The “S” in ISCP stands for satire
See you in September, aspins! (Image: ISCP)
If you haven’t been living under a rock over the weekend, you’ve probably seen posts of overly specific college course offerings and bizarre selections for faculty and staff in the International State College of the Philippines (ISCP).
You might think it’s fake—but as an alumni of the prestigious school, I can definitely attest to its life-changing curriculum, diverse culture, and numerous post-graduation opportunities. I’d even go as far as to say that my time in ISCP got me this job.
Charot lang.
ISCP is the newest meme disguised as a prestigious college, popular for offering various “courses” that are really just references to other Filipino memes.
Take, for example, their Marites—featuring promotional materials for BA in Mass Communication, among so many others. If that wasn’t absurd enough, they also posted an announcement about Imelda Staunton, known for her role as the terrible Dolores Umbridge in the “Harry Potter” series, as the officer-in-charge for the Office of the Registrar.
ISCP history
Ever since its inception last week, ISCP has gained over 580,000 followers on their Facebook page and 584,000 members in their Facebook group. On Friday, they announced the entrance exam and two days later, followed up with the names of 25,242 new ISCPanians (or aspins for short).
What’s even more impressive about ISCP is their community, making more and more new, organic content to add to the school’s reputation. They even launched a school portal, which also happens to track COVID-19 cases and vaccinations in the country.
ISCP now has multiple campuses, including the one in the imaginary city of Biringan, as well as an official school hymn. Yes, you heard right—the overplayed anthem of feeling-indie-and-underrated softbois, “Sun and Moon” by anees, was turned into the ISCP school hymn.
Too good to be true
Social media users have praised ISCP for their high-quality promotional materials and videos, even beating actual reputable institutions in the Philippines in terms of website user interface. “They look so much more legit than the ones published by legit unis HAHAHA, IT SHOWS HOW YOUNG FILIPINOS ARE REALLY SO GOOD WITH THEIR CRAFTS!!” said one Twitter user.
True enough, the ISCP pages were good enough to fool even Kim Atienza, who called it a “scam” after the school named him dean of the College of Education. “I am not in any way connected to this university if ever there is one. Be careful FB fam,” he said in a now-deleted Facebook post.
If they are convincing enough to have a public figure like Kuya Kim believe the school is real just from their social media alone, ISCP definitely holds a lot of power in the online world.
Satire and sad realities
ISCP isn’t the first satire page to confuse people. One of the older and more known ones that caught the world’s attention is The Onion, which is popular for its outrageous headlines and funny social commentary.
We have a bunch of local ones, too. The Superficial Gazette of the Philippines is a politically-charged satire page that isn’t afraid to be vocal against the administration, and meme$ out 4 du30: new horizons is a meme-posting group with similar content.
It’s no surprise that meme pages like these would have subversive undertones to them. After all, if you live in a sh*thole with rising prices and a widening gap between the rich and the poor, you cope by joking a little.
While some political and satire meme pages often take sides or post divisive content, ISCP shows Filipinos’ attitudes towards education. Private universities are so exclusive and out-of-touch that regular people on Facebook had to create their own—and make it better. Unfortunately, ISCP also says a lot about our reading comprehension levels because people actually believed it was legit.
As the school makes its way around our feeds and communities, it’s exciting—and maybe a little concerning—to wonder where ISCP goes next. Some social media users are already speculating that their pages will later on be sold and used for disinformation. Considering how many of us were fooled, let’s just hope it doesn’t keep happening.
