LA approves resignation of SOE president, institutionalizes LSP

The Legislative Assembly (LA) held a special session last January 8 to resolve concerns regarding the institutionalization of the Lasallian Scholar Program (LSP) and the resignation of the School of Economics (SOE) College President Kassandra Villabona.

The first agenda was the institutionalization of LSP. Originally, the LSP was spearheaded by 2011 University Student Government (USG) Executive Treasurer Djon Nacario. Since then the program has provided at least 59 scholarships, 29 of them were given this year alone. By institutionalizing the LSP, it would guarantee consistent funding from the University, and would enable more students to avail of the scholarship.

Based on the institutionalization manual, it states that the LSP is eligible for institutionalization since it has been successful and implemented for more than three terms. As such, the Office of the Treasurer (OTREAS) saw the need for its institutionalization in order to maintain it as a mandatory program of the USG.

In addition, OTREAS also aims to maintain their preexisting agreement with DLSU Parents of University Student Organizations (DLSU-PUSO), their partner organization.

The second agenda was the resignation of Villabona. By majority vote, the LA approved Villabona’s resignation, as well as the guidelines for appointing her immediate replacement.

Villabona’s resignation comes after her decision to drop her Marketing Management degree and graduate with just her Applied Economics degree. This made her ineligible of further serving as college president, since she no longer has any units for the upcoming third term.

“It was only last term that I decided to drop my second degree. I was pressured to finish my studies earlier because of family matters,” Villabona explained during the session.

The legislators also discussed the procedure for appointing her replacement, referring to the already established guidelines of the School of Economics Government (SEG). As stipulated, her present Chief of Staff Rayne Roque is a potential candidate for replacement.

As further stated in the guidelines, Roque needs to gain at least 50 percent plus one vote from the ad hoc committee consisting of the SEG Executive Committee and USG President Carlo Inocencio. If Roque does not acquire the majority vote, the LA will hold another special session to amend the present guidelines, allowing for the nomination of a new replacement.