The much talked-about forum on the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement (BFA) on 26th November 2012 at the Finster Auditorium was a concerted effort of many key offices in the university that pooled their resources together to implement the I-RISE Approach, a modular vehicle that attempts to integrate research, instruction and social engagement (hence, the acronym, I-RISE). Paying heed to the call of the university president, Fr. Joel E. Tabora, SJ, to provide a wider discursive space where crucial societal issues are brought to an open, fruitful, and reflective discourse among various university stakeholders, particularly among students, the Ignatian Spirituality and Formation Office (ISFO) headed by Mr. Elvi C. Tamayo took the lead in organizing the Social Conscientization Program for the FAB. The initiative gathered together several key players such as the University Community Engagement and Advocacy Council (UCEAC) through Atty. Romeo Cabarde, Jr.; the University Research Council (URC) through Ms. Lourdesita Sobrevega-Chan; the office of the Academic Vice President, Fr. Gabriel Jose T. Gonzalez, SJ and the participation of appropriate academic departments; and the formation cluster under ISFO such as the Arrupe Office of Social Formation (Arrupe) and the Ateneo Center for Leadership (ACL) through Ms. Lilibeth Leh-Arcena, the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) through Ms. Theresa Salaver-Eliab, and the Al Qalam Institute through Mr. Mussolini S. Lidasan. The basic and secondary education units at Matina Campus were made a privy of the planning.
In conceptualizing the order and the leitmotif of the forum, the I-RISE Approach was deployed as a modular vehicle where classroom instruction be informed by research, the result of which could then guide ways of proceeding for university community engagement and advocacy. The I-RISE Approach was previously taken up during an inter-council consultation. When the different councils jointly tackled the I-RISE, in tandem with the formation cluster (to highlight the formative component of this academic exercise), the intent was to attempt to create a possible lynchpin where a concrete form of strategy be deployed, complementing the three aspects of higher education in pursuit of a particular educational objective. But how is the I-RISE Approach being channelled along multiple disciplinal lines? The Ateneo InterDisciplinary Mechanism for Engagement (or its appealing acronym, AID-ME) serves as a means to do this. Through the AID-ME, modules are crafted to tailor fit the strand of a particular topic the way it is discussed in specific courses. But because the ultimate intent of the I-RISE is not just educative but formative, the module carries an overarching theme, universal enough to carry multiple discourses in various disciplines, and yet particular enough to highlight specific themes appropriate to a discipline. The module therefore appropriates the requisite of a specific discipline, even as it targets universal core messages within the same trajectory, say the ultimate formation of an Ateneo student leader sui generis.
In which case, the I-RISE was deployed in the crafting of the BFA forum in such a way that the university community, especially its primary clientele, the students, be afforded a process-oriented approach in discoursing the recent development contained in the historic document in three distinct phases namely, the pre-forum, the actual forum, and the post-forum. Key academic and formative courses were identified in deploying the I-RISE, spread out from first year to fourth year (FYDP and NSTP-CWTS for formative courses in both first year and second year; Theology, Philosophy, Political Science and History for academic courses in the third and fourth year). In these identified courses, classroom inputs were given during the pre-forum, including the conduct of a survey crafted by the URC, and complemented by discussions taken from the concept paper, the fact sheet on the BFA, and other relevant sources. In the actual forum, each class was represented by selected student representatives (in consideration to the limited capacity of the auditorium), who then took the survey (still crafted by the URC) immediately following the forum. To complete the three phases, the post-forum will be conducted inorder to process the students’ views and reflections on the historic signing of the Bangsamoro agreement between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), as presented during the forum, but also of the bigger challenge thrown to them in appropriating the overarching themes that beg for their understanding, analysis and further reflection, as they prepare to take on active engagement and advocacy toward the wider concerns for peace.
This is not the first time that a module is deployed as a vehicle to openly discourse about emerging social issues. Actually, it has been done several times in the past. The latest attempt on this was when the university actively supported the call to condemn extra judicial killings (EJF) and other human rights violations through a peaceful march/rally in July of 2011. But this is the first time that the I-RISE Approach is rolled out as a propitious attempt to experiment a possible complementation of instruction, research and community engagement.
As an unfolding experiment, the key players behind the BFA forum can only cross their fingers and hope for encouraging support from the academic community.
The post-forum module will be deployed on 6th and 7th December, even as the results of the pre-survey and post-survey are being processed by the URC. (By M. Isabel S. Actub, Arrupe Communications & Advocacy, for the Ignatian Spirituality & Formation Office)