19 June 2010

With numerous slated events teeming with advocacies, the Sapphire foundation anniversary was successfully celebrated -- capped by its biggest event -- gender equality-themed Ginoo at Binibining Pamantasan coronation night.


For Day 1 and Day 2, click here.


19 June - Day 3 (Actual 45th Foundation Day)
The 3rd day started off with the Pamantasan Booth Fair at the UAC and in various sheds dotting the campus. Academic and non-academic organizations (notably among them were the normally reticent fraternities/sororities with one of them serving as a major sponsor of the Sapphire Foundation Day) were unified and one in actively amplifying the festive mood by giving out a variety of free novelties and services to the amusement of scholars. The booth fair has long been absent in foundation day celebrations in the past. The SSC reactivated it with a twist to encourage the active participation of various organizations that were not co-sponsors of the SSC in the major events.

The PLM Idol's elimination round belted out at 11am and resumed with the final round at 4pm. With the promotion of Philippine tourism as its advocacy, the PLM Idol is a singing competition dubbed as "OPM's newest singing sensation."

The PLM IskoTime is a showcase of talents representing different organizations. An adaptation of the "Magpasikat" portion of the famous "Showtime" TV segment show, this is a new addition to the slate of activities. A wide variety of talents, including singing, dancing and acting, were demonstrated by talented scholars.

Finally, the most awaited and grandest event of the Sapphire celebration, gender equality-themed Ginoo at Binibining Pamantasan's final round and coronation night, gripped the supporters with anticipation. With all the colleges' cheering delegations in tow, the high-pitch voices rooting out for their candidates reverberated through the halls of UAC. The crowns were invested upon Mr. CTHTIM and Ms. CME who were also proclaimed as "Sun's Brightest" candidates for their razor-sharp answers to questions about gender equality. Their court is completed by Mr. COPERS and Ms. CET bagging the 1st runner-up posts, with Mr. & Ms. CMC as 2nd runners-up. Though the Bb. Pamantasan has been around for years, this is the first time that the search for Ginoong Pamantasan was ever conducted.

Judged by luminaries in various fields, Mr. CET bagged the most in the category awards, while Ms. CET and Ms. CMC tied in the ladies' division. Completing the finalist slate were Mr. CME, Ms. CHD and Ms. CPT. Amid a heavy rainpour that forced the organizers to change the venue at the last minute, the biggest Sapphire foundation anniversary event was successfully conducted.

Organizers
College of Science OIC-Dean Procula B. Amarillo chaired the 45th University Anniversary Committee with GSE Dean Felix F. Aspiras as co-chair. Several sub-committees were created, such as: thanksgiving mass, convocation, awards, food, physical arrangement, book fair and exhibits, student activities, documentation, souvenir programs and invitations, reception and ushering, finance, recreation/parlor games, publicity, alumni, security and safety, and secretariat. A downloadable PDF version of the souvenir program is being arranged to be uploaded containing, among others, the sub-committee assignees.

The Supreme Student Council traditionally serves as the main organizer of all student-based events, with the various college student councils as co-organizers, and in cooperation with societies that the SSC accredits as official partners. It approved on 22 May 2010 through SSC Res. No. 06-2010 the tie-up with the Biological Society, Psychological Society and the Bukluran-Integrated Students Organization as its officially accredited partners in hosting big events.


Controversies
It is said that foundation anniversary celebrations in PLM have become traditionally hounded by slight controversies, and this year's celebration was not spared and had its own share. As if inheriting from last year's "bloopers" in Bb. Pamantasan at the last leg of the celebration, a few events this year were also characterized by bloopers.

On the first day, the Brotherhood of Medical Scholars accused the co-organizers of the PLM Dance Mania of copying the idea of "PLM Ultimate Dance Crew" which allegedly is a seminal idea of BMS for its equally crowd-amassing Toxic Dancing event held annually in November. The two hosts, who were said to have claimed to have hailed from and advertized another organization as a co-organizer but allegedly was not an accredited partner, were met by an uneasy response from CHD and CPT for the scathing remarks about said colleges that were broadcasted during the event. The CAE student council, the actual co-organizer of the event, was said to have apologized privately, thru its president who was incidentally one of the hosts, for the incendiary remarks of the hosts. Diehard CME scholars complained that their College's name on the event backdrop tarp was incorrect, which is seen as a simple case of clerical and proofreading error.

In PLM Fashionista, a deadtime of one hour ensued after the top 5 for both gents and ladies divisions were announced. Said to be an early favorite, Ms. CMC's non-inclusion led her supporters to immediately protest and requested for their separate computation of the results. The request was granted by the organizers for purposes of transparency, which however took the CMC-SC a while that it caused a delay. After an hour of manual computation, the CMC presented its own count with Ms. CMC as part of the top 5. As the Tabulation Committee (TC) uses a computerized computation which output is not doubtful, it revisited the raw scores from the score sheets as the only possible source of the difference of results between the computations of the TC and CMC. The TC found out that one score of Ms. CS, who was earlier included in the top 5, was misread and entered into the computer as 17.75 instead of 13.75.

The unit digit resembles 3 at a glance leading the TC to believe all along that the score was correctly read and subsequently entered into the computer as 7, especially in its location where the stage design entails the lights to be put off and obscures a more discriminating perusal of the raw scores of that nature. The 4-point difference was enough to dislodge Ms. CMC in the original tabulation. The cause for correction was immediately taken cognizance of and, upon discovery, the circumstances have cleared the Tabulation Committee that its oversight was neither deliberate nor intentional.

To level the playing field, the SSC as a collegial body immediately set foot and remedial measures were instituted as an offshoot of the circumstances. Among other remedial actions, an agreement was consensually reached to reinstate Ms. CMC to the 5th slot.

Public announcement and apology
In the interest of full transparency and honesty, the SSC eventually apologized in public for the honest mistake in announcing another candidate to the 5th slot of the female division's slate of finalists, and announced the earlier agreement to reinstate Ms. CMC. A full exposition of all issues, according to the public statement, is slated to be widely publicized in the Ang Pamantasan's next issue.



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