Legislative Assembly discusses February minutes, CURE manual revisions

A University Student Government (USG) Legislative Assembly (LA) session was held last March 20 to approve LA minutes, approve a resolution on the Council of University Representatives (CURE) manual, and discuss other matters.

Minutes reviewed and amended

The minutes reviewed and amended by the body to begin the session were from February 3, 2015 and February 20, 2015.

For the February 3 minutes, the sole revision made was on line 1.4 at 6:58 pm, changing the clause “brought down” to “brought up.”

For the February 20 minutes, three amendments were made. The statement at 3:03 pm was changed to indicate that EXCEL2015 representative Micah Fernando stated at that time that there is “a sustainability problem.” Line 1.2, 3:30 pm, 4th sentence also received a minor syntax revision, changing “he” to “she.” Lastly, on line 1.2, 3:21pm, “allowance” in EXCEL2014 representative Meg Buensalido’s statement was changed to “debt servicing.”

The respective minutes were then approved by the body.

CURE manual revisions, new committees

The body announced a resolution for the formal addition of two committees to the current manual based on consultation with USG President Carlo Inocencio. The two committees are the Lasallian Formation Action committee and the Campus Services committee.

An LA representative clarified that the Lasallian Formation Action committee is already in action and that by practice, the USG president acts as the representative for that committee. Adding it to the current manual serves to formally state the need for a representative in that committee every year henceforth.

He also explains that the Campus Services committee is included to enhance the USG’s capability to reach out to students and provide better quality services within the university.

Chief Legislator Patrick Kahn also briefly mentioned that a drug testing selection committee may be added in the upcoming academic year.

Several amendments were made and the whole abstract was also changed into a preamble, which was also further revised. These include syntax revisions in lines 10, 57, 101 and 109, and adding another statement, just before the last “Wherefore” clause, which states: “Wherefore be it further resolved that the rules and policies committee be in charge of releasing the updated CURE manual with corresponding revisions after the approval of this resolution.”

The resolution was then approved with the following results: 16 for, 0 against, and 0 abstain.

The last agenda was a brief discussion of other matters. Though it was stated that the resolution for the approval of the time frame for the 2015 USG special elections would be discussed this meeting, the body was unable to do so. Kahn explained, “Special elections schedule is not yet ready for discussion by LA as there will be an extension period for the elections in the next week.”

Kahn further clarified that several Legislators have opted to inhibit themselves from the discussion of the said resolution for impartiality purposes. Nonetheless, they will be allowed to vote at the end, with their votes effectively counting as abstentions.

Legislators that have opted for this inhibition are Kahn, Fernando, Jorel Yan, Reigner Sanchez, Patrick Alcantara, Jorge Francisco, Megan Labios, Bea Marquez, Kiara Lin, and Seanne Esguerra.

Kahn told members to expect two to three special sessions next week. Members of the body were instructed to meet with their committees after the adjournment of the session.