UP Masscom community accuses eUP of ethics breach, demands apology

Members of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP CMC) community are demanding an apology from the team behind the eUP project over its scathing criticism of the undergraduate thesis of two recent Journalism graduates as regards supposed shortcomings in the IT initative.

In a statement, concerned faculty, students, staff and alumni of the college said they were “deeply offended by and disappointed” with the eUP team’s allegation that Ronn Bautista and Krixia Subingsubing’s undergraduate thesis on the information technology (IT) project makes “misleading claims, questionable conclusions and false allegations.”

The team also accused the two former students of coming up with the four-part report to “derail an important initiative that will modernize and improve the operations of the University” and suggested that the thesis will sabotage the project’s implementation.

According to the UP website, eUP is the UP administration’s flagship project "which seeks to integrate, harmonize, and interoperate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems and infrastructure across all constituent universities (CUs) of the UP System."

The system is envisioned to "enable the University to greatly improve on the efficiency and output of its core functions: teaching, research, and public service."

"Through providing the UP CUs a platform through which they may seamlessly share resources and information online, eUP shall bring the University to new levels of academic and operational excellence," the website read.

"This, in turn, will allow the UP community as a whole to be of greater service not only to the University, but also to the nation," it added.

Members of the college, however, said Bautista and Subingsubing’s thesis “went through established academic processes, including close supervision” by a multi-awarded faculty member, Ms. Yvonne Chua.

They also said the eUP team should not claim competence “in evaluating academic work outside its field” in the same way that it cannot assure the trouble-free operation of the project.

“While the eUP team has the right to comment on the questions and arguments raised by the thesis, it cannot attribute malice to the authors and undermine the integrity of the thesis as an Investigative Journalism (IJ) project,” they said.

Members of the CMC community said the eUP team’s accusations only imply that the students, the faculty adviser, the academic units of the College, and CMC itself violated the academic protocols every student and faculty member of UP are bound to observe.

“As has been noted by other faculty from other University units, the eUP team statement amounts to a serious breach of academic ethics. It is also an attack on free expression. Its statement in fact declares that any criticism of a UP administration project or initiative is made in bad faith and constitutes an offense against attempts by the University leadership to improve UP processes and systems,” the statement read.

Concerned members of the college said the criticism of the eUP team not only goes against the principle of collegial respect and the university’s spirit of free inquiry, but is also “an assault to academic freedom.”

“We demand and expect an apology from the eUP team,” they said.

The statement was signed by former Deans Roland B. Tolentino, Nicanor G. Tiongson, Luis V. Teodoro, close to 200 students from Broadcast Communication, Film, Journalism and Communication Research courses, several faculty members, staff, alumni and student organizations.

Bautista and Subingsubing’s report, which was chosen as the best thesis in the investigative journalism category, showed the UP administration’s favor for United States-based software company Oracle for the IT project, which seeks to modernize the administrative processes in the country’s premier state university.

They said the undue preference of university administrators for Oracle was a violation of the Procurement Law.

In addition, the thesis authors found the project not only exceeded its budget, but has yet to be fully implemented.

Concerned members of the UP CMC community said Bautista and Subingsubing’s thesis “went through established academic processes, including close supervision” by a multi-awarded faculty member, journalist Yvonne Chua. —Xianne Arcangel/NB, GMA News