On October 11, 2012 USG President Jana Cabuhat received a report that the USG venue reservation account had been suspended due to three venue reservation violations. Moreover, Cabuhat was informed that the USG room reservations done in the said account for the entire term would all be cancelled. As of press time, however, the suspension has been lifted and the venue reservation cancellation sanction did not push through.
Room reservation is done via an organizations’ MLS account and must be done 4 working days prior to the activity. Approval of room reservation will be done by the following day. Rooms have corresponding reservation fees but for meetings, activities with no sponsors, fees are waved.
According to room reservation policy, an account can only reserve 10 venues at a time. Moreover, if an account has accumulated a total of three reserved but not used venues, the account could be suspended and all reservations made through the account would be cancelled. Venues reserved are checked on the date and time of reservation and “checkers” (usually Discipline Office personnel) have project heads sign for proof that the venue was used.
Reservations, however, could be legitimately cancelled two days before an event.
According to the report, three different activities from three different offices did not push through, and thus resulted to the penalty. The report though, failed to specify the specific activities that led to the USG penalty and only mentioned that the Office of the Vice President for Internal Affairs (OVPIA), the Office of the Vice President for External Affairs (OVPEA) and the Office of the President (OPRES) each had an activity that was not cancelled, but did not push through.
The last activity that led to the suspension is an OPRES activity, the largest of which was an OVPEA-sponsored forum on the Reproductive Health Bill at the Teresa Yuchengco Auditorium.
Hoarding
Some USG officers point out that the incident came as a result of alleged room hoarding by batch government FAST 2011. Last term, the batch government unit allegedly reserved rooms and tables at St. Joseph (SJ) walk and at Miguel Hall from 8 am to 8 pm the entire term.
The aforementioned USG officers explain that many of the USG units started to reserve rooms without planned activities at the start of this term because of the incident. The officers argued that it was the only way some units could reserve venues since many of the rooms would already be reserved at the start of the term and they would be left with no venues at all for their activities.
Former Business Management Society (BMS) officer Franz Meroy mentions that he remembers an officer from another organization last term worrying about venue reservations since most of the SJ walk tables were already reserved. Meroy then mentions that not all the reserved venues then had ongoing activities.
USG President Jana Cabuhat also recalls noticing several venues last term that were reserved for the entire day. She, however, does not know if the USG units that reserved the venues had activities such as seminars, games and the like.
Cabuhat explains though that she is not aware of any vintentional room hoarding incidents by specific USG units, and notes that if the USG finds evidence of room hoarding, she would see to it that the proper courses of action would be made to address the issue.
The USG, through the Department of Activity and Approval Monitoring (DAAM), monitors and checks all USG unit activities to make sure that the units have complied with the proper documentation and processes. Cabuhat, argues that the DAAM has yet to focus on ensuring that room reservations are made after projects have been finalized, albeit the process of documentations for an activity to be approved by DAAM is to have a printed reservation ticket already.
Hoarding venues have now become a trend, with even officers from different organizations (USG or not) doing it as to make sure that activities in their GOSM are met. The mentioned officer states however, that when activities do not push through they cancel the reservation as to give way to other organizations.
Cooperation and possible politics
It has long been the practice of many USG units to borrow venues from each other. When a specific unit needs a venue that has already been reserved by another USG unit, both unit heads would usually talk, and both would usually come to an agreement.
The practice also extends to the member organizations of the Council of Student Organizations (CSO). Some USG units and CSO organizations have been known to borrow each other’s venues.
Despite the cooperation between units, several political party members and USG officers recognize that politics could hinder cooperation between USG units especially when the two units predominantly come from different political parties, and when one unit has an upper hand—more venues and other USG units borrowing venues.
A CSO officer, however, argues that room hoarding is justified when USG units have legitimate activities. He furthers that he also noticed the increase in room reservations last term, but clarifies that he does not know if the USG units are using the reserved venues.
Other officers from the CSO say otherwise. Some complain that someone has been hoarding all rooms and that nothing is left for other organizations which is curious because there wasn’t that much activities happening on Fridays of the previous term. Another professional organization officer explained that there were instances when the SJ benches were reserved during a particular week, but were not being used.
The LaSallian tried to contact Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus Development (AVCCD) Engr. Aurellano dela Cruz Jr. ask for clarifications, but he declined to comment on the issue.
