THREE MONTHS into office, and Drew Copuyoc and Gio Alejo—the top two in the Ateneo student government—are hard at work consulting with various units of the community before taking their plans into action.
Sanggunian President Copuyoc is focusing his efforts on increasing Sanggunian visibility and gathering student feedback on what the community wants from its student government. Meanwhile, Vice President Alejo is looking inward at the organization, overseeing structural procedures and supervising offices within the government itself.
Student consultations
Before being elected to the presidency, Copuyoc outlined three visions for the Sanggunian he is now tasked to lead: a student government that provides service-oriented programs, pushes for course curricula and administrative improvements, and works toward greater visibility through better public relations campaigns.
One of Copuyoc’s primary mechanisms to improve student representation and consultation is the Grand Consultation. This was also a point raised by Alejo during his vice presidential campaign.
“One of the primary tasks of the Sanggunian is to provide the student body with adequate student services that will help them in the different aspects of their life in the Ateneo,” he said in his campaign platform. “The most effective way in ensuring the efficiency of the consultation process is to have a medium that will extract the needed information with the least amount of inconvenience for the students, while creating pathways that will relay both major and minor concerns of the students to the different entities and stakeholders involved as quickly and impactful as possible.”
Alejo said the Department of Research and Statistics was tasked to create the survey to ensure proper statistical methodologies were implemented.
Copuyoc said they aim to get at least half of the student body to answer the surveys and join focus group discussions. The consultation featured questions on the students’ experiences and concerns about the Integrated Non-Academic Formation (INAF) program, extra-curricular and organizational activities, and administrative services on campus.
During his campaign, he promised to release the results and data gathered from the Grand Consultation, and said that the Sanggunian “shall be transparent in the results of its dialogue with the administration.” The results will then be used as a model for another consultation.
“I believe that the Sanggunian does a lot to serve the student body but still lacks in its visibility because of a lack of communication efforts. We just need to improve our public relations efforts to inform the students of our efforts, to show that we are indeed relevant and of service to them,” Copuyoc said in his platform.
Part of the process is to get student feedback on the proposed integration of service learning in the curriculum. This had been raised as a major thrust for Ateneo universities all over the country during the last Buklod Atenista Congress.
“It’s like social involvement, but connected with your major classes,” Copuyoc explained. “It’s a teaching method wherein teachers allow students to apply what they’ve learned in class in real life settings to serve communities.”
The consultation process is a vital step, as it determines the concrete policy actions and improvements that the Sanggunian will lobby for.
“For example, if the students say they want more structure learning experiences in their INAF programs, then that is what we will be lobbying for,” Copuyoc said in Filipino.
Internal support
Meanwhile, Alejo’s platform hinged on four key points: continuity in institutionalizing Sanggunian efforts, improvement in services, connection with the student body and integration with learning inside and outside the classroom.
In his platform, Alejo explained the need to improve structures within the organization itself to further enhance institutionalization. The Department of Internal Affairs is tasked to oversee the formation of the Sanggunian officers and to ensure that each project is executed well.
One of the department’s tasks is to oversee the conceptualization and evaluation of projects under the Sanggunian Project and Operations Management System. Through this department, a process for better coordination with the school boards will be established, especially for major operations such as the Disaster Response and Emergency Action Management (Dream) Team of the university.
Alejo is currently in charge of the Dream created a system to make the mobilization of volunteers more efficient,” he explained. Several institutions are involved: the Ateneo Resident Students Association, Council of Organizations of the Ateneo, Office of Student Activities and the Office of Social Concern and Involvement.
The team’s recent major operation was Task Force Falcon, an operation to help the victims of the Davao flash floods last month. 1,600 goods were packed in around five hours for distribution to affected communities.
With reports from Katerina D. Francisco
