State of Affairs

The first semester has drawn to an end.

For four months, we have made this University our home. Unquestionably, we have learned a lot in our stay. We have met different people: People who changed our lives; people whom to share our lives with; and people whose lives we had changed. Indeed, the end of a semester is the perfect time for reflection, not just for the freshmen and the ordinary students, but also for the seniors and the student-leaders as well.

For four months we have availed the services of the University, it is high time we ask ourselves a few questions. What have we done in service of our fellow students and alma mater? It is the inquiry we wish every student to make, including those in the high echelons of authority. What have we achieved so far?

This case is especially crucial to the AUSSG, the highest policy-making body for the studentry. Aside from the annual organization fair, the flopped concert Rock the Vote, the ill-received flag-raising ceremony, and the contest “Love My AU” which name alone screams rip-off, what has our Supreme Student Government accomplished?

Some people might think it premature to render judgment now, in the middle of their term, and with that, we agree. But as students, we are entitled to know where the thrusts of the AUSSG have led and where it leaves us. What better time to act than now, before things are too late?

The current incarnation of the Executive Council seems to be particularly fond of seminars and workshops, and there is nothing wrong with that. We believe that equipping our student-leaders with the necessary skill set and developing their talents is imperative for a productive academic year. There is no question about that.

However, it is usual that when only a few delegates are sent to attend workshops and seminars, these delegates are either expected to facilitate a transfer of knowledge to the student body, or employ the knowledge they gained to the benefit of their constituents. Spreading the good virus, as the idiom goes. Otherwise, attending the said excursion would be futile.

After attending several trainings, workshops, and fora such as the recently concluded Bayanitaktakan forum, they still lack anything tangible to show the students to prove that as constituents, they do gain something from the said excursions. All we have is a bouquet of posters.

Evidently, no pandemic of the good virus took place. This leads to a series of questions: Is the student activity fund being appropriated properly? Is it being used for personal growth and benefit? Is the fund being used for the advantage of a narrow social circle of the people in power?

These are the issues we must resolve in order to move on to a more fruitful second semester of the academic year; reminders that in every endeavor that student-leaders undertake, the welfare of the students must take primacy. We must ask ourselves whether an activity is beneficial to the general studentry in the end, for it is them that we, student-leaders, have pledged to serve and their money we spend.

Zero Basura, the flagship project of the last AUSSG administration is no longer implemented strictly. Information and communication is still hampered by the same barriers as before. Student involvement in the activities of the AUSSG remains limited to a select few, as evidenced by the “Love My AU” contest which only a handful joined, out of the five-thousand or so students of Araullo. The goods collected last August for relief during the onslaught of the Habagat remains undistributed, lying sessile in their office floor up to this day. To top that off, the bulletin boards, erstwhile repositories of information, are not updated, if not totally neglected.

An entire semester has gone by, where are we now? Dan Kevin Roque