The Legislative Assembly (LA) conducted its first meeting for the third term on May 27 at the Emilio Yap Jr. Case Room to discuss the open letter regarding misuse of drugs and alcohol, the Codes of Conduct for both elected and appointed officers in the University Student Government (USG), and a resolution calling on the Student Reservation System (SRS), among others.
Open letter on the misuse of drugs, alcohol, and other substances
The LA drew inspiration on crafting an open letter from the recent Closeup Forever Summer concert tragedy last May 22, where five people, including DLSU undergraduate student Bianca Fontejon died of a massive heart attack, which, according to authorities, was caused by either taking illegal drugs, suffering from heat stroke, or poisoning.
The LA strived to address in its open letter many different sectors, both directly and indirectly related to the incident. The body appealed to the families of those who died, especially Fontejon’s; to Lasallians and the youth to take extra precautions on what they consume; to event organizers to be quicker in responding to emergency situations; and to security personnel to be stricter in admitting people to certain events.
Student Reservation System
The Student Reservation System (SRS) is a project by the Office of the Vice President for Internal Affairs (OVPIA). Vice President for Internal Affairs Micah Fernando and FOCUS 2015 LA Representative EJ Labios explained that the project is for students who have non-organizational purposes to reserve classrooms in order to conduct meetings and practices, among others. All reserved classrooms will be at the St. Joseph Hall.
The SRS requires students to fill out an online form at least a week before the desired reservation schedule. However, this duration of one week is still to be decided upon since special cases, such as emergency meetings, were brought up during the discussion. Students are also required to submit other requirements such as a Reservation Request Letter with a list of the students’ names, and two contracts to the USG Office. Afterwards, the reservation permit to use a classroom will be given online.
The OVPIA partnered with different offices such as Office of Student Leadership, Involvement, Formation, and Empowerment (SLIFE) and the Office of the Legal Counsel in order to ensure that all contracts and requirements submitted are sufficient and that activities done by the students in the reserved classrooms are all necessary.
The policies and processes in the SRS are still undergoing revisions and all aforementioned details are subject to change in the future.
USG Code of Conduct
It has been decided upon that the Codes of Conduct for elected and appointed USG officers are to be separated, mainly due to differences in the responsibilities of elected and appointed officers. The move will clarify appointed officers’ limitations when it comes to several matters in the USG. It will also enable all elected officers to distinguish appointed officers’ duties from their own in order to “lessen the bureaucracy” and prevent the appointed officers from doing the duties of the elected officers.
Revisions to the Code of Conduct also include stricter implementations on political neutrality and prevention of leveraging acts on the elected officers, especially during election season. The proponents of the resolution wished to implement that elected officers be more discreet when it comes to showing support for political parties, and to avoid abusing their position as a USG officer in order to garner support for a particular political party. As such, it was proposed that any incumbent officer who wishes to run for another position will have to take a leave of absence and appoint someone else to be in charge for the duration of the elections.
The frequency of meetings amongst USG officers was also discussed. Majority Floor Leader Jorge Francisco pointed out that some units in the USG, especially college and batch governments, are required to meet for a particular number of times throughout a term. According to Francisco, while frequent meetings are good, sometimes the mandatory meetings become useless because there are instances when there would be really nothing to meet and talk about.
The LA then decided that the OVPIA and the Office of the Vice President for External Affairs (OVPEA) could call for meetings only if deemed necessary. College and batch governments are to conduct meetings once or twice in a term, rather than once a month.
Signature Drive Bill
The LA also discussed the minimum number of signatories required in student petitions. For University-wide student petitions, the minimum number equals two percent of the entire student population. For college-wide petitions, the LA representatives from their respective colleges decided the following minimum percentage of students as the minimum:
- Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business (RVR-COB) – 3 percent of the RVR-COB population
- College of Liberal Arts (CLA) – 10 percent of the CLA population
- Gokongwei College of Engineering (GCOE) – 20 students from GCOE
- College of Computer Studies (CCS) – 10 percent of the CCS population
- College of Science (COS) – 5 percent of the COS population
- College of Education (CED) – 10 percent of the CED population
- School of Economics (SOE) – 10 percent of the SOE population
- Science and Technology Complex (STC) – 10 students from STC
Prior to this resolution, confusion broke out as to whether the LA would necessarily have to wait for the minimum number of students in order to discuss their petitions, but Minority Floor Leader Kevin Tan clarified that the LA will have the option whether to discuss a student petition or not despite not reaching the minimum percentage of student signatures. However, if the number of signatories in a student petition reaches the percentage indicated above, then the LA would be required to discuss the student petition.
