DESPITE COMPLAINTS over the rise in tuition fees, there was a lack of students present during the public consultations held by the Sanggunian to voice out concerns to the Ateneo administration.

Over the past months, the Sanggunian has pursued efforts towards bridging the gap between student complaints regarding tuition fee increases and the administration. These efforts included conducting meetings with the Vice President of the Loyola Schools (VPLS) Maria Luz Vilches, PhD.

Following “Magtanong sa VP at mga Dekano” session in which Vilches reported the proposal of a 6% tuition fee increase, various students from different sectors raised their concerns regarding financial difficulties and budget transparency regarding the increase through different social media platforms.

It was explained that the tuition fees have been continually increasing by 6% since 2001. One of the primary reasons for this annual increase is the need to offset the budget deficits from the dip in enrollment.

To address these concerns, Sanggunian Committee on Fiscal Affairs Chair Marvin Santiago scheduled two public consultations for students to formally voice out their concerns for the Sanggunian to raise with the administration.

However, due to the lack of attendance from students and sectoral representatives, Santiago opted to conduct individual consultations in order to gather various concerns that he later brought up during a meeting with Vilches.

Tuition fee complaints

According to Santiago, one of the primary complaints was the impact of the increase on financially struggling students and scholars.

“One of [their] main concerns was that given that some students were only making enough to pay for the tuition fee last year, would [the administration] still be able to financially support these students given that there would be an increase again?” he explained.

According to the responses from Santiago’s individual consultations, a number of students are concerned about how the administration has been able to increase tuition fees while still charging students with other miscellaneous fees such as payments for P2P services.

Moreover, students raised concerns on the allocation of these fees. According to Santiago, this particular concern is the reason as to why the Sanggunian is pushing for budget transparency.

“What [students] wanted was for [the administration] to release the breakdown of the budget so that they can scrutinize it come Magtanong,” he explained.

In response to the students’ call for budget transparency, Santiago explained that the administration is not prepared to release these types of financial statements yet but is willing to look into the possibility of doing so in the future.

“The admin is not prepared to release these financial statements yet because it might be prone to misinformation,” he said.

Sanggu’s initiatives

The Sanggunian has been able to pressure the administration to allow particular students or groups to approach the Vice President for Treasury to ask about certain allocations of the tuition fees.

“We were able to push for fiscal transparency, [by pressuring] the admin to let the VP for Treasury accept students who are interested in reviewing particular items of the budget and asking for general allocations on how improvements were spent for the year,” Santiago said.

Additionally, in order to help financially struggling students, the Sanggunian has tried to fill in the gaps by passing different resolutions that allocate the budget surplus of the previous and current Sanggunian to the aid of scholars and students seeking financial assistance.

However, despite these efforts of the Sanggunian, Santiago explained that there is still a need for student groups and individuals to pressure the administration in order to help the Sanggunian bridge these gaps in budget transparency.

“It’s good that Sanggu is collaborating with the admin, but as shown in the non-attendance of students during the public consultations, there is a lack of collective interest on their part to approach this issue. If you ask most people individually, not everyone cares,” he said.

Encouraging student participation

Santiago said that students should go out of social media in expressing their concerns regarding tuition fee increases in order to allow the Sanggunian to properly bring these up to the administration.

“Social media rants achieve awareness for students to know about existing problems but it would be better for them to talk to us so that it can be translated in action,” he explained.

Moreover, another problem Santiago cited as a reason for the non-attendance of students is the lack of collective interest towards the general issue of tuition fee increases.

Currently, there is no designated group or branch both inside and outside of the Sanggunian that directly addresses fiscal concerns regarding tuition fee increases. Additionally, there is minimal effort from student groups to act collectively.

Santiago proposed that political parties and organizations could be mobilizing tools to allow students to know their rights and move them towards pressuring the admin.

“Student, political and scholar groups can really increase awareness of this issue among the students. Sure you have this frustration that tuition fee is increasing but I would have wanted for this to be translated in action by engaging with Sanggu into going into negotiations,” he said.

The public consultations aimed to give students a briefer on where the Sanggunian is currently at in terms of the negotiations and issues on the tuition fee increase.

Had there been higher student participation, Santiago explained that the consultations would have been an avenue to voice out concerns.

“If the students go to the public consultations, this could encourage other students to do the same – to forward their concerns. We need to show the admin that there is a critical mass of people who are really affected by this issue and take action,” he said,

Santiago expressed hope that the next Sanggunian would continue to engage students and pursue efforts towards lobbying for fiscal transparency.

“[The next Sanggunian] should continue finding ways to rationalize tuition fee increases so that no one is left behind. They shouldn’t just circumvent the issue by generally ensuring student services,” he said.