Why Unlike VSU

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By Laarni Alfaro

After much discussion with your parents, finally you’ve chosen where to go for college.

“Mag Biska ko, Ma!”

“Ngano man mag-Biska ka, nak? Sure ka?”

“O, ma. Daghan kaayo ilang accomplishments didto, “nya basin diay maapil ko sa ila mga billboards didto gawas sa eskwelahan!”

“Aw o, nak, tabla ra ka’g na-artista ana. Sige, didto na enroll!”

There. Come enrollment, you saw a line as long as the line for NFA rice sometime in the ’90s, or you might have been too young then.

“Classmate, asa pila enrolment?”

“Duh, mao na ni, yads.”

And you said to yourself, Ginoo ko!

But for the sake of good education, you braved the lines and finally was an official Biskahanon at the end of the day.

And now it’s March. After a school year, you find yourself reevaluating your choices. Maybe that billboard along a national highway isn’t worth it after all. Being enrolled in the Visayas State University (VSU) is more than merely setting your goals and going after it. It might just need for you to actually have what it takes to qualify for a tarpaulin posted by the campus’s gates. Regardless of passion, talent is, unfortunately, just as important a requisite after all.

So why have you entertained the thoughts of transferring next school year? Let’s ask around. Don’t worry, dear, you’re not alone.

1. Kapoy Baktas. For out-of-towners, the best advice for this is to live in the dorm. Aside from saving a considerable amount of money every month for not commuting, the monthly rate is way lower compared to out-of-campus residences. To cite a specific example, dorms would only cost you an average of P800 per semester while out-of-campus boarding houses would amount to an average of P400 every month (P2,000 per semester). The minimum fare for the habal-habal is P6; multiply that by two (back and forth), then by twenty (school days), that gives you P240 to spend for fare monthly.

And there are two main reasons why students opt to live outside VSU despite the price. First, the school has a limited number of students to accommodate. We know the school is trying its best, but sadly, it’s a fact that some students, especially freshmen, have no other choice but to stay in off-campus residences. Second, waking up early to the sound of bells just might not be the way to go for some. Dorms inside school have wake-up calls; that’s when cleaning and gardening, perhaps among other things, are done around the dorm.

But whether you stay in campus or out, the inevitable walks await a VSU student. Try taking a walk from Rosilio Dorm in Utod to the guard post, then walking on to maybe DLABS or DoPAC. Or from Sampa to the HRTM department. From the dorms in lower VSU walking to classes in upper VSU. You get it. A lot of walking.

2. Lisud. May it be Biology or Math or English, one of those just tortured you endlessly to your dreams, and when you asked around your friends, you found out these same subjects are kinder to them in their respective schools. And so thoughts of flight enter your mind, taking you to wonder about other schools, comfortable safety zones.

And then, you find yourself realizing passing is enough, better than failing. You rather started to opt “to endure rather than end up a little more triumphant.” Simply having to pass seems hard enough to you.

Have upperclassmen friends. For sure they’ve been through where you are. They would have helpful tips for the particular way a teacher gives exams. They would also have notes, which perhaps you might have to dig in from some boxes. Seek help from your classmates as well. When you ask for help, you somewhat teach them to be helpful too.

3. Baduy. Remember, number one: the long walks, thus forget stilettos and shiny leather shoes. You’re better off with the good ol’ sneakers or your reliable slippers. We have freedom of clothes here (except those required with uniforms—Nursing, Vet Med, HRTM, and Education), thus anything goes, and with it are not exactly magazine types. No glitz, no glamour.

The thing is, school is something you have before you move on to the working world, where possibly there are stricter dress codes. Revel in the freedom of being able to wear slippers anytime you want while you can. Besides, with clothes, comfort is as important as aesthetics. Sneakers and mascaras could very well go together if you so chooses.

Dress up however you want until who faces you in the mirror is exactly who you feel and think you are. At the end of the day, you will judge yourself harsher than anyone’s insults could. Never seek the approval of others at the expense of losing your soul.

4. Wa’y nightlife. This school sleeps; thus nightlife would require a visit to the city. Public transportation ends 9:00 p.m. You can bargain with available tricycles, but this is if they are still awake to accommodate you and you’re willing to negotiate for the fare.

A party now and then makes sure you stay balanced; thus go on, indulge. For sure, come the time you are looking back on your college years, you would remember with more fondness the time you sang your heart out on a Friday after the finals than how you crawled beneath barbwires to graduate.

Today is the time to make memories. It doesn’t even have to be during the night. We have so many places to go to get together with classmates and friends—hydro, the beach, even VSU’s pool. Sugba-sugba anyone?

5. Kulang ug Courses. And, yes, the great what-if. Somehow in your wanderings about our green campus, it occurred to you that you wanted to join the literati, to look for words to make poetry out of your beautiful school; you decided you want to pursue literature or a similar study. Or you just realized you want Psychology or Philosophy or to be a Math or Physics major. VSU, if you’ve noticed, is an agricultural school, so we can expect to have courses with leanings toward the betterment of our country’s agricultural resources. And so, yes, sadly, if your heart pulls you to a course VSU doesn’t offer (perhaps yet), you might have to go elsewhere.

Well, count the semesters you need before graduation and think whether a new course is really worth giving up what you’ve so far already studied. Remember how you chose your current course and try to like it again, even just enough to go on and finish what you’ve started. You can always go back to school even after you graduate. Also, when you shift to another course in the same school, at least your minor subjects would be credited. Other schools would have different minors; you might have to start over from first year.

Maybe you have other reasons of your own to add to this list. I always believe in the “if there’s a will, there’s a way” philosophy. If you want something bad, you’d always find ways to reach it; while if your heart is just not set on some certain thing, you’d always find reasons why you don’t like it. “Kung may gusto may paraan, kung ayaw ay laging merong dahilan.” I heard this from a Siakol song.

You might say sometimes circumstance decides for us, not necessarily us. This is true. But with regards to VSU, the numbers are just a little too different from the other schools’ that it has drawn some attention—these numbers being VSU’s low enrolment number and low retention rate. Smaller state universities have better figures than us; they have more students enrolling there and staying on to graduate.

We have now some sort of list answering why, the next is going to find out what should be done then.