Also having its own Facebook group, the university's "student council" is called Supreme E-Youth (Electronic Youth) Government, wherein "e-youth" is a wordplay on the Cebuano expletive iyot, which means "to fuck".[5]
Content
The satirical page features random personalities as "professors", "students", or "alumni". One of them is Filipino television host and weather forecaster Kim Atienza, who was "appointed" as the "dean of the College of Education". Atienza initially dismissed his association to the satirical "university" he first thought was a real institution of higher learning, and categorized it as a "scam" on August 6, 2022. Atienza, eventually, caught on to the trend and thanked ISCP for the "honor" of serving as its supposed educator.[6][7] On his Twitter account, Atienza finally "accepted" the "appointment as Dean of Education", where he "required all students" to "submit" a "10-word reaction paper" on The Philippine Star article he "quote-tweeted".[8][2]
Other Filipino personalities who have joined the trend are popular content creator Macoy Dubs, who called himself a "student"; Senator JV Ejercito, who expressed his intent to "apply" after "congratulating" Macoy Dubs;[9] singer Ace Banzuelo who projected to "run" for "presidency of the College of Arts and Sciences Student Council"; P3PWDrepresentative and former election commissionerRowena Guanzon, who was "hired" as a "law professor";[10] and stand-up comedian James Caraan, who joked he would "teach" students of "BS Marketing Major in Events Management".[2]
Local artist Toni Panagu called the attention of the Facebook page administrators for allegedly using the ISCP trend to promote QuickWrite, a startup of recent high school graduates that provide writing services, such as academic works for students. Panagu condemned the startup as a form of academic dishonesty. QuickWrite eventually disaffiliated from ISCP.[12]
Less than a month after the page went viral, the page's creator, Niño Ged, emphasized that he and the ISCP are apolitical and non-partisan in a now-deleted Facebook post. The post drew controversy from many Filipinos on social media, with many students claiming that they are dropping out of school. In response, the page issued a public apology statement from Niño Ged, reiterating the page's purpose as a satirical parody of educational institutions to expose the poor state of the Philippine education system while providing a space for free-flowing discourse across different political views, and apologizing for the misconceptions drawn from his initial statement.[13]
Niño Ged also drew controversy on social media for crying foul over volunteer content creators selling unofficial merchandise bearing the ISCP name and branding, leading to social media users accusing him of trying to "milk" the community's efforts.[13] According to Niño Ged, ISCP was not supposed to become popular, but rather he originally plans to create a novel out of it, thus claiming the name ISCP.[14] However, a post clarifies the issue stating that Niño Ged is very passionate about ISCP and that it is disrespectful not to ask permission for the name to be used for commercial purposes. Niño Ged also clarifies that the ISCP is mainly created for non-political reasons.[14]
The "ISCP Founder's Perspective"
Founder Niño Ged discussed his motives for creating ISCP in a document titled "The Perspective of the ISCP Founder". In this document, he states that the ISCP stemmed from an idea he had for a satirical "hospital where everything was funny"; this idea then evolved into the ISCP concept as he began to ask himself what sort of institution might have trained the personnel at such a hospital. On July 31, 2022, he settled upon the "International State College of the Philippines" name. Niño Ged initially intended for ISCP to be an element of a novel he was writing, but after the Facebook page he created for ISCP became viral, he decided to embrace the meme and community that had emerged around ISCP as a standalone entity.[14]
References
^Facebook page created on July 31, 2022 (2022-07-31)
