Handbook revisions still on top of Legislative Assembly agenda

The Legislative Assembly (LA) representatives continued their discussions on the manifesto regarding the Manila City project of installing closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) around the city during their June 20 session. In addition, they discussed other handbook revisions-related matters and a college magistrate resignation.

The first agendum of the June 20 session was the amendment of the minutes of the June 13 session. Multiple amendments were done by the representatives to the past minutes in order to correct grammatical errors and to clarify the context of the statements made by the LA representatives in their preceding session.

EXCEL2015 and BLAZE2015 representatives Micah Fernando and Kiara Lin then suggested on ways to improve the way the minutes are taken. After a short discussion to improve the ways minutes are taken, the resolution was passed.

Following the first agendum, the resignation of Marc Santos, the Br. Andrew Gonzalez College of Education Magistrate, was discussed. Santos explained he had to resign because of his recent appointment as the president of the Lasallian School Society (LSS). Santos, a DLSU scholar, said he has a commitment to serve his fellow scholars in LSS. The LA representatives unanimously approved of Santos’ resignation.

Afterwards, the manifesto on CCTV installation around the city of Manila, particularly in places with high crime rates and heavy traffic flow was discussed. FAST2012 and 68th ENG representatives Bianca Soriano and Adrianne Ardon presented this agendum during the session.

The manifesto noted that the local government has allocated P10 million for the project. The proponents suggested that the CCTVs can be used to monitor crimes and also to discourage drivers from committing traffic violations. After a lengthy discussion, the LA unanimously approved the resolution which would be directed to the Manila City government.

Lastly, a proposal to recommend a revision in the the lost and found policy of the student handbook was opened for discussion. The proponents who presented this resolution to the floor were Fernando, CATCH2T16 representative Sydney Jose, and FOCUS2013 representative Megan Labios. They suggested that there should be a definite place where collected items tagged as “lost” should ought to be brought.

June 27 session

The LA then held its first ever session in the De La Salle University – Science and Technology Complex (DLSU-STC) last June 27. The session started off with the approval of the minutes from the June 20 session. Following the approval of last session’s minutes, the discussion centered on the proposal calling for the removal of the corporate attire policy of the STC student handbook.

The corporate attire policy is a rule in STC that requires students to wear a black and white ensemble during a prescribed day. The policy has already been in place when STC was still known as De La Salle – Canlubang.

LA representatives Ping Rivero and Lisa Venegad from STC presented the proposed resolution to the floor. The STC representatives reasoned that the current policy impedes students’ rights because some students were refused entry to the campus due to not wearing the right attire regardless if they had academic requirements to fulfill.

Other reasons for the proposed abolishment of the policy include University parents being against the rule and the inconsistent enforcement of the said policy. After a lengthy discussion, the resolution was approved unanimously.

A proposed resolution centering on the creation and inclusion of the visitor’s pass guidelines for the student handbook was the next agendum discussed. Micah Fernando (EXCEL2015), Patrick Alcantara (BLAZE2016), Patricia Bautista (FOCUS2012), and Ju Tan (BLAZE2014) led the debate.

The proposal called for visitors to be allowed entrance only to specific areas in the Manila and STC campuses and for the outsiders to be required to wear specific passes for certain buildings as an added security measure.

Next week’s session will be in the Manila campus, at 2:40 pm. The venue is yet to be announced.