Kristel

The UP is probably the last place a tragedy like this one might happen. Tuition fees at the State University are among the lowest at the tertiary level. Since the eighties, the UP has implemented a socialized fee system that enables students from lower income families to pay significantly less than others.

Unlike all the other state colleges and universities, the UP is a land-grant institution. When it was established in 1908, the University was awarded large tracts of land that could be used to finance its operation. For over a century, however, the UP competed with the rest of the public schools for a share of state subsidies, neglecting the land grants.

The fact that a young, promising student from UP-Manila took her own life after she could not pay her fees on time sends a strong signal about the silent malaise plaguing our educational system. Tertiary education has now gone beyond the reach of the larger number of Filipino families.

Last Friday, on my way to a fund-raising dinner organized by political science students to build our very first smart classroom, I noticed the steps of Palma Hall alight with scores of candles. I soon found out the candles were for Kristel Pilar Mariz Tejada, a 16-year old behavioral science student at UP-Manila who took her own life after being forced to go on leave of absence for non-payment of fees.

Quite tragically, Kristel took her life a day after the UP President asked all of the university’s chancellors to ensure that no student is denied education because of financial constraints. The process by which this could be done still had to be worked out to guard against abuse.

It turns out, Kristel managed to take out a student loan to cover her fees for the first semester. Because she had to settle that outstanding loan, she could not avail of the same for the second semester. Her unpaid fees for the second semester added up to all of P10,000. That is not such a large fortune to be sure. I have friends who would not think twice spending that amount for a fine dinner.

Kristel’s suicide caused a bit of soul-searching through the entire UP community. The death of this promising student might have been averted if the university had the mechanisms and the financial flexibility to attend to the financial difficulties encountered by those like Kristel.

Products of UP are always proud to say that, in this institution, the student is basically left to sort out things for himself. This is why UP graduates are distinguished by their survival skills under any condition. We have always looked with disdain at other universities that are run like nanny states, basically spoon-feeding their students and waiting on their every need. The university might have veered to the extreme, however, in leaving our students to fend for themselves.

I suspect that over the years, our facilities for counseling services, medical care and financial assistance deteriorated. As the public primary and secondary educational system deteriorated, fewer students from the public schools manage to compete for places in the UP by way of the tough admissions tests. Most UP students today come from higher income, largely urban backgrounds. This might have encouraged institutional complacency for such services as basic health care, grants-in-aid, book allowances and student loans.

At the Diliman campus, we hire security guards to keep away students who dare park their cars in spaces reserved for faculty and staff. We used to joke that at the UP, engineering is tough; at La Salle, parking is tough. Today we have a serious parking problem too.

Over the past few years, we constantly remarked about how the vast majority of our students do not even bother to fill out the forms for the socialized tuition fee system. It was simpler to just go and pay the full amount.

The new demographics of UP students might have led to some complacency in the offices tasked with attending to the needs of students.

When I came to the Diliman campus decades ago, the Dean of Students was the most important university official to know. Under his supervision were offices that oversaw scholarships, gave out grants-in-aid and book allowances, and extended counseling services. I am not sure how robust those services remain to be — or if our students are aware of them.

I am sure Kristel’s death will be used by activist groups demanding bigger state subsidies. That will draw the debate way off course.

I have always maintained that the UP receives an unjust share of public subsidies for education. Unlike the other institutions, the UP enjoys large land grants not fully exploited to support our operations. The same populist voices that agitate for more public subsidies also oppose responsible husbanding of our land grants as a form of “commercializing education.” It took nearly three decades, for instance, before the UP administration braved resistance from radical groups to lease out idle land outside the main campus.

UP, given the new student demographics, could very well afford to support the few who will need financial support to pursue their education. It is just a matter of devising the right procedures to get this done.

While education is a public concern, it is as much a personal responsibility. The best way to ensure accessibility of quality education to the lower income students is to evolve a longer term financing scheme that enables students to finance their way through college, repaying when they are finally employed.

We need to legislate such a financing mechanism now, not only for UP but for all tertiary institutions nationwide.