Broadcast Media Arts and Studies (BMAS) students are required to take production-heavy coursework, but they continue to struggle with accessing equipment and sourcing funds to stage their shows.
With the selection of Dr. Maria Diosa Labiste as the College of Media and Communication’s (CMC) new dean, BMAS students hope the incoming college administration will support them in meeting their demands for improvements in services offered to them.
BMAS Sophomore Leo Esguerra shared that they can only borrow equipment from DBC for a limited amount of time, affecting their production schedules. This forces many of them to borrow or rent devices like DSLR cameras and SD cards from classmates and CMC-based student organizations.
“Kailangan mo i-condense ‘yung shoot mo into that timeframe. Isa ‘yun sa mga issues na nakita ko sa batchmates ko kasi ako, I have a camera pero most of them do not have it,” he said.
BMAS students also grapple with funding for production expenses such as food and transportation.
To finance their production work, they resort to pooling money through donation drives on social media or, in Esguerra’s case, making out-of-pocket contributions, which he did for their final project in BMAS 113 (Pre-recorded Production in Broadcast Media).
“Sa group namin, ang [contribution per member] is around P1,000 to P2,000 […] and since lima lang kami per group […] P5,000 na ‘yung [minimum] budget for the project,” he added.
Former DBC Chair Alwin Aguirre explained in an interview with Tinig ng Plaridel (TNP) that these concerns stem not only from funding issues but also from the university’s resource allocation. He added that both the DBC and CMC have smaller budgets than other academic units in UP, as funding is based on faculty and student population.
“That would have to be changed because you know, times have changed and we are servicing a lot of students right now […] kaya lang, ang UP talaga, as with all other government arms or agencies, mabagal ‘yung pag-adapt niya doon sa mga changes,” said Aguirre.
The difficulties in access to funding are tied to recent cuts to UP’s budget. The allocated funds for the university was slashed by P2.076 billion this year.
READ: Gov’t cuts UP budget by P2.076-B; infra funding hit 13-year low
To address issues with student spaces and equipment, former CMC Dean Fernando Paragas said the college has already laid the groundwork for the P145 million renovation of the college’s facilities, which will include procuring essential equipment for DBC and its rooms.
“Kung ma-implement nang maayos ‘yung plan na ‘yun, ‘yung mga mare-renovate na spaces, ma-u-upgrade ‘yung equipment,” said Paragas.
Curriculum design ‘lapses’
Besides challenges in accessing broadcast equipment and funding for productions, students also raised concerns with the structure and content of the current BMAS curriculum.
“[There are] issues in the ordering of courses, the absence of relevant skills training within offered classes, and the repetitiveness of the topics covered across different courses,” CMC Student Council BMAS representatives Jephmar Francis Lagdan and Josh Christian Velilla said in a correspondence to TNP.
Following students’ dialogue with acting DBC Chair Louie Jon Sanchez, the department outlined short-term steps to “bridge any possible learning gaps.” These include maximizing BMAS 196 (Special Topics) and BMAS 197 (Special Projects) classes, and conducting non-credited “masterclasses.”
While Aguirre recognized the limitations of the current course offerings, he noted that the BMAS program is under evaluation, with plans for curriculum revisions or adjustments.
“Since two years ago, we’ve been talking about the things that we should improve on in the BMAS curriculum like the order of courses [and that] certain courses need to be more intentionally designed so that it fulfills a particular objective [and] doesn’t repeat in other courses,” the previous department chair shared.
In November 2024, DBC initiated a survey among currently enrolled students, alumni, and employers of department graduates to collect feedback for improving the department’s course offerings and services.
Paragas explained that the college waited for students enrolled in CMC degree programs under the 2018 and 2019 curricula to attend in-person classes post-pandemic and graduate in 2023 before starting their evaluations.
“‘Yung second half of 2022, essentially, tayo [ay] nasa third year of the piloting of the programs […] you need to be able to graduate one batch in order to evaluate,” he said.
Expectations for the new dean
With these concerns in mind, both the students and faculty of DBC expect that Labiste will heed their concerns and advocate for the interests of the Maskom community.
Amid ongoing evaluations of CMC programs’ curricula, Lagdan and Velilia said the new dean must “recognize the need for and fight” alongside the student body when revisions need to be implemented.
“It would be crucial to have a dean with a track record of heeding student concerns so that the CMC administration itself would give ample space to initiatives that aim to address [their] gaps,” they added.
As the former DBC chair, Aguirre calls for an overhaul of bureaucratic processes and a deanship that is “fearless in fighting for the objectives and the vision of each unit for itself.”
“The college is not the college without the particular units […] there’s no College of Media and [Communication] without these particular units, so the input should come from the units,” he said.
This article is part of Tinig ng Plaridel’s #CMCDean2025 series, which examines the pressing issues faced by the Maskom community.
