Foundation University will skip this year’s 2013 Kasadyaan Festival to extend help to the victims of Typhoon Yolanda.
The Kasadyaan Festival, one of the biggest annual university activities, has been celebrated every second week of December. Among the activities in this week-long festival are the search for the Hara sa FU, the Pasundayag and the Kasadyaan Parade.
The decision started in an email loop among university administrators which was formalized in a subsequent meeting of the Administration Council.
However, the Alumni homecoming scheduled for December 14 will proceed as planned.
Tanilon addressed the students to seek their understanding and support for this unprecedented decision. “We felt it would be insensitive for the University to be celebrating and dancing in the streets in the midst of a national calamity,”
Tanilon also called on the FU community to instead donate their intended expenses for the Kasadyaan, Pasundayag, Christmas Decor Competition and Booth-making Competition to the typhoon victims.
He added that some members of the Foundation University Community also have families in the affected areas who have yet to hear from their loved ones.
Asked about her reaction to the cancellation of the festival, Carla Armentano, a first year BSED student, said she’s okay with it. “I believe people in the affected areas need immediate relief,” she said.
It’s supposed to be Carla’s first Kasadyaan experience this year, but she said she’s one with FU in helping and expressing solidarity with the victims of such a devastating super typhoon. And that, for her, is even more important.
Immediately after the typhoon slammed Eastern, Central and Western Visayas, the University, through the Student Government, initiated a campaign for donations to the typhoon victims, which they gave to ABS-CBN. (Paul Edward Bajas)
