A YEAR-end status report of the School of Social Sciences (SOSS) Sanggunian entitled “SOSS Kapihan: State of the SOSS Sanggunian Address” was held on February 4 at the Institute of Social Order Conference Room 2.
SOSS Secretary-Treasurer Marvin Lagonera discussed the impact of the failure of elections in the 2013 Sanggunian General Elections and the 2013 Sanggunian Freshmen and Special Elections on this year’s SOSS Sanggunian.
“This experience hit hard on all of us because such failure of elections shook the very foundation of this institution: Our constituency,” Lagonera said.
“A failure of such scale and proportion could never be just temporary and short-term, but already institutional and even existential,” he added.
Lagonera reported that less than 50% of the 96 available positions in the SOSS Sanggunian were occupied. Also, only half of the SOSS Executive Committee (Execom), the highest decision-making body in the SOSS Sanggunian, was elected.
SOSS Sanggunian’s thrust
In response to the electoral failures, the SOSS Sanggunian conducted a carefully crafted and systematic school-wide grand consultation, where students were asked about the perceived irrelevance of the Sanggunian.
“We realized that we needed to identify the core problems to be able to troubleshoot,” Lagonera said.
According to him, SOSS students averaged a score of 4.92 out of 10 when asked if they saw themselves as members of the SOSS Sanggunian. Meanwhile, they gave the SOSS Sanggunian an average score of 6.07 out of 10 when asked to gauge the relevance of the Sanggunian in student life.
After the consultation, Lagonera said that the SOSS Sanggunian formulated a two-pronged thrust: To nurture and develop their identity and competencies as a school through community-building in SOSS and to create a student government for the marginalized, one that is truly reflective of the Atenean education and truly rooted in Ignatian tradition.
Committee system
To develop their thrusts, Lagonera said that the SOSS SB adopted the eight-committee system structure based on Title V of the SB Code of Internal Procedures School Board Committees.
The said committee system was established by a formal resolution passed by the SOSS Execom, entitled “An Act Acknowledging the Guiding Structure and Rules of Procedure for the School of Social Sciences Sanggunian.”
Four of these committees are directed toward community-building: Branding and Marketing, Human Resources, Special Projects and Public Information Committees.
The four other committees were directed to respond to issues of marginalization. The committees are the following: Indigenous Peoples Rights, Labor Rights, Gender and Sexuality and External Collaborations.
Lagonera said that the committees were created to ensure that “the efforts of the School Board are coherent and consistent.”
Furthermore, he said that the SOSS Sanggunian needed the cooperation of the course and block representatives to provide efficient services to their constituents.
34 ad-interim appointments were therefore made to fill the positions left vacant after the elections. An ad-interim appointee is an individual who fills in a position temporarily until a qualified person can claim the position on a full-time basis.
Lagonera explained that, ideally, the new committee system would ensure that the block and course representatives were not only information disseminators, but shapers of the discussion in SOSS.
However, Lagonera said the full implementation of this goal was not achieved because of his impeachment trial, which spanned from December 2013 until early January. Lagonera was acquitted of his impeachment charges but was found guilty of mismanagement for failing to be transparent with SB documents.
Nevertheless, he said the committee system was successful in organizing various projects such as the LGBT Pride Week and the SOSS parol for the Loyola Schools Christmas Parks.
“We’re here to serve”
In an interview with The GUIDON, Lagonera said he was satisfied because they were able to rebuild the foundations of the SOSS Sanggunian this year.
He added that the past electoral failures and the impeachment case only made them more determined to rebuild the SOSS Sanggunian.
Sophomore SOSS Executive Officer Theo Catalo agreed, saying that the SOSS Sanggunian “is not a dying school board.”
He explained that it was a “really hard year” for the SOSS Sanggunian officers, especially for the top five officers who were newcomers to the Sanggunian.
Lagonera hopes that next year’s SOSS Sanggunian will build on the projects and systems introduced this year.
“I think that the foundations we created are sufficient in order to bring the SOSS Sangggunian forward,” he said.
