u/BimmianNinja

I recently spoke with a friend who teaches law at another school that also offers online classes. Their Dean specifically advised the faculty against blindfolds, not out of leniency, but (really) because they simply don't work. All they do is add stress to students who are already reciting under pressure. Other schools have looked at this idea and passed on it. That should tell us something.

Last April, I shared my letter to Dean Ulan on the blindfold policy. One term later, and I still got no response (and the policy is still enforced without signs that it will be reviewed). So I sent the follow-up email, and I'm sharing the original letter again for those who missed it.

I'm not sharing this to pile on the administration. SBCA got a lot right by going online, and I said so in the letter. But policies only get reviewed when someone raises a hand. If you think a rule is heading backwards (like this one or any other), say so, in writing, respectfully and on the record. The worst that happens is silence. I know that first-hand, and I'm still writing. 

P.S. For the curious, magicians have been "blindfolded" on stage for a century, and Amazon sells the see-through kind for a few dollars: https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Ridge-Magic-Blindfold-Mentalist/dp/B003QSZ4JK

Not a recommendation, folks, just proof that a policy that's easy to beat isn't protecting integrity.

Previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/BedaBang_SOL/s/zjf2z1nrgy

As follow up and update on my previous post, I have personally brought the concerns that many of us share to the Legal Education Board, and the Board has received the letter. This includes the petition raised in April, among other things.

We know the SLG is considering a petition of its own, and we are glad of every effort. But for months, the SLG told us, more than once, that an SLG-led petition was being written and a follow-up consultation was coming. We waited in good faith. Neither materialised.

And now that the School has already published its new schedule of fees, and once the numbers are posted, waiting is its own answer. The urgency was decided for us, not by us.

That is why this letter could not wait any longer. It asks the Board where the increase stands, what the rules require, and for a pause until the consultation we were promised actually happens.

We welcome every effort still. But assurances are not action, and the fees are already public.

Finally, mine is one letter and it's easy to set aside, so keep speaking. It should not be the last. Write to the Dean's Office, write to the LEB, use every other channel open to you, and put your concerns on the record in your own words.

>The truth is we may still end up paying more, and good students, working students, may not make it back because of it. I know that. But I would rather lose this standing with you than win nothing by staying quiet. So I will keep speaking, for as long as it takes, and for every one of us who cannot.

Rehashing what I said in the prior post: I will keep speaking up, even if I am alone in this fight. Because this was never about how much we pay. It is about the principle that the heaviest burden should not fall on those with the least say.

(Posting this here since SLG or the admin isn't approving my post on the Facebook group. UPDATE: my similar Facebook post was just approved by the admin a few hours after this Reddit post was published)

ICYMI, the posted tuition and fees for the upcoming term rose 19.6% per unit. The chart tells the rest.

San Beda Alabang's own College and Graduate units held their rates flat. So did Ateneo Law and De La Salle. University of San Carlos moved 6.7%. Inflation in May was 6.8%. Our increase is nearly three times that, and the steepest of the lot.

This is not about whether any of us can afford another semester. It is about equity and process.

We were consulted on 10 April, but the session set out to justify a figure rather than weigh it, and many concerns raised that evening weren't fully answered. A petition followed; 368 of us signed it. It has never had a substantive reply. The follow-up forum, survey or consultation, we were promised never came. Then the rate went up anyway.

When peer schools and even our college's other units hold the line, a 19.6% increase here needs an explanation we have not been given.

Two things, then.

1️⃣ To the SBCA School of Law Government - SLG through the new President Jeremy Garcia: please act, and act quickly. We're past the "considering to draft a petition letter" stage - 368 of us already made our voice known two months ago. Now that you speak for the student body, this is the moment to use that voice.

2️⃣ To everyone else: do not wait to be heard. Write to the Dean's Office. Put your concerns to the Legal Education Board. The more of us who speak, through every channel open to us, the harder we are to ignore.

>As for me, I will keep speaking up, even if I am alone in this fight. Because this was never about how much we pay. It is about the principle that the heaviest burden should not fall on those with the least say.