By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
Another group of campus organizations for students during our time at UP Los Banos were the religious groups. One of our friends then joined one of such groups because they had a number of beautiful women as members. Playboy that he was, he enjoyed being with the group. Flimsy was his reason for joining, I don’t think he ever complied with the requirements to be a member in good standing. I think they were required to go regularly to hear mass and to attend prayer meetings. Engaging in vices was prohibited. In no time, our friend was I think considered a member in bad standing. So he again became a regular in our dinking sprees.
Then I got tired of drinking and neglecting my academics. So I looked for a group I could join to assist me in this new quest, to reform. I was then introduced to one of our fraternity brods who went through the same path. He also gave up drinking after years of being with our frat whose members were known as the “basagoleros.” He guided me in attending the weekly group meditations in one of the numerous grounds in campus. He also guided me through the practices of the group such as vegetarianism and the daily yoga exercises I had to do daily.
Too bad, the next thing I heard about him was he left the group due to inability to abide by the strict adherence to the daily practices. By the way, we called our group the Ananda Marga Yoga Society or Path of Bliss. As we used to say, attainment of enlightenment through a scientific process, not through dogma or superstition.
Then there were the honor societies. These were groups whose names could be in Greek letters or not. Their distinguishing mark is requiring their members to have high academic grades. I told my son to try to qualify for such a group.
Then there were the course-based organizations. Thus, the organizations for chemistry majors, for engineering students, etc. Most of these were meant to assist their members academically.
Then there were the hobby groups, There were groups whose interests was in writing, or drama, or Filipino, etc.
All of the foregoing groups and the ones I mentioned last week were present in all UP campuses.
And as I also said, these are double bladed. They can I immensely help or destroy a student.
After college your co-members in- campus groups would have graduated also. Often, these would compose your network to help you go forward in the career you had chosen.
In other campuses student organizations are usually looked at as academic distractions. But I would say, it depends on how you look at them. They can provide the necessary exposure to the real world and how to deal with other groups.
It will be up to the individual students. I admit that some UP students became members of the NPA. This was because they did not choose well. Chances are, they joined leftist groups and were stupid or did not have a real conviction on what they wanted in life.**
