Last December 3, Lasallians in green and white trooped out in front of the Henry Sy, Sr. Hall in order to form the Signum Fidei, the first Human Lasallian Star to materialize in the Taft campus. From the height of the passing LRT, the sight is a tour de force: a human star of green and white before the 14-storey BERDE standard building, whose name is lettered in a familiar eye-catching font.
But beyond the shock and the awe, what follows?
Memorable things have happened where Lasallians display their unity through massive assemblies and physical shows of institutional strength.
Back in the years before Martial Law, La Sallites picketed in front of De La Salle College to show their displeasure with the decision to sack a brother who supported calls for a greater student voice and academic freedom.
During the Marcos years, La Sallite youths joined in on the demonstrations held to protest the rule of the dictator Marcos and the human rights violations of the Martial Law Years; just as Lasallians did during the regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the public scandals interspersed during her nine year reign.
But assembly is not mere protest. Lasallians have assembled not just to decry the administration.
Passionate La Sallites and Lasallians alike amass the rows of Araneta and the MoA Arena as soon as the UAAP drums begin to beat, to cheer on La Salle’s athletes as they duke it out for school pride, among other things.
In terms of awe-inspiring spectacles, there is the Andrew building, the tallest academic building in the country, another fruit of human ingenuity and capital to marvel at besides the accredited Henry Sy Sr. Hall.
Lasallians also fostered environmental sustainability through the One Million Trees and Beyond Campaign, sowing seeds throughout the country in response to changing climate conditions. This was received with much applause.
With the same socio-civic thrust, Lasallians have also gathered en masse to mobilize resources and pack for relief drives following the severe typhoons that have beset our country. Again, received with much due applause.
But do such physical displays concretely build on our being more Lasallian, after the shouting and the adrenaline rush? Do these activities effectively deepen our sense of mission and identity?
The deeper workings of true Lasallian integrity are not in the shows of force that the institution is capable of producing on the greater scale, but in the small, unnoticed events of every day: the processes and transactions within the University, the quality of student life and the depth of learning, the justice that is meted out to students and faculty through due process in the right venues, and the Lasallian values that are not merely taught as buzz words in PERSEF and academic convocations, but values directly observed and lived out by the members of the University community.
It is, after all, these small, routine instances that are taken for granted but are in essence the most important and defining element of the whole.
We may lobby against corruption in the public sector, but should we not also lobby against the corruption in a single course where a student’s grade rises because of a special favor he has granted his professor?
There is as much problem in integrity in a system where a faculty member informally pardons cheaters, who technically deserve the penalty for academic dishonesty, just because the cheaters belong to the University’s banner scholars.
In fact, there is indeed a problem in integrity when a faculty member receives a letter from a top administrator compelling him to change the grade of a student athlete so that the athlete does not leave the school, and so the University retains an asset for its performance in the General Championship.
Sometimes we need to look deeper into what happens inside our community, and draw from these events true Lasallian mission. More than amassing for shows of strength, the University should be driven not just by the staggered pomp of displays but also by its capacity to observe Lasallian-ness in all its processes and transactions, and all of its internal workings.
Only then will it develop in its students that unseen but authentic seed of respect for the Lasallian institution, molded through an active and informed awareness of what should be Lasallian in daily life.
