The Legislative Assembly (LA) during its 13th special session held last Wednesday, November 9, unanimously approved an operational fund budget of P847,500 for the University Student Government (USG) for the Academic Year (AY) 2022-2023, more than doubling the previous academic year’s budget as student leaders prepare for higher expenses during DLSU’s face-to-face transition.
Previous USG budgets
As students return to campus, USG initiatives and projects are expected to incur more expenses. In AY 2019-2022, the USG’s operational fund budget was P557,335. Subsequently, in AY 2020-2021 it was P397,687, and in AY 2021-2022, the allotted budget was P397,187. Office of the Executive Treasurer Chief of Staff Alphonso Cataquis highlighted that the drastic increase in the budget was “to give opportunity for the [incoming] USG officers to implement projects and programs that would further aid students in their university life.”
Deducting fixed allocations of P181,460, the rest of the USG budget will see 20 percent allocated to batch units, 60 percent to college units, and 40 percent to the Executive Board (EB), Cataquis presented. Batch units will receive P133,208, college units P319,699.20, and the EB P213,132.80.
Fair, equal allocations
In order to ensure that the batch and college units generate a budget amount that is considered proportional to its corresponding populations, he said the operational fund budget bill provides fair allocation, taking into account the ratio of the unit’s population relative to the University population, with the goal of equal allocation and addressing gaps in fair allocation.
The college government units of Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business received P75,089.46, College of Computer Studies P38,799.24, Gokongwei College of Engineering P48,325.12, College of Liberal Arts P60,860.02, College of Science P43,281.08, School of Economics P27,966.81, and Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC College of Education P25,377.48.
Instead of considering foreseeable projects of the Executive Board Plan for the academic year as basis for administering financial divisions, Cataquis said they opted for a fair distribution of P42,626.56 among the Office of the President, Office of the Vice President for Internal Affairs, Office of the Vice President for External Affairs, Office of the Executive Secretary, and Office of the Executive Treasurer.
