UST nursing college flooded with hate mails

First posted 07:21pm (Mla time)
Oct 24, 2006
By Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer

ONE OF the nursing schools that helped block the oath-taking of new nurses ordered by the Court of Appeals has been getting hate mails.

Identifying themselves as passers of the June 2006 nursing licensure exams, the letter senders were generally angry at the position taken by the University of Santo Tomas' College of the Nursing calling for a retake of the disputed test items by all examinees.

They were also fuming over the decision of UST, along with the University of the Philippines, University of the East and Far Eastern University, to file a motion for reconsideration that helped blocked the CA ruling for a partial oath-taking.

"Retake is not an option to those who passed -- majority are innocent!" wrote a certain Janice in the feedback section of UST's school organ, The Varsitarian.

A certain Erik appeared similarly furious, saying UST’s position on how to resolve the leakage controversy was meant to redeem its allegedly wounded pride.

Jeff Evalarosa, Varsitarian's managing editor, said the school paper had been getting hate mails since the controversy erupted in July. Since then, he said the paper had received at least 15 emails.

Often registering an annual passing rate of around 95 percent, UST's performance suddenly dipped to 84 percent last June, supposedly the lowest in its history. Some professors and graduates blamed the leakage, claiming that those who had benefited from it helped dragged UST's performance because of a higher percentile.

"It was clear that the main intention is not for the integrity of the nursing profession, but because of UST's wounded pride," Erik wrote in the same Varsitarian feedback section.
UST nursing professor Zenaida Famorca said on Tuesday she had also been receiving "threats" in her cell phone, purportedly from angry board passers.

"Famorca, you are one of the dream-spoilers of the (board) passers...beware," read one message.

Another text message appeared to be a death threat for Rene Tadle, president of the UST's nursing faculty association: "Tell Tadle that he won't be a hero for meddling with the nursing board exam. He might end up covered with newspaper."

One email sender appealed to Tadle and company to abandon their position on the controversy.

"Is it right that we are now suffering in the hands of your university?" the sender asked in Filipino. "Let the cheats be punished but let us achieve our dreams."

Tadle, whose motives had been questioned for not being a nurse, earlier explained that UST's position was not triggered by its relatively poor passing rate.

"It's not about one institution getting a lower passing rate," he told the Inquirer, noting that two UST graduates still landed in the Top 10. "It's our responsibility as an institution to protect the integrity of the test."

Famorca on Tuesday said the school's critics should analyze the issue and UST's position well before sending acerbic messages.

"If indeed they are board passers, they're going to be nurses soon," she told the Inquirer. "In dealing with patients, nurses follow what we call a 'nursing process' meaning we first gather data before making judgment. Their problem is that they have made judgments without doing data gathering first."

Famorca said the motion for reconsideration filed by UST, UP, FEU, and UE did not ask for a temporary restraining order on the oath-taking scheduled by the Professional Regulation Commission last week.

She said one of its appeals was merely to keep the PRC from providing the list of the 1,687 examinees that the CA had ruled should retake Tests III and V. "The PRC has made so many mistakes already. It's not credible anymore," she noted.

"We all want to bring the leakage issue to closure and we were hoping that the CA decision would do this," the four nursing schools wrote in a joint statement explaining their motion last week. "It appears that, rather than resolving the issue, the CA decision raised questions that need reconsideration and clarification."