Atenean life is arguably incomplete without the variety of food options on campus—from the famed liempo of Manang’s to the hotdog sandwiches sold by the Ateneo Multipurpose Cooperative-run hotdog stand in the Gonzaga Hall cafeteria.

The most distinctive of all of these, however, is the John Gokongwei School of Management Student Enterprise Center (JSEC). Over the years, JSEC has become deeply ingrained in Atenean student culture—serving, in many imaginations, as the home of the stereotypical management student.

Part of JSEC’s significance in the Ateneo stems from the fact that the constituent stalls of the JSEC are owned by students. In this sense, it is a food center like no other in the Ateneo. This distinctiveness, however, also means that JSEC faces unique challenges— how stalls are selected every year to compete in the JSEC Challenge, for instance. Other issues take on different nuances—how much rent is charged per stall, where the rent from the stalls go.

All of these have meant that the student enterprise center has not been immune to rumors—speculation that needs a sense of where JSEC came from, where it is and where it intends to go to dispel.

A gilded past

JSEC’s ancestry traces back to the practice of setting up five stalls near the old building of the Rizal Library every second semester for student enterprises, which was stopped when construction of the Manuel V. Pangilinan Center for Student Leadership commenced in 2006. At its inauguration, JSEC only had 12 stalls, and these stalls were not limited to just selling food. One of the tenants, for example, promised to sell school supplies at competitive prices.

By 2012, JSEC had evolved from just a generic laboratory for any kind of student-led business to the food service-oriented institution we know today. Even five years after its launch, the enterprise center continued to attract outside attention, especially after celebrity Ateneans cashed in on the concept. Robi Domingo, of Pinoy Big Brother fame, had Grilla in Manila; basketball sensation Chris Tiu owned Chinky Chicken.

That year, JSEC undertook a renovation that expanded the number of stalls from 12 to 19. A covered walkway from the Science Education Complex was also built, while seating capacity was also increased. The number of stalls was then increased to 22 a few years later.  Even more recently, November saw the departure of William Mallari, director of Student Enterprise Initiatives, of which the JSEC is part of. His responsibilities were divided among three successors, with George Quitoriano now in charge of JSEC as its coordinator.

The main, claimed goal of JSEC from the very beginning was to serve as a laboratory for entrepreneurship—for students to run actual businesses in an environment that closely modeled real world conditions. “Student businesses must pay fair wages to employees and cover their own utilities costs,” wrote Elizabeth Sanchez for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. In his column, “Bull Market, Bull Sheet,” Wilson Lee Flores lauded JSEC “as [a] part of the positive trend among Philippine schools of offering good entrepreneurship courses and programs.”

JSEC, then, was seen as a novel idea that drew praise from many quarters. It quickly became another source of pride for the Ateneo community, especially the JGSOM. As some have discovered, however, the reality of running a stall is far more complex than what outsiders have perceived it to be.

A sobering present

JSEC, by its nature as an entrepreneurship laboratory, faces a lot of the same issues as businesses—it is by no means a utopia where such issues resolve themselves without question or error.

As an entrepreneurship laboratory, JSEC must strike a fine balance between simulating harsh macroeconomic conditions and encouraging experimentation and experiential learning by providing programs and other forms of assistance to owners. This is a balance, naturally, that is perceived differently by different people. Thus, whether JSEC serves as an effective incubator for future business leaders is very much a contested issue.

“In my personal experience, it feels more like a real business with costs similar to external establishments with no special training,” gripes Paula*, an owner of a JSEC stall. “They don’t even concern themselves that much about our problems.”

She feels this way, she explains, given that the administration seems to be more content with merely imposing penalties for non-compliance than providing training. “For example, if you pay even one day late, you get P100 additional cost as penalty,” she claims. “Their rent isn’t so student-friendly either.”

On the other hand, John*, another proprietor, finds little issue with how the administration deals with tenants. “I have no issues with the current administration as they are very much open to helping us improve our business further,” he testifies. “I believe that we are given a lot of free reign in terms of handling our business.”

“They go as far as offering us seminars in terms of managing our finances,” he says. He also notes that the administration throughout the year has taken a vested interest in financial wellbeing of the businesses. By asking for periodic reports of their bottom line, the administration is able to pinpoint problematic tenants and offer their help.

There are other issues. Like malls, the matter of how much rent should be charged per establishment is a divisive and sensitive issue.

JSEC stall owners say that rent this school year is determined, nominally, by where they end up within JSEC. One owner, Paula*, said that rates range from P15,000 to P30,000 a month, by her estimates. John*, another proprietor, explained that these rates are charged based on how large the stall space is. This is akin to how rent is charged in many commercial buildings.

Another issue is how the JSEC administration regulates and assists the conduct of business in the mall. A proposed measure by the Mallari administration that provoked controversy amongst owners, for instance, was the holding of the finances of all the stalls in a single corporate account. “It was just suggested one day to us help us ‘manage our finances,’” according to Paula.

John, however, explains that the move was rationalized by the concern over students losing their daily sales to theft, as well as a desire to centralize payments of rent and other expenses to the JSEC administration.

An even brighter future?

Quitoriano, for his part, is keener to talk about the future of JSEC. A radical proposal from him is the push to expand JSEC beyond food service once more, by opening a JSEC corner inside the Loyola Schools Bookstore. He argues that by providing more avenues for non-food service businesses, job opportunities would be created on a much greater scale, especially in industries such as manufacturing. This, ultimately, aids in nation-building.

He is also a strong proponent of expanding the Blue Card, a reloadable card system currently used by the Rizal Library for printing service transactions, to JSEC as well. By implementing the Blue Card technology, tenants gain access to a computerized Point-of-Sale system that allows for greater accuracy and honesty in accounting for sales. He also insists that the Blue Card system would guarantee the maximal compliance of all tenants with government regulations, such as issuing official receipts and senior citizen’s discounts.

He concedes there are high capital costs associated with successfully applying for slot in JSEC as well as running the stall proper. However, he wants to make stall ownership more accessible to the scholars’ community by launching a special competition where the reward would be the funding required to set up a stall. Apart from this, he wishes to donate part of the rent collected form all stalls to the Ateneo Scholarship Foundation, as well as open up auditing positions to capable scholars.

In terms of assigning stall spaces for next year, he already has plans to revamp the system. In the place of the previous system will be a new bidding-based one—although one where he would take an active role in recommending the best fit for each venture.

Rent, on the other hand, would be more sensitive to the differing fiscal situation of each business—a flat rate would be charged for all, but higher grossing ones would have to pay a percentage of their profit as part of the rent.

“People, planet, profit” is how Quitoriano summarizes his vision for JSEC in the coming years. All of these ambitions, however, will count for nothing if Quitoriano does not prove himself able enough to handle JSEC as it is right now.John is optimistic about how Quitoriano will do as moderator in the future. “He’s much more hands-on and much more accessible with the stalls,” he opines. “I believe in his short time, he has reached out his hand to the stalls and lend his knowledge of what it means to be an entrepreneur.” He also says that the Quitoriano has shared some of his future plans for the student enterprise center with his group.

Paula, however, has her reservations. “I think he tries to help us in different ways, but sometimes, the things he requires are unnecessary, especially in the short time that we had left as JSEC owners,” she says. She relates how Quitoriano, in February of this year, asked the businesses to renew their business permits, despite the fact that stalls would only operate until the following month.

However, she appreciates the more active stance he has taken in managing the businesses, as well as his desire to comply strictly with labor and taxation laws.

Whether all of these will eventually benefit JSEC at this point, given how tentative many of them are, is yet to be seen—to render judgement, positive or negative, on its future would be unfounded at best and malicious at worst. What is also clear, however, is that JSEC, for now, will still be the same in many ways—somewhere to eat and take a break.