THE PETITION to waive the miscellaneous fees for practicum courses has been approved by the Loyola Schools Vice President Maria Luz Vilches in a memo released online on Wednesday, June 20.

According to the memo, practicum courses of students who are not enrolled in other classes for Intersession are considered discounted. Practicums outside campus receive a 100% discount on Medical, Energy, Student Activities, Facilities Maintenance, and Internet Access fees. On the other hand, on-campus practicums were granted a 50% discount on the same fees. All students with practicum are given a 50% discount on Library Fees.

Sent to the Office of the Vice President of the Loyola Schools (OVPLS) on June 3, the Sanggunian-led petition expressed the students’ concern regarding the payment of tuition and miscellaneous fees for their practicums or internships during Intersession. The petition gained 298 signatures.

This was after Development Studies (DS) and Political Science (PoS) students aired out complaints on paying the said fees, considering that most of them do not have their internship on campus. The situation was compared to that of Communication majors who are not required to enlist and pay for practicum fees.

School of Social Sciences (SOSS) Representative Mikaela Bona then brought up the issue to the PoS Department, which preceded a series of consultations and the approval of the petition.

After the petition’s approval, the departments of the Loyola Schools will collect the lists of students who have off-campus practicums this Intersession. A tuition credit will be registered to their accounts for the first semester, which will deduct the amounts paid for the practicum courses.

Lobbying the issue

According to Bona, an initial response to the issue was discussed in a meeting with SOSS Dean Fernando Aldaba, PhD, PoS Department Chair Diana Mendoza, PhD, and former SOSS representative Dasha Uy on April 17.

A “partial waiving of fees” request was made after the meeting, which moved to grant a 50% discount on miscellaneous fees. Names of PoS and Diplomacy and International Relations (Dip IR) majors with internships outside Metro Manila were compiled and submitted to the PoS department and the OVPLS.

The request materialized in a memo released by Mendoza on June 1, which stated that students who are taking practicums are given a 50% discount on the aforementioned fees, including the Library Energy fee. However, students will only be entitled to the discount under two conditions: if a student only spends a minimum of 10 hours on campus, and if he or she is not enrolled in any other course during Intersession.

Amidst the complaints, Bona said that the situation was “exacerbated” during the enlistment period on May 31 and June 1 when some students from DS, Dip IR, and PoS questioned the Php 16,000 practicum fee, which was already deducted by a “special off-campus practicum discount” of Php 2,700.

Additionally, the Registration Committee clarified that students with practicum are not required to apply for an ID during enrollment. According to the petition, this means that students whose IDs are not validated should not have access to “ID-dependent” facilities during Intersession such as the libraries, which are also connected to other miscellaneous fees on Energy and Facilities Maintenance.

“The overall sentiment of those students who will be having their practicum/OJT within Metro Manila includes the payment of the 4-digit miscellaneous fees when they will be having limited to no opportunities of entering the campus nor using its facilities,” the petition indicated.

Bona then mentioned that after enlistment, she inquired with Mendoza if the special discount found on the assessment forms were already the partially waived fees for practicum.

“To both of our [surprises], the VPLS, [whose] office decides on these matters, [said] that the partial discount on miscellaneous fees was already in effect because of last year’s requests,” Bona explained. “The VPLS said this was already implemented across all schools.”

“I clarified this [with] the DS, PoS and Dip IR students but, like me, I felt that Php 16,000 was still too much to pay considering most people did not have any reason to go to campus,” she added.

Together with the Top 8 student leaders comprised of School of Science and Engineering (SOSE) Representative Bea Gruta, School of Humanities (SOH) Representative Bianca Pamfilo, John Gokongwei School of Management (JGSOM) Representative Rige Encarnacion, Ateneo Resident Students Association (ARSA) President James Balao, Council of Organizations of the Ateneo (COA) President Jam Abawag, Sanggunian President Hya Bendaña and Vice President Niels Nable, Bona created the Sanggunian-led petition that called to fully waive the miscellaneous fees for off-campus internships.

Payment inconsistencies

Furthermore, the Sanggunian stated in the petition that they found “several inconsistencies” in the Intersession payment process for different academic programs, following consultations with other courses such as those in SOSE.

“It was said that the ‘special off-campus practicum discount’ was implemented across all schools, but [BS Biology (BIO)] students who did their internships outside didn’t have a discount,” Bona said. “We compared this to SOH and [JGSOM] students who were required to do internships, albeit [zero] units compared to our [three-unit] credited internships, that did not have to pay or enroll at all.”

Gruta shared Bona’s sentiment, saying that when they compared the tuition receipts of SOSS and BIO students, the latter did not avail of the discount despite their compliance to the conditions set by in the memo released by Mendoza.

She added, “There were also instances [of] SOSE students having a few days of classes for both research and practicum, and could thus not apply for the discount because of the 10 hours contact rule.”

Moving forward

As for the feedback on the granting of the petition, Sanggunian members expressed their joy and relief for a successful lobbying effort.

“Now, the student body has been acknowledging the Sanggunian as the institution exercises its unique mandate, to fight and lobby for student body concerns and forward policies that will benefit the LS community,” Bendaña said. “We’ve been receiving a lot of [praise], and students have been approaching us for more concerns.”

For Gruta, “Removing the Php 8,000 miscellaneous fees, or at least 50% of it [for SOSE practicums] is really a big deal for the students [in] a school like SOSE which has the most number of scholars.”

Students and faculty of the LS community have also expressed their satisfaction towards the result of the petition through tweets and messages.

In an interview with The GUIDON, political science senior Matthew Taningco lauded the Sanggunian, saying that “they fulfilled their mandate of duly representing the student body and listening to their concerns regarding the miscellaneous fees issue.”

I have to say, I’m impressed by this year’s Sanggu so far. Not just engaged in big political issues, but in internal issues for the benefit of students. A good balance of think globally act locally. Sana hindi ko ma jinx sa tweet na to 😂 https://t.co/p6srAL1FFJ

— PJ MarianoCapistrano (@chipperpj) June 21, 2018

Additionally, students from other Ateneo universities such as Ateneo de Naga and Xavier University expressed in their tweets if their schools could also do the same.

Can we lobby it here in AdNU? cc: @adnussgofficial https://t.co/GbDvhIcCLR

— Johannes Unana ✨ (@unanaismyname) June 20, 2018

Can ADNU do this too? https://t.co/RZoP2QC0CE

— ジェビー (@mockingjeyb) June 20, 2018

I hope inane ang XU sooooon https://t.co/1O3ekibvqf

— Camille Dangco (@kakakqueeeen) June 21, 2018