11 New Eng’g Lab Fees Pending Approval

Last May 6, 2008 the Students Rights & Welfare Committee (STRAW Committee), headed by Councilor Jaque Eroles, attended the student dialogue regarding the proposed Lab Fee increase for 11 Mechanical Engineering (ME) courses. Representatives from the College of Engineering Student Council (ESC) and Student Regent Shahanah Abdulwahid also attended the dialogue initiated by the ME department head, Prof. Gerald Denoga.

According to Prof. Denoga, the department aims that the increases be implemented starting First Semester AY 2008-2009. The proposal has already been approved by the college faculty and administration, and was already submitted to Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs, Dr. Elizabeth Enriquez. However, the OVCSA refused to approve the proposal since it did not undergo consultation with the University Student Council (USC). Thus, the reason for the said dialogue.

The courses affected by the proposed lab fee increase are as follows:

SUBJECT	Original Fee	Proposed New Fees	Remarks
ME 122 Turbomachinery	0	600	presently no equipment for the experiments
ME 131 Manufacturing Processes	300	1,500	price increase in materials
ME 136 Machine Tools Operations	300	1,500	price increase in materials
ME 143 Mechanical Vibrations	0	800	will need PC’s
ME 176 Control Systems 1	0	800	will need PC’s
ME 183 Refrigeration & Airconditioning	200	800	consumables & PC use
ME 73 Mechanical Measurements & Instrumentation	300	500	consumables & maintenance
ME 41 Mechanisms	0	500	will need shop & PC
ME 142 Dynamics 0f Machinery	0	500	will need shop & PC
ME 91 Numerical Methods	0	800	will need PC’s
SHOP 7 Shop Practices	200	1,500	price increase in materials

The original proposal included ME 165 Internal Combustion Engines (none-P1500) but was opposed by the ESC since according to them, it was a lecture class. The department agreed and decided that it shall not be included in the proposed lab fee increase.

Prof. Denoga discussed the rationale for such increases. According to him, ME should be a hands-on program and students should have access to adequate laboratory facilities. Most of these equipment and facilities are either non-functioning, insufficient or inexistent. Experiments may also require fuel, materials and other consumables. Also the 5 courses that currently has a lab fee was based on pre-1989 prices. The proponent also presented the cost breakdown of the expenses per subject.

The USC having the benefit of discussion during the dialogue recommended for the deferral of approval since certain question and concerns were not addressed. Some of these questions are:

1. In light of the second year of implementation of the Tuition and Other Fee Increase (TOFI), will there be any budget increase for the Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department? The TOFI promised for better facilities but why is there a need for even more exorbitant laboratory fees?

2. How else can lessons be modified to minimize cost while not sacrificing the quality of instruction?

3. What are the other possible sources of funds?

4. What are the mechanisms of the ME Department or of the College of Engineering Administration to address students welfare concerns? For example, in the ME program, students need to take 2 to 3 of such laboratory courses in one semester. Such may result to a possible P4,500 in total of lab fees to be paid by a 3rd year or 4th year ME major. What shall be the action to be taken if there will be any student who will be forced to drop-out and not graduate because of the increase?

5. Are laboratory fees, in general, supposed to cover acquisition expenses, aside from maintenance expenses, and consumables as what the proposal indicates?

The USC and the ESC shall also study if it will be possible to request the Industrial Engineering (IE) Department to subsidize their students who take SHOP 7. According to Prof. Denoga, they were able to offer SHOP 7 to their majors until the IE department required this subject to IE majors. Since there are approximately 140 IE majors, as opposed to around 40 ME majors, the ME Department could not shoulder the SHOP 7 expenses alone. The USC STRAW committee and ESC plans to draft a letter requesting for the deferral of approval to be submitted to the OVCSA, Office of the Chancellor and the Board of Regents.

Manifesto Against 30 CMC Lab Fee Hikes

Below is a manifesto petition being circulated in the College of Mass Communication (CMC) by the CMC Student Council and the Student Alliance of the Advancement of Democratic Rights - UP CMC (STAND-UP CMC) with regards to the new laboratory fee hikes to be implemented in the college.

We, students of the College of Mass Communication, strongly condemn the railroading of the laboratory fee hikes in 10 Broadcast Communication subjects and 4 Broadcast Journalism subjects last March 12, and oppose similar impending hikes in at least 23 Film subjects. We take these recent moves as an assault to the principle of democratic consultation of the studentry and a clear indication of the commercialization route that our university is currently taking.

The proposed 16 new courses under the Broadcast Communication program also brought with it a fresh batch of laboratory fees ranging from P200 up to P1,000. As for the film courses, the proposed hikes during the first consultation last March 28 include the laboratory fees of both lecture classes (from P200 to P1,200) and production classes (from P800 to P3,200).

We stand firm and united against these anti-student policies that further render quality education as inaccessible, as this recent maneuver will set the trend in other degree programs in the college.

We also question the procedures and conditions which the approval of lab fees in Broadcast Communication subjects have undergone, and warn future tricks of a more scathing dissent from the broad number of uninformed or ill-informed students.

Rather than subscribe to the faulty logic of better facilities from greater lab fees, we remain steadfast in preserving democratic access to such mass media courses and in upholding the interest of the broad number of financially underprivileged students who will be severely hit by such increases.

The need to upgrade and replace some of the existing equipment and facilities in the college is unquestionable. However, we do not see the laboratory fee hikes as the panacea to the long-standing problem of the college in meeting the capital needs of equipment-intensive courses. Instead, we see the hikes as a counter-productive measure that will seriously limit the cultivation of skills of the broadest number of students, since costs always impose limits. This is a glaring truth especially in the context of worsening living conditions in the country.

In the interest of the Iskolar ng Bayan suffering under the harsh economic conditions engendered by the disregard of the Arroyo regime for the basic rights and needs of the people, we are determined to take effective steps to halt the impending lab fee hikes and to boldly assert that the new laboratory fee hikes in Broadcast Communication was railroaded. We persist in our call for greater state subsidy and demand the re-channeling of the people’s funds from widespread corruption to social services such as education.

No to Lab Fee Hikes!
No to Commercialization of Education!