“The Next UP President Must Be An Artist, Not An Activist!” – Frank A Hilario, Indefatigable Blogger

I think that the UP System, unintentionally nourished by UP Diliman, does not realize that it is its own im/mortal foe – UP is sleeping with the enemy! This is a UP Los Baños alumnus speaking, “Outstanding Alumnus For Creative Writing” 2011, the one and only in the entire 114 years history of UP.

(UP Diliman campus from free-apply.com)

American professors Amy J Binder & Jeffrey L Kidder say, “Many of tomorrow’s political leaders are college students now. The debates and fights taking place often spill into American popular culture, so it is critically important to understand the structural forces shaping the content and tenor of campus politics” (The Channels Of Student Activism, University of Chicago Press, 2022). I say, same with UP!
(“The Channels” from press.uchicago.edu)

UP alumnus & PhilStar columnist Jose Dalisay says, “The Next UP President” (14 Nov 2022, PhilStar, philstar.com) “will be certain to have a challenging six years ahead, especially considering the present political regime…”

And how is UP today? Mr Dalisay says:

… UP is a broad and diverse community whose survival and growth will require keen diplomatic skills to negotiate between the university’s external and internal publics… What’s important is for them to be able to practice and defend the academic freedom that also allows the university to become the best it can be.

“The academic freedom that also allows the University to become the best it can be” – No Sir, Mr Dalisay! UP’s exercise of “Academic Freedom” has always been at the expense of “Development Freedom” – the channels of UP student activism have always been contrarian, not communitarian, not once community well-being!

“Development Freedom” doesn’t come naturally. A UP alumnus, I have taught myself the best I can be –thank God, even at 82. A UP Los Baños BSA major in Ag Edu 1965, 2.36 WA. From high school, I inspired my own writing & editing talents, slowly but surely – and starting 1985, talents digital.

Even while working 1975-1981 as writer and editor with the Forest Research Institute (FORI), I came up with the theory “Communication for Development (ComDev); I recently modified it into “Communication for Village Development in the 21st Century (CoViD21).” (Check it out: The Evergreen Revolution, blogspot.com.)

Now, the essence of CoViD21, however remote, I do not find any trace within the UP System – UP has 8 constituent universities: UP Baguio, UP Cebu, UP Diliman, UP Los Baños, UP Manila, UP Mindanao, UP Open University, and UP Visayas. What I find is “communication for villain development” – I mean, especially UP Diliman, the public releases are often contrarian.

Especially UP Diliman. Those people know only their personal rights, but not the people’s right to further knowledge in science. Thus: UP Diliman has 30 technical journals but only 03 are up-to-date! (Check out my 11 Nov 2022 essay, “UP Ranks 412th In The Latest Quacquarelli Rankings Worldwide & Is Proud Of It! Mahiya Ka, UP, My Alma Mater!” Ctrl+click here: blogspot.com.)

Repeat: The next UP President should be an artist, not an activist!@517