Tales from the All Purpose Walkway

This was one week when many DLSU students could not travel from building to building without being asked "Have you voted already?" Whether that question was asked by a member of the COMELEC or by a member of the political parties, one thing is clear: there really is a move to push for the highest number of student votes possible. Thankfully, at least from my perspective, this hope is somewhat materializing, judging from some of the feedback from my friends who have either been watching the elections...or who have been asked one too many times about exercising their duty of suffrage.

Election specials courtesy of TLS and Plaridel have been making the rounds of the campus. TLS' glossy publication was the first to hit the walkways, while Plaridel's election special was distributed only today. As usual, write-ups about the outgoing SC's work, excerpts of campaign spiels and interviews, and the candidate profiles were featured in both publications. This year, both publications seem to have better chances of escaping any post-election controversies, owing perhaps to the more cautious journalistic and campaign strategies being employed by the student journalists and SC hopefuls, respectively.

One of the busiest places this week on campus had to be that strip of space that is roughly divided into the Miguel Walk and the Eng Walk. Apart from the voting booth set up right in the middle of everything, there were the lines of candidates and their campaigners simply observing the voting process and asking every student who passed by the "inevitable question of the week." As crucial as this relatively safe form of pollwatching is, it did have its logistical drawback of crowding out the different booths and tambayans of various groups and organizations that frequent the benches along the walkways. Some of the candidates and campaigners who frequented this particular walkway also discovered the hard way that their pollwatching duties came with the added task of answering different scales and questionnaires being circulated by frantic psychology students seeking to complete their research requirements for a major subject. Student life still goes on after all.

While passing around some questionnaires, I got the chance to chat up Bugs (of Santugon) and commend her on her show of support for a high school friend, (one of the EB candidates of Tapat) during the miting de avance last week. It is particularly good to know that not even fierce campus politics can make a significant dent in some friendships. Now if only campus politics could cement instead of break certain partnerships...

...then maybe more than just student life could go on.