By Jasper Dominic Miranda
Intramurals at Silliman University are synonymous with roaring crowds and college pride. But while the bleachers shake with cheers for the athletes on the court, another exhausted group is working just as hard off it—and getting a fraction of the glory. It is time we confront an uncomfortable truth that the Silliman community has developed a frustrating culture of entitlement toward its student creatives, and it needs to end.
While the university focuses on the scoreboard, a quieter rivalry unfolds among creatives. They craft banners, witty posts, pubmats, and high-energy teaser videos that build each college’s identity. Their cinematic photos and graphics elevate games into spectacles—yet their talent often remains overlooked and underappreciated.
This lack of appreciation brings us to a persistent and deeply frustrating issue. The Silliman University Camera Club (SUCC), an organization that has been volunteering for university events for over a decade, still finds its massive contributions taken for granted. Recently, the organization was forced to release a statement addressing mounting, unwarranted complaints from students who are upset that certain sports games went undocumented or that photos were not posted fast enough.
The grievances were completely understandable but also detached from reality.
Let’s be honest: these creatives do not owe anyone anything. In a massive and decentralized event like Intramurals, the SUCC explicitly stated, a lack of volunteer members makes it physically impossible to cover every single event. Moreover, the post-production process of thousands of raw photos takes hours of painstaking work.
Yet, athletes and spectators alike wait for these “photo dumps” to update their profile pictures. But the truth is, we simply cannot demand instantaneous, comprehensive coverage from students who are providing a free service out of sheer passion.
Empathy is a great start, but true appreciation requires action. If the Silliman community wants premium content and comprehensive coverage, we need to step up and fundamentally change how we treat our media teams. We need to be kind and understand the physical limitations of covering a university-wide event with a volunteer skeleton crew.
Instead of complaining about missing photos, we must learn to appreciate the ones we do get by giving credit and tagging the photographers, videographers, and graphic artists when you post their work. Above all, never crop out a watermark. Doing so is not just disrespectful; it is an outright erasure of the artist’s hard work.
Given that February is also National Arts Month, there is no better time to commemorate our student creatives and give them the grace, respect, and tangible support they have rightfully earned.
To the creatives carrying the visual legacy of your colleges: I hope you never lose the drive to pursue what you love just because of a few entitled voices. Keep shooting, keep designing, and keep creating. Know that your worth is not dictated by their demands—it is proven by your art.
