Amid the festivities of February 14, members of the University Student Government’s (USG) Legislative Assembly (LA) sat down in the USG Session Hall, third floor of Br. Connon Hall to deliberate on the appointment of new student government officials for vacant positions in EDGE2017 and the Laguna Campus Student Government (LCSG).
New leaders appointed
The Assembly began by deliberating on Jose Batallones’ (I, BSCPE) appointment as the second LCSG LA Representative. LCSG Representative Michelle Gelvoleo explained that since no students ran for Laguna Campus positions in the 2019 Special Elections, vacancies have remained.
Despite the circumstances, Gelvoleo clarified that the LCSG Committee continued to keep the positions open for aspiring candidates, “as long as they are willing to commit themselves [to serve] the campus.”
Batallones’ appointment is permitted under the LCSG Constitution, which allows the campus to have two LA Representatives. Gelvoleo also narrated that she herself convinced Batallones to sign up for the role. Gelvoleo added that the aspiring LCSG LA Representative had already been interviewed by LCSG President Enrico Español.
Back in the Manila campus, the resignation of EDGE2017 Batch Vice President Angel Evaristo opened up the position to Christianne Roldan (III, EED-ECED), a shiftee who originally hailed from the College of Liberal Arts. “I decided to pursue early childhood education because I want children to remember me as someone who [has] contributed to their growth and development,” Roldan explained.
Raising their advocacies
Roldan, at the helm of an almost terminal batch, explained her plan for a publicity campaign to disseminate information on the equivalent course codes of 117 subjects in the post-K-12 curriculum.
“This aims to help students—shiftees like myself—to know the equivalent of our subjects [within] the 118 and 119 curriculum,” she explained.
Although many ID 117 students only have two terms left before graduating, Roldan expressed her determination to assist her batch in any way possible, receiving praise from EXCEL2021 Representative Katkat Ignacio. Other plans laid out by Roldan included the provision of available rooms in the campus to help Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC College of Education students “focus on thesis writing and doing other school work.”
Batallones, on the other hand, voiced out plans to close in on the Laguna Campus’ internal systems, starting with their “food system”.
Batallones explained that the campus’ canteen only has one food stall, mainly providing two viands—one of which is sisig. Batallones shares that the sisig is “not that good” and sometimes “very old”. He expressed, “I don’t think this is healthy for the students of DLSU Laguna Campus.”
His answer to the problem was to mimic DLSU Integrated School’s policy in Laguna, where senior high school students are given “free vegetables”.
“Even if the food [choices] aren’t that good, at least they can give us something healthy to compensate for either the lack of choices or [the] lack of healthy food options in the campus,” Batallones mentioned.
The resolution appointing Rolland was approved unanimously by the Assembly. But Batallones’ appointment only garnered the approval of the Majority Floor, with the Minority Floor opting to abstain.
