UNACCREDITED ORGS are slowly but surely being heard more in the Loyola Schools. Given the difficulties they encounter because of their unofficial status, the Sanggunian Central Board Committee on Extracurricular Affairs (CEA) held a General Assembly (GA) to address the concerns of unaccredited orgs and provide viable steps toward the path of accreditation.
Facilitated by Second Year School of Science and Engineering Central Board (CB) Representative Gio Alejo, the CEA held the GA to enlighten the orgs of the current moves they are making with OSA to minimize, if not eliminate, the hassles of being unaccredited.
Alejo assured the unaccredited orgs’ representatives that CEA is doing its best to address their needs, and will always be open for dialogue.
“[CEA] is here to look after the welfare of unaccredited orgs. There are long-term plans that will hopefully be of great help to all the student orgs,” he said.
The GA was held last August 17 at Kostka Room 304.
Student org classification
According to Office of Student Activities (OSA) Formators Rica Joven and Dino Galvey, there are three levels with regard to OSA’s classification of student orgs, and each level has respective perks that organizations can avail of.
The first level, where unaccredited orgs fall under, has campus facilities access only. Orgs can only be granted permission to use the Loyola Schools’ (LS) facilities if they have an “in-house moderator” to oversee its activities.
The “in-house moderator”, who should be a member of the concerned org, can either be an LS faculty or a student taking up a master’s degree.
The second level enjoys formation—wherein student org leaders are guided and evaluated by OSA on handling meetings and applying leadership skills in org activities—which is useful for overall org development, on top of the facilities access. Orgs currently applying for accreditation fall under this level.
Third level orgs meanwhile, have both facilities access and formation. They are also allocated with budget and have the permission to use the Ateneo name.
Galvey said that donning the Ateneo name is important for some orgs because it allows them to acquire sponsors easier and in a way classifies them as an “Ateneo caliber organization”.
However, not all orgs feel the same. “Some orgs consider the processes associated with being accredited to be a hassle Rafael Verzosa, , and so they choose to remain unaccredited,” Joven said in a mix of English and Filipino.
The disadvantages of being unaccredited
Like other unaccredited orgs, Literary Society’s Executive Vice President Ray Martin Garcia pinpointed the absence of permission to use the Ateneo name as the major disadvantage in being unaccredited because it “restricts” the actions of an organization, and limits the potential of orgs to be recognized.
Asked if unaccredited organizations feel marginalized, Garcia said that the situation is not really that extreme.
“There are disadvantages in being unaccredited. Like we don’t have an org room that would make people locate us easier, but we [unaccredited organizations] are not really marginalized. It’s actually good to hear that there are specific moves being made [by CEA] that would help out every student organization,” said Garcia.
Org promotion
As for the immediate future, the release of primers containing the description and activities of all the unaccredited orgs could be done to “advertise” them.
A creation of an exhibit featuring the unaccredited orgs is also being taken into consideration. The exhibit will resemble the Recruitment Week last June but without the recruitment aspect. As of press time, however, no specific date has been set for either of these two promotional plans.
Helping out Alejo with the future plans concerning unaccredited orgs are Second Year School of Humanities CB Representative AJ Elicaño and Third Year School of Management CB Representative Claudia Vega, both members of CEA.
“The very purpose of CEA is to serve as the helping arm of unaccredited organizations. We are doing our best for them [unaccredited orgs] because we know how important extracurricular activities are to the life of a student,” said Elicaño.
