UNIVERSITY-LEVEL democratic participation is a two-way conversation between the Sanggunian and its constituents, actively practiced through the annual Sanggunian elections. However, low voter turnout has been a consistent concern after less than 20 percent of the student body voted during the past three elections.
With the COVID-19 pandemic prompting the University’s first-ever online Sanggunian elections, Ateneo Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Officer-in-Charge John Patrick Lumbre and Interim Sanggunian President Jb Bejarin expressed concerns on even lesser voter participation.
However, the Loyola Schools (LS) community has been doing its best to debunk the age-old notion of Atenean apathy through its collective COVID-19 response that included mobilizations and relief operations, among other efforts. With the national context radically changing the LS, there is one question we must ask: How can the Sanggunian rally together a student body scattered across the archipelago in the face of mounting crises?
The Sanggunian and the LS community cannot rely on ostensibly momentous crises to unite and collaborate. Not only is it unsustainable, it also creates a narrow perception of what student democracy means.
Strike a chord
A notable instance that prompted student body action is the One Big Strike (OBS), which was held in mid-November of last year. Both students and the Sanggunian were taken by surprise when the strike clandestinely erupted and received mixed reactions from the community and other stakeholders. Orchestrated by a handful of LS undergraduates, the strike was not only telling of accumulated student frustration over online learning but also of student apprehensions in immediately approaching Sanggunian channels.
The strike generated an unprecedented amount of approval and dissent from the student body. Enraged by their lackluster pandemic response, OBS admonished the national government’s apparent negligence and called for a mass academic strike in protest. Ensuing Sanggunian Central Assembly Emergency Meetings and Special Sessions livestreams drew viewers by the thousands, and social media was abuzz with the varied opinions of Ateneans. Arguably, OBS and its effect on the Sanggunian will be looked upon as a pivotal moment in LS history—a defining display of participatory democracy as it should be, and a far cry from Atenean passivity towards school affairs. Although the strike imbued the Sanggunian and its constituents with reinvigorated and cooperative discourse, it was also a moment that forced a community to its limits because of a historically lackluster participatory governance.
These long-standing lapses of representation in the Sanggunian have impeded the student body from participating in democratic University events. For instance, the first round of the 2019 Sanggunian General Elections left vacancies in the two highest positions of Sanggunian—the president and vice president—alongside the seat of the School of Humanities representative. Opposed and unopposed candidates lost to the abstention vote, pushing the Ateneo COMELEC to conduct the first Special Elections since the abolishment of the electoral quota. There was also a need to appoint a School of Science and Engineering representative due to the lack of running candidates for the position.
Show and tell
The cases of the AY 2018-2019 Special Elections and OBS both reflect Sanggunian’s long-running need to establish a relationship with the student body and other stakeholders that stretches beyond election season. Bejarin acknowledged earlier this year that there is an urgent need to uphold democracy at the University level amid issues exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It can be said that the Sanggunian has been taking strides towards presenting itself as a more accessible and student-centric student government. These are best observed through the launch of the Sanggunian’s official website in February 2020, the reimplementation of Sabihin sa Sanggu for the online setting, and the introduction of the BluePrint for Socio-political Engagement not long thereafter.
However, the online setting has only added insult to injury—pushing the Sanggunian to the brink of irrelevance. Obstacles such as insufficient efforts towards student-centered public participation and varying contexts amid mass geographical dispersion continue to hinder the student government from operating to its full capacity.
Had the 2019 Special Elections or OBS not prompted the student body to act with more haste, it is likely that Sanggunian would have been viewed as nothing more than a figurehead for a half-baked democracy. With the uproar caused by these extraordinary events, the Ateneo community has proved itself capable of active student participation. The issue lies in the lack of determined action; The GUIDON recognizes how reactive the student body and the Sanggunian can be in the absence of catalyzing moments.
Gone downhill
It is due time that the Sanggunian become more proactively representative of its constituents by strengthening avenues of engagement and service. Beyond consulting with students for their needs and insights, the Sanggunian should strive to cultivate collaboration by empowering home organizations and sectoral representatives. Gradually, more constituents will be motivated to engage in discourse and the decision-making processes of the Sanggunian.
One concrete measure to achieve this is for the Sanggunian to publish minutes or highlights of their livestream hearings, akin to how the Presidential Communications Operations Office publishes full transcripts of President Duterte’s speeches. In addition, news and media outlets have also utilized social media platforms to post the highlights of public addresses to aid audiences in digesting pertinent information better. Given that not all students are able to view the sessions, these summarized highlights can help deliver readily visible and digestible points for students to respond upon—approvingly or otherwise.
On the opposite end, students should also do their best to meet the Sanggunian halfway. Reciprocity is necessary for mending the relationship between students and the student government. Low voter turnout, for example, still relies heavily on the willingness of students to deliberately involve themselves in school-wide concerns. Exercising one’s right to vote during the Sanggunian Elections is a deliberate act of volition, underscoring the importance of LS students in University democracy as a whole. Other measures include accomplishing the Sanggunian’s email and SMS surveys, as well as formally coursing student concerns to the student government’s official social media channels.Simply put, the Sanggunian must communicate and the student body must open itself to dialogue; this symbiotic relationship is needed to best ensure that student needs are met and student government mandates are fulfilled. With the 2021 General Elections fast approaching, both the students and Sanggunian must remember that democratic participation is dialogical. Any less than this will invariably mean that student pleas and student government promises fall on deaf ears.
