USU PR-Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) is the host of the Advocacy for Public Information Disclosure for Academic State Universities in 2023. The activity, which aims to achieve the 2023 Informative Public Agency, was held online and offline at Prof. Dr. Suhadji Hadibroto Hall on Monday, (04/09/2023).

In his remarks, the Rector of the Universitas Sumatera Utara Prof. Dr. Muryanto Amin S.Sos., M.Si expressed his gratitude to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology for giving USU the trust to host the event. For information, USU 2022 managed to maintain the title of "Informative" Public Agency in the Public Information Disclosure Award activity.

"Allow us to express our deepest gratitude to the Ministry of Education and Culture for giving trust to Universitas Sumatera Utara to host this activity"

In the face of world developments that are closely related to technological advances, the USU Rector emphasized to the Public Relations and PPID Executors of PTN to strive to achieve status as an informative public body in 2023 because as a higher education institution, PTN must have awareness and have a role in encouraging transparency and accessibility of public information.

"In the development of today's world, we can no longer cover up what is our job because like it or not, like it or not, the advancement of information technology, this digital progress makes us no longer able to cover up what is our job, especially as a public body," said the USU Rector.

"This event is an important first step in our joint efforts to achieve status as an informative public body in 2023. Moreover, as an institution of higher education, PTN has a very vital role in encouraging transparency and accessibility of public information."

Amalia Meutia, M.Psi, Psychologist, Head of USU's Office of Public Relations, Promotion, and Protocol, said that about 30% of state universities are still informative, therefore this activity is expected to increase the number of state universities that hold informative status.

"Yes, this activity is carried out to increase academic state universities in Indonesia to get an informative predicate. So while this is still around 30% informative. So the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Research encourages PTNs in Indonesia to get a better predicate than the previous year," said Amalia.

Amalia Meutia M.Psi, Psychologist explained that this advocacy activity was the first activity organized nationally. USU will be happy if it will be trusted again by the Kartu Indonesia Pintar (KIP) Scholarship and the Ministry of Education and Culture in organizing this event.

"At Universitas Sumatera Utara, this is the first activity in the framework of advocacy carried out nationally, hopefully, if the KIP and the Ministry of Education and Culture entrust USU again. Hopefully, we will continue to help each university to have points," explained the Head of USU Public Relations.

In 2022, there are still 100 state universities that are in the uninformative zone. Glancing at this, KIP Research and Documentation Commissioner Rospita Vici Paulyn hopes that implementation in improving the information service system and innovation in providing easy access for students and the public to get access to information rights can be achieved.

"This advocacy is carried out considering that in 2022, during the implementation of monitoring evaluation of openness, there were still 100 state universities that were in the uninformative zone. Now this is our note from the Central Information Commission to encourage Indonesian state universities. This means that the implementation must run optimally in all state universities, especially state universities, to improve the information service system in their public bodies. Then make innovations to provide easy access for students and the most important thing is to open the right of access as widely as possible for the wider community," he added.

Commissioner / Head of the KIP Information Dispute Resolution Division Syawaludin appreciated the activities launched by the Ministry of Education and Culture and USU by bringing together all state universities in Indonesia. 149 State Universities in Indonesia are expected to work together to serve public information.

"I appreciate what was initiated by the Ministry of Research and Technology and also Universitas Sumatera Utara for what I think is an extraordinary activity today that can gather all state universities in Indonesia. There are 149 state campuses in Indonesia, we hope and we together encourage them to become informative campuses. Of course, this is a shared responsibility," said Syawaludin.

Author: Bambang Riyanto - Humas

Interviewee: - - -

Photographer: Amri Simatupang - Humas