THE FIRST Central Assembly (CA) Convention held on August 27 to 28 concluded with the postponed approval and adoption of the first CA Resolution due to a lack of student engagement.

The two-day convention aimed to discuss the concerns gathered from the Student Needs Survey, but only 140 students responded to it. CA Chairperson and Sanggunian Vice President TJ Alcantara added that only four students outside of the CA registered to become delegates for the convention, which prompted them to stream it live on their Facebook page.

Because of this, the CA did not pass Resolution No.1 s.2021-2022, or the resolution to adopt the results of the Student Needs Survey as the initial basis for the academic year’s legislative agenda.

Despite low respondent turnout, the sector representatives asserted that plans for resolving student concerns such as academic interventions, mental health, and socio-political engagement are in the works. Furthermore, guest speakers 1SAMBAYAN Convener Albert Alejo, SJ, PhD and policy researcher Kenneth Abante stressed the value of open dialogue, as resolutions can only be made if the constituents’ concerns are properly communicated to their leaders.

Low respondent turnout

Among the set choices, the quantitative survey revealed that 99 students called for more mental health support and initiatives within the online setting. The CA also noted that most students from the sample population were not aware of the roles and limitations of the CA and the Sanggunian.

“With the current data we have, we can attest that [the gathered data] are pretty relevant but we have only a number of respondents,” Council of Organizations of the Ateneo – Manila Representative Kichee Pinera said.

The CA members further explained that the low turnout for their constituency checks limits the resolutions they can make since the data gathered is not representative of the entire student body’s concerns.

To remedy this, Scholars Sector Representative Lars Salamante suggested making use of the administration’s endorsements and SMS blasts to maximize the CA’s reach. He also suggested using a qualitative research approach in gathering data from students so respondents are able to go into detail about their concerns.

Salamante further recommended the CA to work with the Gokongwei Brothers School of Education and Learning Design to improve their research methodologies and strategies, since the school focuses on creating learning designs.

Additionally, John Gokongwei School of Management Representative Liezel Brito said that the purpose of the survey should be highlighted because the students’ answers can be more relevant if made aware of what their responses will be used for.

Concretization of efforts

To adapt to the setbacks, the CA decided to conduct individual consultations and focus group discussions with students as well as revise the Student Needs Survey to gain qualitative data. With these changes, the different sectors hope to collect more responses until the second week of September to better gauge the needs of the student body.

According to Alcantara, the Sanggunian will then summarize the results and integrate them with the existing data collected from previous constituency checks.

As of writing, the CA plans to hold a three-day session to pass the budget and approve the Sanggunian’s First Semester General Appropriation Act on September 3, 6, and 8. Although Alcantara recommended that Resolution No.1 s.2021-2022 be a basis for the deliberations, the CA ultimately decided to proceed without it.

Given the urgency of implementing long-term actions, the CA will meet again in the third week of September to adopt the “super-resolution” by the end of the month. This “super-resolution” will then become the basis of the upcoming resolutions per sector as it merges both sectoral concerns and student needs.

In line with this, School of Science and Engineering Representative Rika Cruz supported the creation of the “super-resolution” as it would lessen the distribution of overlapping resolutions. “The work lies with us, the representatives, to point out the intersections and the common ground so as not to confuse or complicate things for the constituents,” Cruz said.