By Shayne Elizabeth T. Flores

Far Eastern University (FEU) student-nurses criticized  the Batch 2027 Government and Nursing Department for the ‘discrepancies’ between the final general details and initial survey results of the 70th Capping and Candle Lighting Ceremony (CLC) held last October 19.

The concerns began when the Nursing Department released the official CLC announcement on October 14, less than a week before the event.

The department’s chosen theme was ‘Fearless, Empowered, and Undaunted: Towards Ethical Healthcare in the Face of Globally Competitive Nursing Standards’ and ‘I See The Light’ by Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi as batch song, both of which were excluded from the initial survey options.

The ceremony was also held at the FEU Auditorium, with a one guest per student guideline. 

In an interview with FEU Advocate, second-year Nursing student alias Cam expressed her frustration on how the department and batch government handled the event.

“The Nursing Department and Batch 2027 Government seem to have poorly handled event details and student concerns. Key issues like venue, rehearsals, and communication were either not addressed adequately or finalized without proper input from students. Despite a survey, many felt their preferences were ignored,” she said.

Survey results

Prior to the event, the Batch 2027 Government initially published a survey form to involve students in choosing the 70th CLC’s event specifics last July.

In a separate interview, FEU Nursing Society (NurSoc) President Davonn Ashley Asuncion stated that conducting a survey has always been their initiative preceding the CLC preparations.

“We gathered the suggestions of the batch and with this, we also reiterated how these decisions and all these recommendations will be lobbied to the administration and the department,” he said.

According to the results, students preferred to have the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) as the venue and a maximum number of three companions per student.

They also selected ‘Unwritten’ by Natasha Bedingfield as ceremonial batch song, ‘Hominem Non Morbum Cura: Shaping the FEUture with 70 Years of Nursing Excellence’ as event theme, and Photo X Media as partner photo studio.

Additionally, they chose to include their preferred P900 Package A photoshoot fee in the CLC fee.

Student concerns

Second-year Nursing student Nichole Anne Roxas highlighted the department’s decision to hold the event at FEU Main Auditorium as one of their batch’s major concerns.

“It would’ve been okay if ‘yung theme as well as batch theme song lang ‘yung hindi nasunod kaso pati venue at allowable companion hindi rin nasunod. If you think about it, majority sa concerns ng student body roots back sa venue, kasi it can’t accommodate [‘yung] population namin (It would’ve been okay if the theme as well as batch theme song were the only ones not followed. However, the venue and allowable companion were also not followed. If you think about it, the majority of the student body’s concerns roots back to the venue because it can’t accommodate our population),” she said.

Students also noted how the previous batches’ CLC were consistently held outside the campus, with the 66th, 67th, and 68th CLC all held at PICC.

On the other hand, the venue for last year’s CLC was changed from PICC to the SMX Convention Center due to a large volume of guests.

Additionally, the batch raised concerns about the campus parking’s exclusivity to FEU staff.

“We were told na rule talaga ng FEU na solely for FEU staff lang ‘yung parking inside FEU, so parang ang frustrating lang isipin na why insist on making FEU Auditorium as the venue nu’ng CLC if hindi naman pala make-cater kung saan puwede mag-park ‘yung families na may dalang car (We were told that it is FEU’s rule to allot the parking inside the campus for FEU staff only, so it is frustrating to think why they insist on making FEU Auditorium as CLC’s venue if it wouldn’t be able to cater families with cars),” Roxas stated.

According to the NurSoc President, the Nursing department attributed the decision to the essence of holding the event on where students gained their education and the sufficiency of the auditorium's 1,040 capacity.

“They rationalized that this event will be conducted inside the school because according to them, we need to build more relationship with our campus because we gained our education here. And also, given that the batch also has enough number for [what] the auditorium can hold,” Asuncion revealed.

Furthermore, he clarified that the FEU Auditorium was not used for free, but was also covered by the P1,412 total CLC fee.

With a total of 1,048 student-nurses capped, this year’s CLC was divided into three sessions.

Along with the venue, students also lamented the implementation of the one guest per student guideline given the event’s essence to them.

“The fact din na one companion lang allowed per student adds pa sa frustration ko/naming students kasi special day ‘yun, eh. Why should families be put in a situation na pahirapan pang mag-decide who among the members ‘yung pupunta? (The fact that only one companion is allowed per student also adds to our frustration as students because it’s a special day. Why should families be put in a situation where they would have difficulty choosing which member will attend?)” Roxas added.

Several posts by Nursing students in Facebook group One Piyu Community also echoed the same issue, with some citing how their overseas-bound parents flew home to attend the event only to find it limited.

The Asuncion claimed that they initially lobbied for two to three companions, but was limited by their insufficient manpower, budget, and other reasons they cannot disclose.

“With this data collection that we’ve conducted, the auditorium cannot really hold an event with the students and two companions. And with the manpower we currently have and also the requests and all the expenses they have paid, it can only be stretched out to three sessions even though we can consider four sessions, our budget cannot do it anymore,” the NurSoc president explained.

NurSoc also tried to coordinate with the department and concerned offices regarding the matters, but was unable to push for the preferred adjustments.

“That is why nag-end up na lang kami sa ganitong set up para mas lighter and mas konti ‘yung audience per session (That is why we just ended up with this set up so that it is lighter and has less audience per session),” Asuncion justified.

Call for improvement

In light of the conflict, Nursing students noted the need for consistent updates on the event’s planning progress and earlier announcement of the details and guidelines. 

The batch also underlined the importance for their involvement in the decision-making process for student-oriented events like CLC.

They also called for the prioritization of their welfare and interest.

“The way they could’ve handled the whole event should’ve at least shown some empathy on the meaning and importance of it, and view it in the viewpoint of the people they’re celebrating such as the second year students. As a Nursing student, it is the day that we officially became student-nurses. It is the day we’d feel valued and also it would be our first accomplishment as a nurse,” Cam stressed.

Meanwhile, Asuncion expressed his hope to provide the student-nurses with their preferred event next year or by the time of their clinical graduation.

FEU Advocate tried to reach out to the Nursing Department through emails and office visits on October 17 and 18 but was unable to get hold of the department head. 

Emails were also sent to the Batch 2027 Government for further clarification dated October 15 and 17 but have yet to receive a response as of writing. 

(Photo by Zedrich Xylak Madrid/FEU Advocate)