IMPACT, DEPTH and synergy were the watchwords during the State of the Council Address (SOCA) held at the Science Education Complex-B Lecture Hall on December 3.
Council of Organizations of the Ateneo (COA) President Gigi de Villa admitted that in spite of the accomplishments of her council so far, more could still be done in terms of collaboration and influence in policy-making.
She delivered a speech about the assessment on COA last semester and its direction for the remainder of the academic year. Her audience consisted of COA officials, organization presidents and Sanggunian President Gio Alejo.
However, de Villa did not discount the accomplishments of COA’s departments and organizations in the Ateneo.
She also said that COA showed more accountability. They set up a project approval system and exercised fiscal discipline.
De Villa added that the main difficulties COA faced were aligning its thrust with that of the university’s and the stricter implementation of the Student Entrepreneurship Initiative which prohibits outside groups to rent facilities in the Ateneo for income-generating activities.
She enumerated goals for the current semester, some of which were the following: strengthening the relationship with the administration to give more support to organizations, putting greater influence in policy-making processes and increasing synergy among organizations for larger impact.
COA Vice President (VP) for Organization Strategies and Research Eldridge Tan said, “It is very important to take time to think about the direction of the council. I believe that we’re creating a culture that focuses less on leaving a legacy and more on building solid foundations.”
COA assessments
From the side of the COA board, some of the notable achievements were the following: more frequent promotion of organization events, more internal training for COA members and a revamped project grant system.
General difficulties that affected COA operations included unresponsive stakeholders and logistical problems encountered in some events.
COA VP for Special Projects Leatrice San Juan agreed with the evaluations made by de Villa. She added that the COA president painted an accurate picture of the experiences encountered by the departments of COA.
Tan is confident that people now understand the functions of COA better.
“Although some initiatives did not go as planned, I think people within the council have a much firmer grasp of why the council exists and what it stands for,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ateneo Mathematics Society President Marc Sua appreciated the efforts of the council to establish rapport between organization presidents and COA board members.
“COA has been doing what it can with regard to strengthening of the relationship of the presidents and the EB [executive board].”
He also said that COA was doing its best to promote synergy. He added that although there is a lot more to improve on as regards operations, progress has already been seen.
Alejo said, “[The] coordination between Sanggu and COA continues to improve as we move the same goals of building the nations through our orgs or units, as well as being the voice of our constituents to the admin.”
De Villa also presented general evaluations of the nine clusters under her council.
Suggestions from org leaders
Several organization presidents aired out their concerns to de Villa after her speech.
Ateneo Lex President Carlo Africa urged de Villa to fight for the strict observance of the activity hour. He complained that complete attendance during meetings was hard to achieve because of official curricular activities that sometimes coincided with the said period of time.
Africa also encouraged COA to set up a mechanism where plans of different organizations are bared, so that possible collaborations may be forged.
For Ateneo Chemistry Society Gian Dapul, COA should focus more on organizations that are less known. He added that COA tended to put the spotlight on accomplished organizations, but fail to recognize those in the sidelines.
De Villa said, “Hindi man perpekto ang COA, pero gusto ko sana at the end of the year na puwedeng mapagkatiwalaan ang COA (COA may not be perfect, but I hope that it will gain more trust by the end of the year).”
