in the room: the kiosks debacle. There is no official word as of the time this article was written, only spoken words from the victims involved. But it needed no official paperwork or a fancy online graphic telling us that it would happen for the damage to be done. For many, this was proof that — despite this allegedly being done as part of the zero-waste campaign — the admins are far too out of touch to care. This does not just potentially affect the lives of students, but also the very livelihoods of people who simply wish to serve food to others.

It truly is baffling why the admins actively try to test our trust in them, especially since they do not fill us all in on the decisions they make. After all, they are certainly more brilliant minds than you and I. Surely, these ordeals must have been hard for them, but it nevertheless does not excuse how they treat not just the students, but the faculty and other staff as well.

That is why we should not stop adding fuel to the fire. When we do not agree with the admins’ actions, we should let them know immediately. We need to make it clear that we cannot tolerate what is happening, and that we want to seek a compromise. Remember that online petition on the kiosks? We can do more than that. Obviously, we should not go overboard and condense into a supernova of vitriol and toxicity; we must set the accords in meaningful discussion. 

When the time comes, we must let the admins learn that things will not stand. Because we can all make things better, together.

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