A Paper Larger than LifeRomulo A. Bagacina Jr.

How do you measure a paper? Is it by looking at its comprehensive coverage of campus events and the achievements of students and faculty or by measuring it against its articles or materials emblazoned with a certain degree of activism and criticalness?

If these were how a paper is supposed to be measured, then it would be a disgrace to the many campus publications of this country that have struggled to be more than and beyond these measurements. These publications including the Mountain Collegian (MC) have resisted through time to accept that disparaging idea that many people have boxed and dismissed campus papers into—that these publications are clumsy and amateurish if not lacking in depth. The Mountain Collegian, along with many campus papers in this country, has been striving hard to evolve into a paper that is not shallow and is worthy of a more favorable assessment in today’s popular culture.

To say then that MC or any campus publication for that matter is a public resource for students to be aware of matters affecting the campus is an over simplification of the role of the campus press, an understatement of the vitality of its existence.

For the past 50 years, MC has taken up the challenge to provide an avenue to each of Benguet State University’s generation of students for their voices to be heard and their lives too to be etched in the pages of history. It has provided in-depth analyses of the history and context of each generation’s own prevailing social reality and contradictions.

In its pages is a celebration of the marriage of the past and the present. While scientific breakthroughs and technological advances are featured, indigenous knowledge systems and practices (IKSP) especially of Cordillera are also central in its Devcom pages. While many publications have succumbed to the pressure of favoring template news stories and other materials, it has remained devoted to drawing the attention of young people to materials that are not only of entertainment/information value but also of socio-cultural relevance to their lives. Materials on cańao, marriage and wedding rituals, wat-wat, pinuneg, tapuey, Ullalim, muyong, gangsa, and countless more are juxtaposed with resources on the control of potato leaf miners, integrated pest management, eradication of certain plant pathologies, prevalence of suicide in certain areas in Cordillera, etc. The popularization of these materials provides not only relevant information about science and technology to better the lives of people but also an appreciation of their cultural identity and integrity. Through the popularization of these IKSP, MC is equipping young Cordillerans a beacon on

which they can rely in their search for or struggle to be in touch with their identity. In effect, the Mountain Collegian is advocating for the youth to be guardians too of their own culture and that one’s journey towards the future is a vain attempt if he or she has no knowledge of his past.

Going beyond its mandate, the Mountain Collegian has also taken it a responsibility to reach out beyond the walls of BSU and to share with others the talents and skills of its writers and alumni.

In its belief that a “storyless generation is a soulless generation,” it has become MC’s pursuit to become a repository not only of the University’s colorful past, but also of the stories of different generations. In line with this, The Pintig and Pantig: The Mountain Collegian Literary Awards and the Save the Frogs: Literary and Arts Workshop were created. The latter aims to promote awareness of the importance of frogs in the ecosystem as well as the necessity to provide these creatures with clean and healthy environment. In its ______ year now, MC’s Pintig at Pantig, on the other hand, has continuously provided an opportunity to elementary, secondary, and tertiary students of Baguio-Benguet area not only to determine the best in literary writing but also to provide an avenue for these young voices to be heard and put to print the stories of their dreams, their hopes, and even their fears. Also, related to these endeavors is the annual jail visit of MC where inmates are provided with pens and paper as well as lectures on the basics of essay and poetry writing. This is in recognition of the fact that they, the inmates, too have stories to share.

The Mountain Collegian has also become a mentor to up-and-coming writers through journalism and literary workshops they conduct voluntarily for students of BSU to students as far as Ifugao and Mountain Province. Every year, around ______ schools and ______ students are beneficiaries of lectures and writing workshops on news, sports, feature, editorial, and devcom as well as workshops on literary graphics, photojournalism, editorial cartooning, comic strip, layouting, copyreading, and headlining.

For the many generations of MCians, the Mountain Collegian is more than a publication. It has become everybody’s training ground. From managing people to organizing events, the Mountain Collegian teaches every MCian life-long lessons of camaraderie, perseverance, discipline, etc. But, more importantly, through these, MC teaches us the very foundation of that good sense of service and the value of giving back to the community that has been nothing but nurturing and generous.

Lastly, the Mountain Collegian has come to be a playground of our vitality as youth and the workrooms of our creativity and playful imaginations. It has provided us great opportunities to represent not only BSU, but also Cordillera, of which we are honored and proud. For others, it has turned into

a refuge of our tired bodies, the dartboard of our young angst and rebellion, or a consolation to our once weary and broken teenage souls. It is our greatest moments of triumphs and failures, bliss and misery, and hope and despair. For Dr. Maria Luz Fang-asan, an MC alumna, the Mountain Collegian is the “moment of ecstasy upon seeing one’s own article in print, especially for the first time.” Those moment turns into moments for every MCian to learn a “good dose of self-esteem and self-confidence” which we bring to wherever life leads us.

Undeniably, the Mountain Collegian has, for many years, become a home to many boys and girls who have eventually become men and women of life. The Mountain Collegian today then is an homage to these people who have dedicated their lives not only to “writing what is write” and writing with social and moral consciousness, but also to creating a standard of excellence and a legacy that surely is beyond reproach. It is, and will always, be our second home that we all go back to with gratitude and pride. It is larger than us. It is larger than life.