jun.anteola

“But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. ” - Carl Sagan (astronomer)

I had the chance to attend my alma mater’s Central Student Council induction last Saturday, August 11th. I am faculty adviser to the College of Dentistry’s student council anyway, and my dean asked me to go on his behalf.

Going has become a yearly habit, and nothing much has changed in the program. We were also in the same venue, ate the same food, saw the same people. It has become humdrum, dreary, uninteresting for me. The saving grace was seeing and hearing Misamis Occidental governor Leo Ocampos, who is a product of and has taught in the same school, and was my mentor during my few years as student leader. This charismatic man persuades through his outright sense of humor. He doesn’t give lengthy speeches, he just jokes. And without anyone knowing it, we’re nodding in agreement.

I couldn’t agree more with his points on being proactive, rather than reactive.

Even to this day, student leadership is often associated with protests and mass action against the perennial TF hike and other issues, very express and showy means of opposition and appeal for support. During my earlier stages of involvement, I did those, too. If only because my company were impassioned with it, being idealistic and young. Shall I say naive?

But I never enjoyed rhetorics, and I preferred to work without much fanfare. And as I progressed and finally had my chance at the reins, I found that these are largely exercises in futility. People may turn affirmative about the cause, but most tend to distance themselves from direct involvement. Then one is left with an audience who are in it just for the thrill of chaos. More importantly, it is repulsed by the party at the other end, and they retaliate. If not punish.

Very ineffective. Disappointingly unproductive. No win-win resolution.

My term then must be one of utter blah! They saw no action. Some may have even seen me and my gang as “pro-admin”.

I had become familiar with the school’s higher-ups, too familiar in fact I saw the school president while he was in his pyjamas. To the chagrin of a few administrative officers who thought I was by-passing their authority.

Well, excuse me, but if I had to go through them chances are problems won’t be heard, merely covered-up, ironed out just to make things look good. And I was welcomed by the president himself, my student body’s concerns listened to, considered by him, and a lot of them addressed in our favor. And we were all happy.

Maybe Sir Leo, as we fondly call the governor, sees this, too and meant to tell us more about it. We were just lost in the banter.

I wonder though, what he can say about working under GMA’s wing?

Click on photo to view my pictures of the induction.