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BY RHICK LARS VLADIMER ALBAY
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Saturday, March 18, 2017
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UNFAZED BY RAIN Centralian faculty, staff and students alike marched inside the Central Philippine University campus and held a program outside the main gate on March 15 to echo their gripe and united calls for the administration to hear.
The CPU Faculty Association is calling for a raise to their meager salary and the studentry is protesting the looming increases to their tuition and other fees for the upcoming school year.
I am ceding my column today for the official statement of Rise for Education – CPU.
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Rise for Education stands in unity with the Central Philippine University Faculty Association in their Solidarity March and Prayer Rally.
Central Philippine University has implemented constant tuition fee increases for the past couple of years, burdening students and parents with exorbitant and excessive fees.
The administration had justified in the past two consultations that the tuition fee hikes are to make the salaries of its teachers “competitive” against public schools, as well as other private universities and to “[sustain] the increase in compensation of the faculty and staff”.
However, the CPU Faculty Association has made it clear in their clamor that no significant increases have been made despite the administration’s claims.
We echo the Faculty Association’s reminder to the administration that Central Philippine University is a “non-stock, non-profit” institution. With P205 million in savings, the university should have more than enough to provide the appeal of our teachers, yet negotiations with the administration has stalled.
Even with the proposal to build a P170 million building to house the senior high school, that still amounts to P35 million in excess. Hence, CPU has enough to finance both its infrastructure project and give the Faculty Association their due, even without mounting excessive tuition fee increases.
Increasing faculty salaries should not be used to justify these hikes to our tuition and other fees anymore.
We also denounce the decision of the Central Philippine University administration to push through with the proposed increases to our tuition and other fees for the upcoming school year 2017-2018, despite not conducting a genuine consultation with the Centralian student body and the school’s other stakeholders.
We question the administration’s insidious intentions when they scheduled the consultation on Feb. 17, the same day when the College Days were to be held in various venues around the campus. The administration knows fully-well that this would render the majority of the Centralian student body unable to attend the consultation because of the conflicting schedules.
We, however, remain vigilant in struggling against the proposed hikes to our already exorbitant and excessive fees.
The right to education does not exclude students like us who are studying in Private Universities. Institutions must be reminded that education is a service and a right, not a commodity to be sold for profit./PN
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