UNDER A stricter implementation of the Student Entrepreneurial Initiatives (SEI) Policy, the banning of outside concessionaries from selling inside the Ateneo campus caused the cancellation of pending events of a number of student organizations.

The SEI policy states that income-generating activities “must be a student-organized and student-run venture” and that renting out “campus facilities to outside groups” is not allowed.

SEI Coordinator William Mallari said that the policy had already been in effect for several years even before the current academic year.

“It’s been there since I started as the coordinator of the Office of Student Entrepreneurial Initiatives,” he said.

Mallari admitted that one or two years after the implementation of the policy, student-led initiatives again gradually involved “relatively small food chains in exchange for the well-known fast food chains that [they had seen] before.”

Ateneo Economics Association (AEA) President Julienne Lechuga said that although the policy had already been in place before, the implementation of the policy had not been strict for the past few years.

“The orgs have already planned their events since April. Then, we were shocked that there was a GA [general assembly] about SEI around June. They said that the policy would be strictly implemented, that no outside concessionaires would be allowed at all,” Lechuga said in a mix of English and Filipino.

The GUIDON tried to reach Council of Organizations of the Ateneo President Gigi de Villa, but she was unavailable for comment.

Cancelled plans, alternative projects

The stricter implementation of the policy proved to be problematic for student organizations relying on the aforementioned activities to fund other projects, especially since they already planned out events early on.

“It’s actually frustrating because they released the rule after our respective [planning seminars],” Ateneo Lex President Carlo Africa said. He added that they already had plans for bazaars and created teams to handle them, but the home organization of legal management majors had to cancel the said events.

“It was tough telling people that your project won’t be able to push through.”

According to Africa, holding bazaars was one of the Ateneo Lex’s primary fundraising activities. “Bazaars are usually a good option because it really involves less risk on our part as an organization and it fulfills the main objective of producing money for the org.”

On the same note, Lechuga said that the money AEA had generated from bazaars contributed greatly to AEA’s funds. “We earn around P10,000 to P20,000 from bazaars, so the effect of cancelling the bazaar is really huge, especially for an org that isn’t business-oriented,” she said in Filipino.

“Definitely, you can’t charge our [other] events since they’re not fund-raisers; they’re forums, quiz bees, talks,” Lechuga said. “Sir Mallari’s proposition is that we charge entrance [fees] for our events… We already have a hard time getting students to attend for free. How much more if we charge?”

In order to cope with the stricter implementation of the SEI policy, organizations planned alternative projects to raise funds.

“Since the rule came out, we had to scrap out all of our bazaars for the first semester and we went with an alternative plan of raising funds,” Africa said. “Instead of actually holding school bazaars, we decided to have an outside bazaar instead.”

“So far, it’s doing really good since we’ve already received a lot of inquiries for it,” he shared.

AEA, on the other hand, focused on getting more sponsors to fund its projects. “We boosted our marketing strategy, so most of the money that we’ll be using would come from sponsors rather than from self-generated projects,” Lechuga said.

”Spirit of the policy”

Not all organizations experienced problems with the stricter implementation of the SEI policy, however. Ateneo Management Association (AMA) President Via Puyat said that while they also held bazaars, they did not rely on outside concessionaires.

“While I do understand that the SEI policy has caused difficulty for some organizations, I also see why it was necessary to strictly enforce it,” Puyat said. She noted that the commissioning of the same concessionaires week after week for different bazaars seemed to show “a lack of innovation in the way organizations attempt to generate funds for their projects.”

Puyat added that she knew how other organizations might not think it was important to be creative in their fund generation. “However, these organizations must also understand that the [SEI] coordinator must provide an environment which encourages student entrepreneurship. Can simply getting previous concessionaires to join other bazaars in Ateneo be called ‘entrepreneurship?’”

Mallari said that he believed commissioning outside concessionaires to sell inside campus did not encourage learning for the students.

“The students of the Ateneo are very lucky that they will be exposed to activities that will further hone their entrepreneurial skills. I think, over and above everything, that’s the spirit of the policy,” he said.

Puyat also noted that the purpose of the SEI policy might have been misunderstood by the organizations because the announcement was made when organizations had already planned their events.

Mallari said that he believed Ateneans are capable of organizing fund-raising activities without resorting to commissioning outside concessionaires to sell on campus. “Even non-management majors should have the basic principle of entrepreneurial activity.”

Discussion needed

While some organizations have now seen the value in the SEI policy, they have also found a need for further discussion and consultation about the policy.

Puyat noted that amendments to the SEI policy could still be made. “It seems quite ambiguous now, and I think that given specific parameters for specific situations, it will not be as daunting for any org to abide by.”

On the other hand, Lechuga lamented the lack of consultation with the students. “At the end of the day, it was just the SEI implementing the policy without us being able to give our input to it.”

She added that the offices should talk among themselves regarding the policy, so that students would not be confused with the different processes.

Africa, however, said that he understood the good intentions of the SEI and that he saw the policy as beneficial to Ateneans. “Organizations might actually learn how to actually create efforts to produce more funds, and it can actually lead to orgs helping other orgs in this regard.”

What could be improved on, Africa said, was how the policy was implemented. “I find their process frustrating because they really didn’t give us time to transition for the stricter implementation of the rule,” he said.

“It should have been disseminated earlier and it should have taken into consideration the views of the different organizations as well,” he explained. “[The] policy could be changed so that students would have a stronger say in the implementation of this policy because as of now, we don’t really have much of a choice than to follow it.”

Editor’s Note: AMA and Ateneo Lex are organizations under the Business Cluster, while AEA is under the Issue and Policy Analysis Cluster.