Dear Karl and the Sanggunian,
We heard that this coming weekend, there will be a SOSS event. But I believe this is primarily geared towards freshmen. How about the upperclassmen? What service will the Sanggunian provide and are currently providing for the students of Loyola Schools? Please do not point your fingers to ASCC and DSWS – these are not the only things that Sanggunian is capable of doing, right?
We also heard that Sanggunian officers sit in the various school committees. Can the student body be informed what committees are you pertaining to? What is happening in those committee meetings? Why are we not informed? Who are those who are supposedly representing us in these “important” committees?
How is the bureaucracy of Sanggunian? Honestly, the student body (yes, we have asked around) is perplexed with what each position in the Sanggunian does. We are not saying that we need yet another orientation. What we are saying is that we want to see SANGGUNIAN AT WORK. It is working, right? Because if it isn't, we think that the money that goes to the Sanggunian and the elections that put the officers where they are should be put to better use.
Freshmen elections are near. We hope that there will be no failure of elections for the Finance Officer. But it wouldn't be a shocker if there will be. We know that you understand what we are trying to say.
Karl, we shall be waiting for your SONA.
We shall be waiting for a Sanggunian that works.
Watching you always,
Gadfly Society
2 comments:
(edited to add some now thoughts)
I am Eli Convocar, IV AB Philosophy, Senior SOH CB Rep. I understand the issues that you raise. My words here are of my own as a member of the Sanggunian Central Board but not of the Sanggunian as a body.
Visibility, and dialogue in particular, is a key result area that we have targetted this year. We plan to do this through the empowerment of the course representatives. The CB has a plenary session once a month wherein all the projects are discussed, as well as all the updates from the different school committees. This plenary is for all the course and block representatives to know what is going on in order that they may in turn pass on the information to their constituents. The School Boards also have weekly meetings for such purposes. The Ateneo Online Bulletin is also in place to help us in our information dissemination campaigns.
To have the minutes of the CB made more available is actually a good idea, and is something that I can bring up to the rest of the board. This is assuming that indeed, the CB plenary does not accomplish its goals because the communication chain from CB to course/block reps to students is broken at one point. An idea that crossed my mind just now is to invite the Guidon and other publications to the plenaries. The Gadfly Society may also want to attend, and even help us to promulgate information. I will bring this up with the CB immediately.
At any rate, as I mentioned earlier, the Sanggunian is really hoping to practice dialogue in this regard. We appreciate your input, assuming that you are part of our constituency, and I, personally, would like to invite you to hold a real conversation to discuss whatever grievances you may have. You call yourselves "Gadflies" and I assume that this is a Socratic reference. Keep in mind that Socrates himself was the protagonist of Plato's Dialogues and engaged his peers in discussions and not mere correspondence. The Socratic method involved not merely mentioning the problems that were existent, but more importantly, going down to help get them solved. This is what made Socrates so effective, and this too is what we as a Sanggunian aim to accomplish. Please accept my invitation to hold such a meeting. You can contact me at econvocar@yahoo.com. I am hoping for your amenable response. Thank you and God bless.
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