by: Jasper Dominic Miranda
As Silliman University marks its 125th Founders Day, the Hibalag Booth Festival once again stands as a centerpiece of campus celebration. Yet walking through the fair reveals a jarring contradiction: a festival built to honor Sillimanian spirit is increasingly covered in AI-generated banners and single-use plastic tarpaulins.
Where authentic student art once thrived, fairgoers now encounter garbled typography, distorted limbs, muddy digital textures, and generic layouts with little visual hierarchy. But this is not simply a question of whether a banner looks good or bad—it points to a deeper shift in how we value human skill.
What does Hibalag say about us when the creativity on its walls comes from prompts instead of people?
The concern falls on commercial concessionaires, including established external businesses paying P7,000 for a 3-by-3-meter space or P12,000 for a 5-by-5-meter plot. If a business can allocate thousands of pesos for prime commercial space on campus, why should hiring a human designer be treated as an unnecessary expense?
Choosing prompt generators over artists takes away opportunities from Sillimanian creatives, student freelancers, and local graphic designers. Paying a human designer is not simply paying for a poster. It pays for time, skill, judgment, and livelihood.
The issue also extends beyond creativity. It raises an environmental contradiction.
In 2022, Silliman University declared a climate emergency and committed itself to carbon neutrality, renewable energy, and environmental stewardship. Generative AI is not weightless.
The data centers behind these tools consume electricity and freshwater for computing and cooling. Pairing this resource-intensive technology with non-biodegradable plastic tarpaulins across campus raises a question Silliman should not ignore: do these commercial practices reflect the environmental commitments the University has made?
This is not an argument for banning AI. It is becoming part of modern creative workflows, and its responsible use certainly has a place in design. The problem begins when convenience replaces human creativity, especially when local artists are readily available.
Because generative AI has only recently become widespread in commercial signage, Silliman University Student Government (SUSG) and Committee on Student Organizations (ComSo) cannot be faulted for the sudden presence of AI-generated posters across the Hibalag grounds or for the absence of existing rules on the environmental impacts of vendor signage.
This was not a failure of enforcement, but a policy gap that had yet to demand attention. Now, with AI-generated commercial materials becoming more visible, SUSG and ComSo have a responsibility to address the gap and establish clear standards moving forward.
The Weekly Sillimanian calls on SUSG and ComSo to establish clear ethical design guidelines for commercial vendors, including disclosure of substantial AI-generated content and stronger encouragement of human-made graphics.
They should also set environmental signage standards that limit single-use plastic tarpaulins and promote reusable, lower-waste materials. These standards should then become part of future vendor application agreements and contracts, giving vendors clear expectations before they enter the fairgrounds.
Hibalag is more than a festival. It reflects the community Silliman chooses to build. As the university celebrates 125 years, its celebrations should uphold the people, creativity, and environmental responsibility at the heart of its legacy.
