In a day of heavy downpour, the service center of the CSG handed out its umbrellas to students who have no form of protection from the heavy rain. In some cases, officers with umbrellas escort trapped students who would otherwise risk themselves of being wet and sick. Basic services established.
With the call for a more reasonable time slot for student activities and for the administration to respect its place in university life, the Academic Council approved the proposal to move the activity hour from 5-6 to 6 – 8:40 (final class slot) affording the student organizations the time needed to effectively conduct their activities. Organizational welfare enhanced.
In my experience as your President, these are the real and vivid pictures that best capture what your student government has been doing for the past year of its governance.
Going back to the beginning of this fruitful journey, we assumed the presidency with the banner of inclusivity, rootedness, and engagement in governance. But what does that really mean now that we have come to the end of our term? How did these principles play out into actual programs and policies? What do these words mean to you, to us and for the future?
“An Inclusive government means a transparent, accountable and responsive representation that is mindful of the mandate bestowed upon him by the electorate.”
A quick review of some old literature of the students’ view of the CSG reveals that it is primarily seen as the “mother of all events organizer”. We can only blame ourselves for this sad reality. One is quick to conclude that this is so because there is no other way to reach the students effectively but through fan fare and entertainment. However, we also quickly concluded that we can reach more students if we act like a government. And not just any government, it should be a government that operates with transparency, accountability and responsiveness as the forefront of all their actions. We have lessened the fan fare and we have increased our investment in the pillars of good governance.
This policy is best expressed in our devotion to financial transparency, monthly performance reporting, consultations, open volunteer system and our streamlined complaint processing system. For transparency, your CSG posts its cash flow and account balance in a monthly basis which also shows the expenditure share of each government unit. Official minutes of executive meetings are published online which includes attendance of the officers. Officers who fail to show up in the meetings are made to reveal their reason and are published online. In reporting, Your President gives monthly reports to the different student councils, offices and the student publication on the affairs of student government. This is also published online. In terms of consultations, Online and forum consultations were held in a monthly basis during the first semester. This practice ultimately directed our policy engagement for the remainder of the year. For students who want to involve in per project basis, we have opened the open volunteer system which accommodated nearly a total of 150 students in different CSG projects. For the complaint processing, the Students’ Rights and Welfare Commission has partnered with the Office of Student Affairs in facilitating complaints in a new and more accountable process. This resulted to one of the highest complaint resolution rates in student government history.
Needless to say, The Central Student Government is ought to be the government of, by and for the students. Being true to these words requires a leadership that is mindful of the trust and mandate given by the student body. In our case, it is the quick response of the STRAW in the lab fee complaint that made a big difference. It is ultimately the trust and confidence of the student body where the government’s influence depends. This trust and confidence is nurtured only by an open government. If it is lost, then all is lost.
“A rooted government means a leadership that anchors itself, its resources and effort in the real needs and concerns of the students.”
You or someone you know might have remembered that you/they answered a survey questionnaire at the end of last school year. Rootedness means that the efforts of the government in anchoring itself are not on the opinions and homogenous experiences of the leaders in CSG but on the real pulse of the students. Through the survey results, the students made known to their government that they have mainly 4 broad areas of concern namely: academic development, student services, socio-political involvements and extra-curricular involvement. This exercise resulted to the massive internal organization in years. From 7 executive departments in the past, it was reduced to 4 new and semi-autonomous Departments which were created to meet the needs of each of the 4 areas. The beauty of this approach comes from a simple truth; that governing blindly is not governing at all. As a first step to our own version of “matuwid na daan”, this allowed us to direct our energies and resources into the right place. Slimming down government units and allowing them to operate semi-independently did not only allow focus on specific areas but also allowed efficiency and creativity to foster.
This policy of rootedness was best expressed in the basic services we deliver to the students based on the areas of concern. This year saw the rise of the devolved student tutorial program, the CSG Service Center, and the Xavier School of Sorts. The tutorial program which addresses peer to peer study needs of the students empowered the co-curricular organizations to develop their tutorial services that resulted to the highest number of tutees ever recorded. For everyday service, the new CSG Service Center does not only sell snacks but it also rents out calculators, cell phone chargers, umbrellas, and Bibles helping those students in urgent need. This daily contact to students made your CSG closer to its constituents. For those who desire to develop their talents and learn new skills, The Xavier School of Sorts is an alternative class program that caters to the extra-curricular interests of the students from languages to arts and many more.
For the Central Student Government to be closer to its constituents, it has to target the basic needs that the students call for such as the simple call for umbrellas during a heavy downpour. If our governance is immersed in real student life, the deficit of relevance slowly disappears.
“An engaging government is a leadership that goes to the frontiers to build relationships among institutions and people for best results.”
Your CSG, as a physical institution is composed of only around 50 student leaders and only around 20% of it volunteer
fulltime in the office. Compare that to the 11,000 students who we are supposed to serve and govern and the hundreds of teachers and staff we are supposed to build relationships with. We are but a drop in the Sea called Xavier University. This image of your CSG as a tiny part of a huge community courts the idea of how insignificant its position is and in some cases it has taken away the drive and energy of our leaders. However, I discovered that your CSG is anything but insignificant if it only knows what it is here for, who to engage with and how to engage. Beside the challenge of actual governance, it is really how to make the influence of CSG touch the most basic everyday affairs of students that will make it truly significant. We took this idea as a necessity so your CSG embarked in a proactive policy of engagement. This came to life in different forms.
In terms of policy and nation building, it is brought to life by our constant reporting and recommendation-giving to the Academic Council (the highest academic policy making body of the college) where we report in a monthly basis. This resulted into some policy highlights such as the reform of the student activity hour and an extensive revision of the Magna Carta of Students’ Rights and Responsibilities which is still in process. We also linked with the Security office concerning issues of inconsistencies and the newly formed Solid Waste Management Committee which oversaw its first phase of implementation with the new segregation bins. Beyond our walls, building a house for the marginalized is also an engagement we directed our energies to under the Xavier Home program with the partnership of the Habitat for Humanity of Cagayan de Oro.
In terms of student sectors, we engaged proactively with the Office of Student Affairs in Student Assistantship Program Development where we championed a creation of a new policy that includes the SA’s Bill of Rights and the creation of a core team for an SA Organization. We also made sure that your CSG will be a potent force in the development of the scholarship program through the creation of a student body scholarship fund among others.
More than anything is how we brought the engagement to the student body into a new untapped sphere – social media. The power of Facebook and the blog in particular has allowed your CSG to amplify its message and extend its reach. We do not only exist in the second floor of the StC building; we can now interact online. This is a powerful development for bridging the gap between the students and their government allowing suggestions, questions and concerns to freely flow.
One thing is certain; Your Central Student Government cannot do it alone. It requires the constant engagement of key institutions/ organizations and support from the students. It is through this rich interplay where the real effect of good student governance can be felt such in case of the activity hour reform.
We would like to believe that this was a transformative year for our student government and student governance after a period of questions and doubts. Though not always smooth and precise, we have “operationlized” the basic pillars of good governance and laid it in place as a good foundation for the next administration to develop and improve. This, we hope is a testament that government, even in our own school can make a difference in the lives of others amidst the cynicism and apathy that pervades the youth’s view of government today. In a greater light, we hope that the great project we call “YOUR VOICE.YOUR GOVERNEMNT” will bring a new sense of optimism and faith that there can be a government that can work for the common good and for the simple service for the student body.
