UNY Vice-Rector Speaks Out After Viral Debate with Students Over Protest Banner

Yogyakarta State University (UNY) Vice-Rector for Human Resources and Legal Affairs, Siswanto, has come under scrutiny after a video of his debate with students regarding the installation of a protest banner went viral on social media. Siswanto subsequently provided an explanation regarding the background of his actions. In the video uploaded by the Instagram account @gardabiru.uny, Siswanto appeared to refer to the protest banner brought by the students as ‘rubbish’. Responding to this, Siswanto explained that his action was triggered by the students staging a theatrical action in the rectorate area without permission. ‘Yesterday, several students performed a theatrical act in the rectorate hall without permission. At that time, the area was crowded with graduates and parents after the graduation ceremony,’ Siswanto said on Friday (26/6/2026). Besides the licensing issue, he also took issue with the substance of the students’ criticism regarding the management of the Nutrition Fulfilment Service Unit (SPPG) or the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) kitchen. According to him, the students’ accusation that the campus already had an SPPG was untrue. ‘The theatrical material dirtied the floor and contained inappropriate writing. They accused UNY of having an SPPG, even though to this day it does not exist,’ he explained. On the other hand, a representative of the UNY Student Alliance, Andri, said the incident occurred on Wednesday (24/6/2026). Andri explained that they deliberately took advantage of the graduation momentum to stage an action at the rectorate building so that their message would be heard by many parties. ‘The banner was about 2x2 metres in size. It read: “Rector of Education Does Not Know Education, Campus is a Place to Cook Minds, Not a Place to Cook MBG, We UNY Students Reject SPPG”. We only wrote those three sentences,’ Andri said. According to Andri, the protesters only planned to install the banner on the rectorate stairs to be photographed and immediately removed so as not to disrupt the graduation ceremony. However, they were blocked by security officers and Siswanto in the rectorate corridor. ‘We tried to push through, then a squabble began. Mr WR (Vice-Rector) then made a statement, “Wah, this cannot be here, this is dirty, wah, this is rubbish”, as recorded in the circulating video,’ Andri explained. Andri admitted to being shocked by the choice of words used by the rectorate official. ‘We were shocked to hear such language because we have rarely received such a response in previous actions. We did not even immediately realise that he was the Vice-Rector, so we were momentarily shocked and speechless,’ he concluded.