Inconsiderate is the fitting term to describe the Finance Office’s decision to not disseminate the information on the sudden increase of downpayment for this second semester enrollment, only strengthening the need for them to release a memorandum addressing the concern Ateneans share. This high cost, without prior notice, affected the students and their process of enrollment. This only shows how this whole problem enlightened everyone else to the standing of the university in valuing their students, the Ateneans.
On January 4, dismay was deeply expressed by the Ateneans on the sudden uninformed policy of the down payment for the second semester of the school year 2023-2024. Reactions from the students and parents, who underwent the struggles to pass through the registrar and proceed to the finance office, only made sense for the reason that this down payment policy was not announced prior to the start of enrollment — causing hassle and frustrations for the enrollees. Compared to the past school years and the first semester of this academic year, students are allowed to pay at least ₱5,000.00 for the tuition fees. However, this minimum amount of money had seemingly been long forgotten when the university decided to implement an increase of down payment without notice or any form of consultation from the students — considering how this huge increase will put financial burden on the enrollees’ end.
For the second semester, the Registrar office provided each enrollee a printed enrollment card where it indicates the exact amount of the enrollee’s downpayment and expected minimum amount of money to pay for the midterm and final term. The downpayment varies depending on the student’s chosen course, however, every student’s down payment is expected to be half as the actual full tuition fee for the second semester. Only those who pay the updated minimum downpayment are able to be fully enrolled, leaving those who pay less with invalid enrollment. This only shows how inconsiderate and irresponsible it is for not taking into account that pursuing this policy without proper planning and addressing does not benefit the students. Instead, it only outrages them and frowns upon the university’s decision-making.
The shared sentiment by Ateneans was only further solidified when a party-list, Students’ Initiative for Nationalist Approach in Governance – ADZU (SINAG), posted their thoughts dissenting the uninformed policy of the university with their released statement strongly against the policy, “I AM AN ATENEAN AND I AM AGAINST ADZU’S NEW ‘UNINFORMED’ POLICY ON THE INCREASED DOWNPAYMENT OF TUITION FEES” (SINAG, 2023). In Facebook alone, their online statement significantly garnered more than half a thousand shares which reflects the number of the population opposing the sudden changes in enrollment down payment process.
To better understand why the huge leap in increasing the downpayment for the second semester tuition fees with the fact that it has been implemented without notice is problematic and harmful, here are several ways that impact the Ateneans:
- This imposes fear and worry. This sudden implementation causes distress to Ateneans, especially this uninformed policy emphasizes the idea that if a student does not pay the updated minimum amount of downpayment, to which it is almost as half as the full tuition fee for the second semester, will automatically leave their enrollment invalid — regardless if a student has done their part in accomplishing their clearance. This then imposes fear and worry to old students, who cannot provide the increased minimum down payment on time due to short or
none at allnotice, because of the possibility of being left not fully enrolled solely for not being able to quickly comply with the uninformed increase of down payment. In which, this puts their hard work into waste, leaving them unable to continue their studies for this second semester.
- It promotes anti-poor and an unjust system. The sudden increase of down payment did not only leave the students lost but also proved the university to be perpetuating an anti-poor and unjust system, where students have little to no right at all to be included in the consultation of the uninformed policy. Moreover, their unannounced implementation of high cost down payment was done insensitively; Ateneans with financial challenges were not considered in implementing the policy as immediately as possible.
- It caused hassle on the enrollee’s end to finish their enrollment process. Due to not meeting the updated minimum cost of downpayment, this caused the students to push backwards their progress in successfully securing the enrollment for the second semester. Furthermore, due to the unannounced huge leap, those enrollees who only brought the last semester’s minimum downpayment, ₱5,000.00, of down payment only caused them to go back to the finance office to pay the exact updated increase of payment to validate their enrollment.
This staggering circulating issue could have been prevented if only even before the starting of enrollment season, the finance office had the decency to release a memorandum or at least any form of formal announcement on the huge increase of down payment. Or better yet, this could have been avoided if the ₱5,000.00 minimum payment fee was not set aside. Because for years, the Ateneo de Zamboanga University has been breathing just fine with the previous minimum fee for enrollment. Now, it leaves students scrutinizing the sudden changes in payment that has yet to be addressed by the university. Worse, it leaves the enrollees facing financial challenges to crawl and look for alternative ways to make ends meet.
The decision of implementing the policy without notice and consideration of enrollees’ ability to provide such a huge cost only reflects how unreasonable the change in the down payment has been. Their uninformed policy shows how inconsiderate they are of the students’ status to provide, leaving them unable to comply or forced just so they could ensure their enrollment will be valid. This only practically shows that even if the system is unjust, the students are expected to comply immediately or else their enrollment will be left invalid.
It is only justifiable that there is rage coming from the students and parents, especially since they are the people who are incredibly affected by this financial trouble the university has burdened them with. This issue, as well, emphasizes why proper communication is crucial to establish a mutual understanding for all parties involved. Even so, as a prestigious university, considering the students’ status must also be taken into account in deciding the required minimum amount of down payment for them to be fully enrolled. After all, Ateneo de Zamboanga University upholds a vision— total human security especially for the poor and marginalized. But all this preaching and ideal vision they had in mind tends to be more anti-poor tactics, doing the exact polar opposite of what they envision.
