THE SANGGUNIAN has initiated a planning process to redefine its purpose and craft a clearer direction for itself.
Sanggunian officers, along with several members of the Council of Organizations of the Ateneo (COA) gathered for a planning seminar on September 8.
“The point of setting the direction is to ensure that all projects of the Sanggunian are aimed at this final vision, and this will allow us to deliver better results not only this year but also in the years to come,” Sanggunian Vice President Ryan Yu said.
In addition, Yu said that the driving force behind considering the entire planning process is the ambiguity of the Sanggunian’s purpose as an organization.
Yu clarified that the recent planning seminar served as the first installation for the entire strategic planning process which will continue until a final decision on the direction they will be taking has been made.
According to COA President Karlo Abadines, setting a direction is essential in ensuring a unified focus for an organization.
In addition, Yu mentioned that the Sanggunian is trying to identify the needs of the students that have not yet been addressed by both the school administration and other student groups.
Moreover, Yu mentioned that the Sanggunian is considering these needs when it comes to formulating the direction the council will take.
Long-term changes
Yu noted that the Sanggunian’s aim is to provide long-term benefits for the student body by setting a solid foundation and direction for the organization.
“Making the most out of our few months in office means working towards making lasting changes that will allow the Sanggunian to create significant long-term impact,” expressed Yu.
Currently, the organization’s main goal is to realign with future administrations of the Sanggunian to create an easier transition between administrations.
“We aim to provide sufficient transition mechanisms in order to ensure that the structural and functional changes that we implement can be sufficiently institutionalized and easily adapted by the future administrations,” Yu said.
Given the limited time of the newly-elected officers, Yu said that Sanggunian will not be able to match the number of projects implemented in the previous years.
According to a briefer sent by Sanggunian Secretary-General Polo Martinez to The GUIDON, students find the student government irrelevant, which resulted in an insufficient number of votes during the 2014 Sanggunian General Elections last February.
During the said election, 28 positions in the Top 44 were left vacant, including the presidential seat.
Since the officers were only elected last August, they only have roughly five and a half months remaining to perform their duties.
According to the document, during the planning seminar the Sanggunian attempted to create ways of proceeding with the realignment and restructuring despite this concern.
Initial procedure
During the planning seminar, participants were tasked to envision the Sanggunian’s role in 2020, not only in the Ateneo but also in a nationwide setting.
According to Representative for Block 2E Ejay Domingo, the Sanggunian is trying to plan actions for the future instead of dealing with solving the problems made in the past.
“The reason behind this is that, for far too long, the goals of the Sanggunian have been [to] patch up the mistakes of the past; in setting goals for the future, we would be able to decisively move forward instead of fulfilling only the present,” Domingo said.
The participants were divided into groups and were asked to present the roles they wanted the student government to assume. The results were presented and the remaining participants were asked to vote on a role they most agreed with.
After casting the votes from the workshop, the results revealed that participants saw the Sanggunian as an equal partner of the administration, an embodiment of Atenean youth participation and a proponent for environmental sustainability.
The top-voted roles during their planning seminar were explained further by Martinez in the briefer.
According to the document, the participants envision the Sanggunian as heavily engaged and involved in campus-wide, national and international political issues.
Furthermore, as an equal partner of the administration, participants view the Sanggunian as a structure precisely at par with the administration and one which wields equal power in determining the agenda of the student body.
Moreover, the briefer also disclosed that the participants aim to make the Sanggunian an embodiment of Atenean youth participation by presenting itself as a “powerful structure that becomes holistically representative of the student agenda.”
Lastly, as a proponent for environmental sustainability, the Sanggunian also wishes to take part in environmental matters, not only in the “natural” environment setting, but also in encompassing development for urban settings.
“We aim to answer the difficult questions that we are faced with so that we will end up with a Sanggunian that is ready to face the challenges of the present and the future,” declared Yu.
I appreciate how the Sanggu is trying to go back to its vision in moving forward. As a constituent, I believe that this is the way to go. However, I do wish that this vision-setting is accomplished quickly; I have not felt any concrete efforts from the Sanggu to communicate with the student body. Something like vision-setting would require a large effort towards research and data gathering. Has the Sanggu done this? I don’t really know. Kung yung mga elected lang yung gagawa ng vision ng Sanggu, nawala na rin yung boses ng mga estudyante. Perhaps the Guidon can also shed some light on this strategic planning process that the Sanggu is attempting to pursue.