***My first paper for my feature writing class.
It was one of those days. No one knew what was happening. Roads were blocked off. Students waited outside for news about their classes.
No, there was no typhoon on that day. No earthquake, no volcanic eruption, no People Power revolt either. It was June 18, 2008 - the University of the Philippines’ Foundation Day.
A traffic jam greeted me on my way to school on that day. Cars, jeepneys, and trucks filled the one road from Katipunan to the College of Mass Communication. Apparently, the Academic Oval had been closed off. Obviously, no one knew of it until they came into the campus.
No one I talked to on that day knew exactly what was happening. No one knew if classes would be suspended. There were only bits and pieces of information about the events for that day. Rumors of an “Oblation Run” were spreading. It was chaotic.
I knew something big was up. I knew it was UP’s Foundation Day. I just didn’t know what was supposed to happen then. My one class for the day went by like a breeze. Half the class was not there and we all wanted to see if there would really be an “Oblation Run”. Our professor cut the class short at 11 AM.
I was lucky. A friend told me that they were giving away free food at Vinzons Hall. I walked all the way down an eerily quiet and empty Academic Oval towards the Sunken Garden. That was when I saw all the people clustered around Vinzons Hall. Suspension or no suspension, people were there to see something.
As I came closer, a speaker was screaming something about “flying birds”. The crowd roared. I knew then and there that the rumors were true. I met my friends at the entrance to Vinzons Hall. There were a lot of reporters and cameras there, too.
My timing could not be better. I was there on the front row, right there in front when a hundred men came running down the stairs. They wore golden masks and… nothing else. Some held banners and streamers filled with messages of protest.
People started to scream. My friend from Library Science was busy taking pictures. My friend from Engineering stood still; her eyes as wide as plates, her jaw almost hitting the floor. I was laughing my heart out. One of the naked men handed a rose to the girl next to me as he kissed her.
It was the infamous “Oblation Run”, now dubbed by the organizers as the “Centennial Run”. Normally done every December, the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) Fraternity decided to send one hundred of its members streaking through the Diliman campus on the day marking UP’s 100th year.
The excitement subsided in Vinzons Hall as the streakers ran towards Palma Hall. As the screaming and squealing died down, I found some time to think.
That was all?
For a very, very important day in its history, all the University of the Philippines could do was to send one hundred naked men running in the streets? Oops. Scratch that. It was the APO Fraternity that sent the men onto the streets.
A quick look at the UP website shows that there were activities planned for the day. There was a flag-raising ceremony at Quezon Hall and a parade in the morning. A human chain around the Academic Oval was rumored to have been planned but I did not see it in the schedule. At least that explains why the Academic Oval was closed in the morning.
The new officers of the University Student Council were inducted in front of the famous Oblation statue. A commemorative stamp was launched. The event at Vinzons Hall was supposed to be just an open-air concert; the APO streakers turned it into something more.
I only learned of the events above through the website. I heard snippets from people I talked to, though. A professor told us about the launching of the Commemorative Centennial Stamps just the day before. A friend told me about that human chain. Another friend in the University Student Council told me about the Vinzons UPgrade event. If no one told me about these events, I would not have known about them.
Bottom line: there was no systematic information dissemination campaign by the UP Administration.
Only the calendar in the UP website showed what events were to happen where and when. There were no posters around the campus. No one went door to door to tell us what was supposed to happen. And yes, I am a bit irked at the fact that no one thought of calling off classes for the day so that the students –UP students- could come and join in the celebration.
Instead of calling students to join in the festivities, the administration saw fit to leave us wandering the halls of our colleges while wondering if our professors would show up for class.
Even the other events of the week were poorly advertised. I would not have known about, much less attended, the “Parangal Sentenyal” last June 16 if my Communication 130 professor did not require our class to go there. I was also lucky then, for I saw many of the people who had shaped the history of UP. I also saw many of the brilliant scientists and artists who were products of UP.
The concerts at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, “Pamantasang Hirang”, from June 18 to 20 did get a lot of attention. However, someone neglected to spread information about tickets and transportation to the CCP. I only found out about the need for tickets and the free rides from UP to CCP on the first day of the concert. Needless to say, I did not get to watch the presentations.
Some of my friends did manage to go to CCP to watch “Pamantasang Hirang”. The bad news, however, was that they found the concert somewhat lacking. They told me over lunch that the different presentations were too individualistic. There was no common theme, no “UP as a whole” or “where UP is now”. Unfortunately, I cannot comment further on that. I was not there.
I can comment on the UP Centennial Celebration as a whole, though. It could have been more. The organizers, the UP administration, could have done more. Way more. They could have at least spared the effort to invite us students to the events. They could have at least mounted a more effective information campaign. They could have turned the week of the Centennial into something like the annual UP Fair.
They could have turned June 18, 2008, the 100th anniversary of the University of the Philippines’ foundation, into more than just one of those (other) days.
It was one of those days. No one knew what was happening. Roads were blocked off. Students waited outside for news about their classes.
No, there was no typhoon on that day. No earthquake, no volcanic eruption, no People Power revolt either. It was June 18, 2008 - the University of the Philippines’ Foundation Day.
A traffic jam greeted me on my way to school on that day. Cars, jeepneys, and trucks filled the one road from Katipunan to the College of Mass Communication. Apparently, the Academic Oval had been closed off. Obviously, no one knew of it until they came into the campus.
No one I talked to on that day knew exactly what was happening. No one knew if classes would be suspended. There were only bits and pieces of information about the events for that day. Rumors of an “Oblation Run” were spreading. It was chaotic.
I knew something big was up. I knew it was UP’s Foundation Day. I just didn’t know what was supposed to happen then. My one class for the day went by like a breeze. Half the class was not there and we all wanted to see if there would really be an “Oblation Run”. Our professor cut the class short at 11 AM.
I was lucky. A friend told me that they were giving away free food at Vinzons Hall. I walked all the way down an eerily quiet and empty Academic Oval towards the Sunken Garden. That was when I saw all the people clustered around Vinzons Hall. Suspension or no suspension, people were there to see something.
As I came closer, a speaker was screaming something about “flying birds”. The crowd roared. I knew then and there that the rumors were true. I met my friends at the entrance to Vinzons Hall. There were a lot of reporters and cameras there, too.
My timing could not be better. I was there on the front row, right there in front when a hundred men came running down the stairs. They wore golden masks and… nothing else. Some held banners and streamers filled with messages of protest.
People started to scream. My friend from Library Science was busy taking pictures. My friend from Engineering stood still; her eyes as wide as plates, her jaw almost hitting the floor. I was laughing my heart out. One of the naked men handed a rose to the girl next to me as he kissed her.
It was the infamous “Oblation Run”, now dubbed by the organizers as the “Centennial Run”. Normally done every December, the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) Fraternity decided to send one hundred of its members streaking through the Diliman campus on the day marking UP’s 100th year.
The excitement subsided in Vinzons Hall as the streakers ran towards Palma Hall. As the screaming and squealing died down, I found some time to think.
That was all?
For a very, very important day in its history, all the University of the Philippines could do was to send one hundred naked men running in the streets? Oops. Scratch that. It was the APO Fraternity that sent the men onto the streets.
A quick look at the UP website shows that there were activities planned for the day. There was a flag-raising ceremony at Quezon Hall and a parade in the morning. A human chain around the Academic Oval was rumored to have been planned but I did not see it in the schedule. At least that explains why the Academic Oval was closed in the morning.
The new officers of the University Student Council were inducted in front of the famous Oblation statue. A commemorative stamp was launched. The event at Vinzons Hall was supposed to be just an open-air concert; the APO streakers turned it into something more.
I only learned of the events above through the website. I heard snippets from people I talked to, though. A professor told us about the launching of the Commemorative Centennial Stamps just the day before. A friend told me about that human chain. Another friend in the University Student Council told me about the Vinzons UPgrade event. If no one told me about these events, I would not have known about them.
Bottom line: there was no systematic information dissemination campaign by the UP Administration.
Only the calendar in the UP website showed what events were to happen where and when. There were no posters around the campus. No one went door to door to tell us what was supposed to happen. And yes, I am a bit irked at the fact that no one thought of calling off classes for the day so that the students –UP students- could come and join in the celebration.
Instead of calling students to join in the festivities, the administration saw fit to leave us wandering the halls of our colleges while wondering if our professors would show up for class.
Even the other events of the week were poorly advertised. I would not have known about, much less attended, the “Parangal Sentenyal” last June 16 if my Communication 130 professor did not require our class to go there. I was also lucky then, for I saw many of the people who had shaped the history of UP. I also saw many of the brilliant scientists and artists who were products of UP.
The concerts at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, “Pamantasang Hirang”, from June 18 to 20 did get a lot of attention. However, someone neglected to spread information about tickets and transportation to the CCP. I only found out about the need for tickets and the free rides from UP to CCP on the first day of the concert. Needless to say, I did not get to watch the presentations.
Some of my friends did manage to go to CCP to watch “Pamantasang Hirang”. The bad news, however, was that they found the concert somewhat lacking. They told me over lunch that the different presentations were too individualistic. There was no common theme, no “UP as a whole” or “where UP is now”. Unfortunately, I cannot comment further on that. I was not there.
I can comment on the UP Centennial Celebration as a whole, though. It could have been more. The organizers, the UP administration, could have done more. Way more. They could have at least spared the effort to invite us students to the events. They could have at least mounted a more effective information campaign. They could have turned the week of the Centennial into something like the annual UP Fair.
They could have turned June 18, 2008, the 100th anniversary of the University of the Philippines’ foundation, into more than just one of those (other) days.
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